How did I get to Haiti and Englewood and where am I going?

For the last six months, I have taken a pivot from my previous position where I collected and analyzed the $7 billion annual revenue brought in by over 850 YMCAs across the country. At times it felt that I was a clog in the machine trying to turn the Titanic. While there a manager told me, I have a great idea, but it would be two years before I could even pilot it. Why do I start by sharing this? I currently work in two places that could not be more different than a corporate feel office downtown Chicago. Those areas are the community of West Englewood in Chicago and serval communities in the Grand’Anse and Central Plateau regions of Haiti. For those of you who know Paul Farmer, I just saw where he started his work on a trip to Haiti in November.  

So how did I get to Haiti and West Englewood? The transition came in a search for solutions to that were addressing the causes of the inequities seen by each community and a sense of obligation to empower those in West Englewood who I had seen dying on the news for years and done nothing to help. How did I get connected to Haiti? I first went to Haiti in the summer of 2009 on a relationship-building trip between the youth of Duchity, Haiti and Naperville, Illinois. Since then I have not gone a week without thinking of the people and the structures of oppression faced by the people in the country. I am fortunate to have been raised by a faith community and family that understood social justice. Our family would stay after mass to write letters to our representatives, even if as kids we did not fully understand why we were doing it, we also participated in the CROP walk to raise awareness of hunger. However, most of my experiences centered around what I know now as charity and not justice. Reflecting back, I went to Haiti because I thought that somehow I could help the people of Duchity and provide charity. That trip to Haiti was when I learned what accompaniment was and would later learn why it is vital to achieving social justice.

Two years ago, I came across a quote that sits on the back of my business card and has been a guiding principle for my work, it is by Lila Watson, “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up in mine, then let us work together”. This quote describes our shared humanity of all of us who live in the same city, country, and world. We are all God’s children. Since then, I have studied the foundations of social justice this fall seeing the evolution in the thought of the Sophists, Platonists, and Aristotle. The social justice I understand contains a central “shalom” that I first witnessed in the Holy Land when I was greeted everywhere with the powerful word. This semester, I understood in a new way how shalom links to restorative justice. Shalom is a form of restorative justice. Going further, Tikkun Olam, to heal and repair the world, speaks to what the people of West Englewood and Haiti desire. Bryan Stevenson said, “We make them their crime. That’s how we introduced them. ‘That’s a rapist. That’s a murderer. That’s a robber. That’s a sex offender. That’s a burglar. That’s a gang leader.’ And through that lens, it becomes so much easier to accept that they’re guilty and that they should go to prison.” To work towards a shalom and Tikkun Olam, I am obligated to bridge the divide between the barriers that separate the rest of Chicago and Englewood and the short one and a half hour flight that separates the US and Haiti.

After reading five-plus books over the last year on restorative justice, and racism I have seen several common themes. While restorative justice, defined in one word is love. It seeks to accompany others and always find paths to right relationships. Restorative justice sits in tension with the justice system, which is not an equitable system. In the documentary, 13th, the producer quotes Barack Obama who said, “The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that.” Having been blessed to travel to over ten different countries in the last two years, I am reminded every time about how backward our justice system is. The violence in Chicago was brought up while in the Ukraine visiting a friend. She had read about it on Facebook and was concerned.

Working with I Grow Chicago in Englewood has been a humbling experience, I have been welcomed by the community with love and have invited me to share in the joy, heartbreak, laughter, and grief.  I Grow believes that shalom, as mentioned earlier, is possible only when we focus holistically on wellness, connection, justice, dignity, and belonging. My vision for the world is summarized in the vision statement of I Grow, “We envision a world where everyone can grow into their unlimited potential.” It is the activities I Grow does such as police community dinners and peace circles that focus on restorative justice which help community members belong and have dignity. One of many similarities in my experience in Englewood and Haiti is the collectivism that is present in the communities both of which are of African descent. In Englewood, I have supported community members in navigating governmental aid applications and job forms. These forms do not reflect subsidiarity, where the point of decision is as close as possible to the point of consequence. Just this week, I was working with a community member who called the LINK Card program with a question, and after we called the second number, we listen to a recording that told us that we were the 64th caller in line. I have never called any support line and told that there were 63 people ahead of me. This type of service is typical to those in this community along with other injustices including the lack of access to water that is free from lead, fresh produce, parks that you do not have to cross gang lines to get to and public schools that stay open amidst budget cuts. 

In October I did a paper on the history of Englewood and learned of the thriving neighborhood before the “white flight” took place and policies such as redlining. In her book Stand Your Ground Black Bodies and the Justice of God, Kelly Bown Douglas provides a history of redlining, “In this system, a red line was literally drawn around areas on a map where black bodies were permitted to go. Loans awarded to black people only in those restricted areas.” She describes the impact of redlining in this way, “Though restrictive covenants and redlining were not fatal attacks upon the black body, they were as much a reflection of Manifest Destiny war as lynching…they maintained the connection between land and race.” It is shocking, yet not surprising to learn how Englewood was once a thriving neighborhood with the second largest shopping center in the city according to the Chicago Historical Society documentation. The policy change is also needed, grassroots, community-driven initiatives like I Grow Chicago can hopefully help to empower those residents to have a voice in how those policies should change.

Shifting next to why I believe the preferential option for the poor is central to my vocation, I want to quote one of the great thinkers who has worked in Haiti, and is an inspiration to me, Paul Farmer. Farmer is a doctor who has set an example for how development organizations approach their program designs, with a preferential option for the poor. Paul Farmer in the book entitled In the Company of the Poor says,

Charity medicine too frequently consists of secondhand, castoff services – leftover medicine – doled out in piecemeal fashion… Many of us have been involved in these sorts of good works and have heard a motto such as this: ‘The homeless poor are every bit deserving of good medical care as the rest of us.’ The notion of a preferential option for the poor challenges us by reframing the motto: the homeless poor are more deserving of good medical care than the rest of us. Whenever medicine seeks to reserve its finest services for the destitute sick, you can be sure that it is option-for-the-poor medicine.

Whether in Englewood or Haiti, I want to challenge myself to always use this quote as a standard to work in the company of communities to design programs and implement them.

The social justice which is my vocation to work towards is one centered by restorative justice, a shared humanity or accompaniment, peace, and a preferential option for the poor. To get there, I commit to using the methods of empowerment, connecting communities and tools such as micro-finance and social enterprises when appropriate to work towards justice. It is here that my vocation lies and as I continue studying and being informed by God’s calling, I am sure this will evolve.  

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Full disclosure: This was written for a graduate school class.