Over 200 community residents, leaders representing 13 churches and community organizations from the communities of East Side, Hegewisch, South Chicago, South Deering, and South Shore filled the basement hall of Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLG) Church in South Chicago this past Saturday.  Elected Officials were present including Alderman John Pope of the 10^th Ward, State Senator Marlow Colvin, and County Commissioner (nominee) Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.  Fr. Carl Quebedeaux, the Pastor of OLG, opened the event by saying: “Today is a blessed day! While our goal has always been to bring people together, we come today especially to deal with the problem of violence and to take an important first step to fostering collective action on the Southeast Side.”

While the Southeast Side is no stranger to community movements—it was a hotbed of labor activism as far back as the 1800s—in recent years, with the decline of labor activity thanks to the shutting down of the Steel Mills that once made the Southeast Side an economically thriving region, community organizing that engages grass-roots participants to speak for themselves rather than be mere recipients of service has become less common.  The organizations and churches that have continued such work have often specialized in one area or have mainly worked with constituents connected to their own congregation or organization.  A region-wide collaboration with churches of different dominations and organizations serving different sectors of the community (e.g. Latinos and African-Americans) has not been attempted for nearly 20 years.

In fact, the Southeast Side is the only quadrant in Chicago, that does not have an interfaith, multicultural organizing powerhouse that can represent the collective needs and collective will of the region.  Looking west, one can find the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP).  Northwest, there are two such mega-groups: Northwest Neighborhood Foundation(NNF) and Near Northwest Neighborhood Network (NNNN).  Northeast, there is the oldest such group, Organization of the Northeast (ONE), founded in 1974.

The last attempt to bring a permanent, mega-organization to the Southeast Side failed because it did not bring together the entire community (it only focused on Latinos) and it did not set up a locally, grass-roots controlled organization.  The parent organization killed the project, leaving Southeast Chicagoans stranded with respect to community organizing.  According to ASE’s Lead Organizer, Rey Lopez-Calderon who is also the Executive Director of Alianza Leadership Institute, the group that helped sponsor the formation of ASE: “We studied the history of the Southeast Side and looked at the work that was done in the late 1980s.  Community organizations have to be control of their own destinies; it’s as if the local organizing project was a satellite of a parent corporation who for whatever reason decided to shift it’s priorities.  The Southeast Side project was basically downsized.”

Southeast Chicagoans are tired of being the odd region out.  They know that they have some of the highest levels of violence in the city.  Some the most high-profile murders have happened in front of their churches and even their doorsteps.  The senseless killing of 10 year-old Nequiel Fowler in front of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in 2008 as well as a gang war that was punctuated by a triple murder one block from that same church in 2009, helped to kick-start the founding of this new alliance.  For, Estela Nava, a resident of the Bush Neighborhood in South Chicago and a Parishioner at Immaculate Conception, the problem of violence hits very close to home: “I walked outside of my house one day and as I walked toward my car, I felt someone the presence of someone following me.  In an instant, the robber grabbed me by the neck and threw me up against my car.  I was physically and emotionally damaged by this horrible incident.   Even to this today, I look around and am cautious for fear of being attacked again.  But I made a commitment to myself and to God that I wouldn’t give up.  I don’t want to leave me neighborhood.  That’s why I get involved.  For me, Alliance of the Southeast is a place where I can work with other people of different backgrounds to get to the heart of the problem that caused me and many of neighbors to be victims of violence.  ASE, is where I am supposed to be.”

The Alliance of the Southeast has kicked off an Anti-Violence Task Force that has brought in partners from all over the city to help educate residents about the wealth of programs that the city has to offer, yet are not offered on the Southeast Side.  The members will be identifying the best way the can focus their newfound collective power to secure such resources or even pursue policy changes if that becomes necessary.  But ASE isn’t only about violence.  The organization also intends to address different issues in the future.   For Reverend Zaki L. Zaki, Pastor of East Side United Methodist Church, Founder of the Zone,  and Chairperson of the Southeast Chicago Anti-Gang Initiative, the future of ASE is limitless: “The Alliance of the Southeast embodies a great potential to build a stronger community and promote lasting transformation.”