Ryan Wilson (left) and Spencer Stokes show off a graffiti work in progress at Clay’s Popeye’s Barbeque in Springfield. They are part of Total Visual Renewal, a newly created graffiti crew in Springfield.. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Though it started as mere vandalism, modern graffiti has become an art form, and it’s making an appearance […]
community
Posted inNews
A boxer gives back
On a muggy summer day in Springfield’s Lincoln Park, about 10 young kids jog a slow lap around the park’s perimeter, making their way to a raised concrete platform near the Nelson Center. Every hand is wrapped in thin cloth to protect the knuckles, the sure sign of a boxer. They begin to jump rope […]
Posted inNews
Fewer kids in Illinois prisons
During the late 1980s and 1990s, Illinois’ youth prisons began filling up rapidly. The tough-on-crime approach that began in the 1960s was at the peak of popularity, and state law reflected it in mandatory minimum sentences and other provisions. From 1985 to 2000, the state’s population of incarcerated youth more than doubled, from 1,534 to […]
Posted inNews
Teaming up on truancy
If education is a path to success, getting students to show up is a step in the right direction. That’s why Springfield Public Schools and the Faith Coalition for the Common Good are rolling out separate but related programs aimed at improving school attendance. Sharon Kherat, transformation officer for Lanphier High School in Springfield, says […]
Posted inNews
Schools ‘wrap’ troubled kids
In the fall of 2009, one Springfield elementary student was sent to the office for discipline 30 different times. The next semester, that number was down to 12 visits, with only three before he became temporarily homeless. The decrease was achieved through the district’s most intense behavior intervention program, a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and […]
Posted inNews
Auburn rallies for Ryken
Probably never realizing how her friends and neighbors would later prove her right, Christy Codron Bailey explained several months ago on the school district webpage why she so enjoyed teaching at Auburn Middle School. “The community support here is second to none,” she wrote last November. Less than a year later, on July 31, she […]
Posted inNews
This is the village it takes
On a quiet street in Rantoul sits a small neighborhood of 15 nondescript duplex houses, part of a larger subdivision built decades ago to house the families of pilots and workers at the now-closed Chanute Air Force Base. Although it’s impossible to tell just by looking, something remarkable is happening here: adopted kids from troubled […]
Posted inNews
East side murder brings call for change
A slightly tense and confrontational passion filled the air of an old meeting room at Union Baptist Church on Springfield’s east side. Gathered there on a humid Thursday evening last week were more than 50 activists, neighbors and business owners – all concerned about the state of their neighborhood. Their meeting was precipitated by tragedy, […]
