Root2Fruit is sharing what it’s learned about community-led safety initiatives around Austin Town Hall with others on the West Side.
The nonprofit organization, which equips young people with the tools and relationships they need to thrive, has helped lead to a 69% decline in violence in the Austin Safety Action Plan Safe Zone in the last 5 years, according to Chicago Police Department data.
It’s been so successful that last year, the Chicago City Council recognized the city’s first Safe Zone — the area around Austin Town Hall where young people lead cleanup efforts and build community relationships to create a safer neighborhood.
“It’s a specific area that the kids identified during the pandemic as spaces that reminded them of good times throughout their childhood,” said Aisha Oliver, founder and strategy lead of Root2Fruit Youth Foundation, the nonprofit that helped create the Safe Zone.
Now, Root2Fruit is sharing the philosophy of the ASAP Safe Zone model with other local organizations, officials and residents. This included a three-day activation event over the weekend at Alt Space, 5645 W. Corcoran Place. The goal of the live demonstration was to show how to convert young people into active partners in community-driven solutions for building a better neighborhood.
As a part of the activation, Oliver gave a keynote address on Friday and hosted a workshop and panel conversation on violence interruption and youth diversion. On Saturday, young people went out into the neighborhood, cleaning up the streets throughout the ASAP Safe Zone, learning how to sort, clean and shred plastic to build into new items, and setting up resources and games on the lot neighboring Alt Space to engage with locals who are homeless or navigating substance abuse.
“You have to remove any barriers you have in your mind about this area and the people who live in this area so that you can see the person and not the situation,” Oliver told Austin Weekly News.
On Sunday, nearly 300 locals participated in the Peace Runners 773 Juneteenth 5K in Garfield Park.
“That’s going to be a huge opportunity for people to see how we collaborate to bring the West Side together,” Oliver said.
Coming away from the three-day activation, Oliver said she hopes participants learned how to create change from the ground up in their community.
“We want them to walk away fed — meaning we want to plant the seed that they can do the same thing in their neighborhood, and that it does take work,” Oliver said. “How do we give them the skills to create spaces that they actually enjoy or could help them organize better, communicate with the right channels and create something that they could possibly make a career out of in the future?”
History of the ASAP Safe Zone
After Root2Fruit participants identified the Safe Zone around Austin Town Hall, the first event they held to activate the space was a basketball tournament. About 70 people attended the event that was organized, run and coached by local youth.
“That was specifically tailored to teens and young people because they feared something would happen and we wanted to be the ones to show people that, with the right relationships and understanding, you don’t have to worry about those types of things,” Oliver said.
She added that Root2Fruit shared the ASAP Safe Zone plan with people who have hung out around Austin Town Hall for years. “We asked them not to move, but to not drink and smoke while we had activations there because the space is supposed to be for kids. But because no one was activating it, the guys felt like they could use it to just hang out there.”
Next, Root2Fruit hosted a family-focused event at Austin Town Hall with ponies, face painting and food trucks, “everything that people typically feel they need to leave Austin to be able to enjoy,” Oliver said.
Root2Fruit members have also worked with those who tend Harambee Garden next to Austin Town Hall.
“My goal was for them to build intergenerational relationships because it’s a lot of elders that work in the garden,” Oliver said. She added that, last week, she got a text saying Root2Fruit participants were helping in the garden without her assistance. “I didn’t even know they were there. They created relationships with a lot of the elders themselves. That was the whole point. … The goal is to make these young people the leaders of this work because they’re closer to the problem, so they are closer to the solutions.”
Since 2021, Root2Fruit has partnered with Jordan Campbell, the founder of Alt Space, and his Redemptive Plastics initiative to create furniture, tools and functional art out of recycled plastic. This summer, Root2Fruit and Alt Space’s self-proclaimed Plastic Patrol will install garbage cans made from recycled plastic throughout the ASAP Safe Zone.
Root2Fruit also plans to start hosting Thursday evening runs throughout the ASAP Safe Zone.
“Young people are out and being active in a way that costs you nothing,” Oliver said. “It’s just getting up and deciding you want to take a run through your neighborhood, which we don’t see often.”