Every third Friday of the month, men from Chicago’s West Side and western suburbs meet at MacArthur’s Restaurant in Austin to network and break bread together. Though there’s a meeting agenda and minutes, it’s also a place for men to discuss whatever is on their hearts.
The group is Westside Men’s Network and, more than a decade after its creation, it’s refocusing its efforts and reaching out to younger people.
“The premise for bringing the group together was to utilize a network of West Side men to create opportunities, resources to come together, to discuss ways that we can bring positive change,” said Rev. Walter Jones, the group’s founding leader, and executive director of Fathers Who Care and the Westside Community Stakeholders.
Providing direct service involvement on the West Side for over 30 years, Jones said “there has always been a need for men to collectively work together.” He added, “Men matter. Their thoughts matter. Their concerns matter. We care and we want you to understand that it takes all of us working together to really bring about social change in our community.”
Though women have attended their meetings, the Westside Men’s Network’s goal is to empower and mentor men in the area, and they do it through MacArthur’s lunches, by holding annual health and wellness events at Loretto Hospital (the next one is June 7), violence prevention and community organizing activities, and through outreach.
Though the Westside Men’s Network is apolitical, they’ve even advocated for public policy – like for the Illinois Department of Public Health to have a men’s health division and the Illinois Council on Responsible Fatherhood, a state commission that promotes involvement of both parents in a child’s life.
“In order to really create a systemic change, men will have to come back into these communities and take ownership over [their] blocks. We can’t get that through prayer vigils, prayer marches and rallies,” Jones said.
But as the group of community leaders like Jones approach retirement age, they’re looking to bring in the next generation – partially to eventually take over and also to re-energize them, Jones said. At a December meeting, they discussed the group’s future and decided to give it a fresh perspective.
“For the purpose of the energy, for the purpose of new vision, for the purpose of galvanizing younger men, we wanted to incorporate some younger men into leadership roles,” Jones said.
Last winter, Antwain Bartholomew joined the Westside Men’s Network.
“My work and my life has always revolved around strengthening my community,” Bartholomew said as to why he started attending meetings. “A lot of that has been aligned with health and wellness.”
Bartholomew works at Kelly Hall YMCA in Humboldt Park. Since he joined the Westside Men’s Network, that YMCA is hosting Boys to Men Monthly every third Saturday of the month, when community members can come for free to shoot hoops in the gym, use the fitness center and discuss wellness and community issues over coffee and snacks. There’s also a rap group that meets there – an effort Bartholomew informally started before joining the Westside Men’s Network, but officially launched recently.
Through Boys to Men Monthly, Bartholomew hopes to create an accessible environment where men can focus on health, connect and share their feelings and experiences.
“Even though one of my core thoughts was to sit them down and have this chat and create some vulnerability, I wanted to make sure that they didn’t come in thinking that’s what they had to do,” Bartholomew said. Those who regularly attend and become comfortable might start opening up. “Sometimes we come in so strong and so protected, we don’t know how to take care of ourselves. That’s why it’s so pertinent to meet people where they’re at.”
Though five-to-10 people are showing up to monthly MacArthur’s meetings as of late, the Westside Men’s Network once had 40-some regular members. But to them, it’s never been about the numbers.
“The importance doesn’t lie with the people who come to the meetings. The importance lies with the men that we actually reach out to,” Bartholomew said. “If only three of us came to the meeting, that’s fine. But if all three of us that came to the meeting left the meeting and made sure that we empowered 30 men, I think that’s the key.”
“The reality is men are going to come for what men want. At one point, we had that group of folks that were coming in all the time,” Jones said. “As we embark upon what we’re doing now … the important thing is to have that base so whoever shows up to the meetings can get whatever they need.”
That includes men from the western suburbs, too. Jones said the group has seen members from Oak Park, Forest Park and Berkeley.
Longtime Oak Park resident Stuart Jamieson has been attending Westside Men’s Network events and programming since the group’s inception, when he got involved through Pilgrim Congregational Church in Oak Park. Back then, he said there used to be more participants from the western suburbs.
“I’ve been the only person west of Austin Boulevard at the last couple meetings,” Jamieson said.
In addition to lunch at MacArthur’s, Jamieson said he’s gone to the annual health and wellness fair at Loretto, attended Bartholomew’s first Boys to Men monthly meeting and a networking event at 1st Place Barber and Hair Salon across the street from MacArthur’s, where he now regularly gets haircuts.
He said his biggest takeaway from the Westside Men’s Network is the relationships he’s made with the other men who regularly attend programming.
“There’s really neat people doing neat things,” Jamieson said. “I really appreciate the opportunity to see what’s going on in Austin and be a part of it as I can.”
The Westside Men’s Network’s annual health and wellness event is at Loretto Hospital, 645 S. Central, on June 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The next meeting at MacArthur’s Restaurant, 5412 W. Madison St., is June 20 at noon. The next Boys to Men Monthly will take place at Kelly Hall YMCA, 824 N. Hamlin Ave., on June 21 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.