Community organizers use old school street ball for neighborhood change
26 Aug 2010 - Greg Skinner
LISC/Chicago supports community organizers using street basketball to help avoid and prevent gang activity.
Excerpt:
Alvaro Obregon has been running a street basketball program for 11 years and has never played a game.Accordingly, it should come as no surprise that Obregon had no idea that basketball was invented to give young men something productive to do. In fact, he said if it weren’t for the love of basketball shown by the kids in Chicago neighborhoods, he would prefer to run a baseball league.
"But it’s not about me," he said.
Saturday Obregon joined coaches, mentors and scores of Chicago’s young men for the Hoops in the Hood Cross City Tournament held at Seward Park. The day of single-elimination tournament basketball ended a fourth summer of sports-based community intervention designed to ease some of the tensions in life surrounded by gangs and their boundaries.
By playing basketball on city courts and streets turned into courts, gang hotspots of a neighborhood can be closed, said Keri Blackwell, a program officer for the nonprofit neighborhood development company LISC – a partner in Saturday’s tournament.
> Read the full Chicago Journal article
> Visit the Chicago LISC website
Article Type: News