Our Work

TARGET Area is a regional organization that works in local communities, city-wide, statewide, and internationally to assist communities in building enough power and capacity to solve stubborn problems.

Current Program Areas include:

Education, Public Safety, Criminal Justice, Economic Development, and Multi-ethnic Coalition Building:

Education Programs

Parents and Residents Invested in School and Education (PRISE) Reform Led by TARGET Area, PRISE Reform is a two-year old citywide effort aimed at building a dynamic learning coalition of parents, students, and community stakeholders working for quality school reform. PRISE released a community research report and launched its full initiative in August 2008. PRISE was developed to help address the lack of parent and community involvement in the school reform dialogue.   By providing support through a series of learning and leadership opportunities, PRISE is preparing parents to play an integral role in the decision making process in education reform efforts.  We work in 5 local schools including: Scott Joplin, Clara Barton, Oglesby, Cuffe and Perspectives.

Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) is the first-ever citywide education reform coalition led by high school students in community-based organizations. These youth have completed research aimed at tackling the issue of the huge drop-out rate in Chicago’s high schools as well as the low levels of college enrollment. VOYCE have participated in site visits to schools “that work” in Chicago and California. The primary achievements of our local VOYCE chapter are: the establishment of a working partnership with Perspectives High School, which increases the likelihood that the youths’ voice will be amplified in any school reform efforts; the development of three student research interns and 21 youth as peer researchers; and the engagement of a total of 75 students in the research process.

Grow Your Own Illinois(GYO) is an innovative partnership of 16 community-based organizations, higher education institutions, and school districts that supports parents, community members, and paraprofessionals in low-income communities of color to become highly qualified teachers. The goals of the initiative are to: graduate 1,000 new teachers of color by 2016; improve teacher retention in low-income schools; recruit for hard-to-staff schools; and increase cultural competence and community connections of teachers.  Currently, 45 parents/paraprofessionals are enrolled in college-level classes held in Auburn-Gresham.

Public Safety Programs

Community Alliance for a Safer Summer (formerly The 78th Street Drug and Gang Initiative):
Originating in the 78th Street area in Auburn Gresham and now spanning a much broader area, this program works to reduce violence, drug, and gang activity by engaging residents in activities with youth who are at a higher risk of becoming involved in drugs, and other gang related activities.

Cease Fire:
The Auburn Gresham/Englewood program is part of a larger strategic public health initiative (Chicago Project for Violence Prevention-University of Illinois) that utilizes organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct action, and services to reduce and eventually eliminate shootings in the community.

Community Support and Advisory Council:
As the lead-agency for the community component of the Sheridan Model Therapeutic Prison, TARGET Area developed a Community Support and Advisory Council (CSAC) in order to engage residents in relationships with reentering prisoners and their families in an effort to define barriers to reentry and to inform policy campaigns aimed at this population.

TARGET Area convenes several coalitions:

Multi-ethnic Work:

United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) is a grassroots multiethnic human rights alliance mobilizing people, policy, and ideals to drive societal transformation and forge unity within marginalized communities.  We work to increase opportunities for people of color to learn, unite, and mobilize together.

Education:

Statewide Action and Grassroots Education (SAGE) Campaign is a cross-sector alliance of business, advocacy, academia, and CBOs working to develop a collective interpretation of the current challenges of public education and to develop a shared policy agenda to address these concerns. Currently we are sharing this campaign in Chicago, Bloomington, Springfield, Decatur, Winnetka, and Rockford.

Criminal Justice:

Developing Justice Coalition (DJC)is a cross-community alliance of 24 community groups working to address criminal justice reforms, public safety, and prisoner reentry, all of which have placed a tremendous burden on families in our communities.  We have written two legislative proposals that have since become law and raised over $15 million for local safety efforts throughout the state of Illinois. 

TARGET Area has created sister organizations:

Safe Cities Chicago is a service organization.  Safe Cities is fully funded by TARGET Area and performs all of the public safety, violence prevention, and prisoner reentry work for the organization

Safe Cities-South Africa is a replica of TARGET Area in South Africa focusing primarily on asset-building, economic development, and multi-ethnic, multi-religious coalition-building.  Safe Cities SA utilizes the Asset-Based organizing models and has developed two bakeries to improve food distribution and increase learning and employment opportunities for communities.

To learn more about our work, click here