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Projects 2003
Executive Summary
"Visual Transparency: An Exploration into the Visual Representation of Space at the Southwest Youth Collaborative"
Research Intern: Kristen Pappas
Community Partner: Southwest Youth Collaborative (SWYC)
 "This organization is not a static organization. It's very fluid. It's very broad. Its goals are developing community justice for children, youth, and families. It needs to be that type of organization if we're going to be able to work with a diverse population. It's our role to create that space and opportunity for communities to develop." - Camilia Odeh, Executive Director of the Southwest Youth Collaborative
SWYC was born out of the efforts of a Chicago city grant combining local faith-based institutions, social service centers, recreational centers, libraries and neighborhood organizations. It was meant to derive from the needs and suggestions of residents from the community areas of Marquette Park, West Englewood, Chicago Lawn, West Lawn, and Gage Park, with bylaws representative of the ethnic groups in those areas. The most crucial component of the bylaws is that half of the board members are youth.
The Research Question(s):
This qualitative study aimed to account for some of the differing perceptions and uses of the building that is home to not only the Southwest Youth Collaborative (SWYC), but also their guests, which include Latino Organization of the Southwest (LOS), Arab American Action Network (AAAN), and the Southwest Community Congress (SWCC) all occupying 6400 S. Kedzie. Termed a Youth Center, the space also houses a myriad of organizations serving much of the diverse populations on the Southwest Side of Chicago and numerous social needs. Famous for its graffiti murals covering the building and adjacent properties, as well as much of the walls, and furniture inside, the research questions addressed the building facade and use of space:
- What does the space and place mean to community residents that use the building?
- What are the attitudes, perceptions and expectations of residents and businesses in the immediate area?
- Is the space and place considered part of the community, if so by whom and how?
- How do different members of the community utilize the space?
- How do adults view the youth's utilization of the space and vice-versa?
- How do people's experiences influence their perceptions of the center and its function within the community?
Methods: A combination of participant observation, semi-structured, and structured interviewing were used as data collection methods, both with SWYC participants, nearby non-participant adults, teens, business owners and agencies. The intern developed a good rapport with the youth in the space and also interviewed employees, and a cross section of African American, Middle Eastern, Latino and White participant and non-participants within the space, including both youth and adults. The intern interviewed a total of 63 people.
Key Findings: Most of the interviewee responses tended toward the specific dimension of physical space, namely the visual appearance of the building, which is famous for its floor to ceiling graffiti murals. The secondary development in the research was how effective the appearance was in expressing the internal workings of the Collaborative to the general public.
- 1) The organization and space are known citywide and even regionally, but are lesser known by residents and local businesses in the immediate surrounding area.
- 2) Graffiti has its own connotations and implications for each urban dweller.
- 3) The murals are reflections of the artists' view of the space, the programs and organizations housed within, and youth and graffiti culture itself are themes they draw from in designing and painting the murals that engulf the façade of the building.
- 4) Youth consider it 'their hang out or place of work' and the SWYC is dedicated to maintaining that perception for their young constituents.
- 5) For some employees, it's a place where organic youth culture is allowed to surface and manifest itself. For others youth culture is better expressed through the collaborative structure and programs.
- 6) For more distant observers, the appearance of the building most commonly implied youth and nothing else, but in a generally positive light.
- 7) A common perception was that it was a place for 'youth activities' but other activities happening were generally unknown to non-participants.
- 8) Many youth have developed an attachment to the space because it's a rare locus for them where adults accept and respect graffiti and youth culture in general.
- 9) The murals for some imply that it's not a corporate but a vibrant place, and that the murals represent that vibrancy and reflect the different organizations and services inside the building.
- 10) Non-participant adults were generally surprised to find out about so many different organizations and services being housed and provided in the space.
Findings in Action:
 It was determined that the graffiti murals served to attract youth, to identify vibrancy and to inform those programs offered in the building. However, it was also determined that there should be some way of communicating to the public the other purposes and services offered in the space. Basic suggestions from members of the community and the collaborative to enhance accessibility to non-youth participants and other local residents included:
- Establish a level of uniformity in message to send the public; employees must come to a consensus about what is going on inside the organization so that they can disseminate it thoroughly to the community.
- Increase visibility with signage. Make the sign bigger or put it in a better location.
- Improve communication between internal operations and the neighborhood.
- For the community to recognize the space as something other than just a youth hangout, it will take more than simply repainting a new mural.
- Make the address visible and the signage both bigger and multi-lingual.
- Open up the space to the community more while maintaining the 'coolness' that predominates the perception of the building.
The intern proposed to do a photo documentary project and culminating exhibit that would give community residents, passersby and participants of programs the opportunity to show what the space means to them. The public would shoot pictures of the most important feature or aspect of the space itself. Their photos would then be displayed in the location where the picture was taken to offer a personal perspective of that portion of the overall place. The culminating exhibit would then an opportunity for people to see and understand differing views of the space and place.
The second component to Kristen's proposal was for the SWYC to conduct tours of the space for non-participants to experience the exhibit. At the end of the tour visitors could write comments on a comment wall and there test their own 'tagging' skills or simply offer their feedback on the space and how it met or failed to meet their expectations.
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