Cicero is a vibrant community that we have fallen in love with. Cicero sits seven miles west of the downtown of Chicago. Because Cicero is only 6 square miles and has 100,000 residents things are always active. Our community is also really young with a median age of 18. This includes the 30,000 residents that are children and teenagers. Desiring to work with urban youth, this is obviously a good fit for us.
When people in the area hear of Cicero, a number of thoughts might cross their mind. They might think of political corruption (Al Capone had set up shop in this community). They might think of the past mayor that is serving time in jail for embezzlement. They might think of gangs and shootings. They might think of people getting jumped and robbed. They might think of the race riots of the sixties.
While all this is true, when we think of Cicero, we think of different things. We think of the people we’ve come to know. We think of backyard BBQ’s and the best Carne Asada we’ve ever had. We think of playing basketball and dodgeball in the alley. We think of milkshakes from Lindy’s. We think of the softball and football leagues that we coach. We think of hanging out with youth, visiting them at their houses, discipling them, and listening to their stories.
Cicero is a community that has its liabilities. Gangs have an active presence here. We occasionally call the cops and breakup fights happening outside our home. We get frustrated at the broken streetlights, the dangerously large potholes and the frequent graffiti, and we call public works annoyingly often to have these issues addressed. But we’ve been able to look past the liabilities and see the assets Cicero has to offer. Here, there is a deep sense of community. People try to look out for each other and refuse to live in isolation. Youth find creative ways to have fun. It is because of these assets and these people that we love this community.
Our love for Cicero has played itself out in a number of ways. For us, our jobs at Youth Crossroads allow us to work in a formal way with youth in our community. Joel runs an after school program and oversees the Youth Leadership Program. Jackie counsels at-risk youth, most of whom are gang involved. In conjunction with this, Jackie and I have youth over to our house, we’ve helped start and coach softball and football leagues, lead Bible studies and have seen youth begin following Christ.
For those of you that live in Cicero, we consider it a privilege to be your neighbor, get to know you, and hang out together. For those of you out of city, out of state, or out of the country, our place is open to you. If the guest bedroom is full, there should be room on the couch, so let us know when you’ll be in town, we’d love to have you over.