Good Work in Hyde Park

There is a brand new force for good in Hyde Park, and it's not an aldermanic recall! The Friedens Neighborhood Foundation is on a roll with an uplifting message of community empowerment, education and rebuilding one of the city's most needlessly distressed neighborhoods. Based at the historic Friedens United Church of Christ at 19th and Newhouse, the organization is working rehabbing historic church-owned buildings and launching the first northside YouthBuild Academy. The YouthBuild schools provide construction education to teens who have dropped out of high school, and provide students both a G.E.D. equivalent and exposure to the work needed to revitalize their own neighborhoods. What could be a better match than the new academy and the Hyde Park neighborhood, one of the city's most endangered architectural assets?

Please peruse the Friedens Neighborhood Foundation website and consider making a donation of time, talent or treasure to one of the most inspiring neighborhood organizations in the city. The foundation truly is confronting the social causes and physical symptoms of neighborhood decline. We can't let them fail.