HOPE HAS A HOME:
The Off the Street Club Story
"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything." Club Motto
The Off the Street Club is Chicago’s oldest Boys and Girls Club, serving the children of the city’s most dangerous neighborhood, the West Side. With no government funding, the Club relies on the willing spirits, able bodies, and open wallets of people who know that it is a short trip from poverty to prosperity if children are reached at an early age.
Over 3,000 children call the Off the Street Club “home” each year. Eligible to join at four years old, many kids spend the next 14 years of their life in the hallowed halls of 25 North Karlov Avenue, leaving only to go on to college or join the work force. Membership in the Club is simple: $10 and a promise. Don’t have the money? No problem, as the Teen Leadership Work Program will let you earn some cash while serving the Club. The harder part is keeping the promise; a signed contract states that you will not use or sell drugs, and that you will not join any of the gangs that infest the streets of the neighborhood. These are the vices and the evils that have made the Club’s existence necessary, and they are the only things in Garfield Park that are not welcome to cross the threshold.
Upon arriving at the Club, you will find an amazing space; two buildings set across the street from each other, spanned by the Bridge to the Future. While it seems to be a wise, weatherproof way to scuttle the kids back and forth between the new and old buildings, the bridge is, in fact, far more. Its stunning steel framework and glowing windows hide a sad truth: the opaque glass is designed to deflect bullets, and since no one can see the children passing through, it protects innocent victims from hails of gunfire all too common in this part of town.
The dangers of the neighborhood are forgotten inside these walls, for this is the place where every adult is greeted with a hug, and every child smiles brightly. It is where kids know that they have people who love them truly, help them willingly, and hope for them desperately. No matter what life may be like at home or on the surrounding streets, what lies inside the Club is the thing every kid wants: a real childhood.
There are athletic programs, tutoring programs, and mentoring programs. There are people to help with both homework and real work: study groups and employment programs build confidence as well as wallets. There are weekend field trips to museums, outings to movies, and summers at Camp Mathieu. The Club has a special center just for girls, a newly formed choral ensemble, a seemingly unbeatable Soap Box Derby program, and a group of tireless, generous individuals who make it all possible.
The incredibly dedicated staff gives the Club, and the kids, everything they’ve got, every day of the week. But what really makes the OTSC staff so special is their keen understanding of what it is like to be a kid; to be one of these kids. The Club’s core staff grew up here. All of them know how hard it is to believe that they will live to college age, let alone get into school. All of them also know that anything is possible if you have someone who believes in you. And that is the one thing that all of the kids at the Club will never want for: someone to help them, someone to hold them, someone to steer them in the direction of their dreams.
The government tells us that over 3.5 million children live in poverty in the United States. The children of Garfield Park are part of that statistic. What the government doesn’t tell you is that the children of the Off the Street Club might be financially poor, but they are rich in spirit, enthusiasm, and drive. Hope does indeed have a home, and her address is 25 North Karlov Avenue.
For more information about the Off the Street Club, please visit our website, www.otsc.org