Community Building

“People power can still trump the power of big money”
- Jan Schakowsky US Congresswoman, 9th District in Illinois,1998 - Present
Illinois State Senator,1990-1998

For EPDC, community advocacy is about mobilizing residents for positive change. By organizing together around EPDC, residents amplify their message and have a have a more effective vehicle by which to be heard by politicians and community funders.

EPDC’s community advocacy program involves people of all demographics. Our program focuses on direct action organizing by teaching Emerson Park residents and our program participants how to organize, choose issues, develop strategies and how to compromise. EPDC advocates promoting change by following the proper chain of command. Yet, when the communities needs are not met, we also teach residents how to speak out appropriately, such as staging pickets and signing petitions. EPDC also holds accountability sessions for local politicians and builds coalitions among a diverse network of people and organizations.

EPDC’s first community advocacy activity was lobbying to replace and to repair manhole covers in Emerson Park in 1990. We worked with East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP) to mobilize residents and to create an effective demonstration. A group of citizens rolled a man hole cover wrapped in registered voter’s signatures into city hall.. The city responded by replacing all of the community’s missing man hole covers.

In 2002 EPDC prevented the IL Department of Transportation from removing both the Ninth and Tenth Street bridges. The demolition of the bridges would have left residents with no link to surrounding regions. Community advocacy mobilized residents to lobby and to picket the bridge deconstruction. As a result, the city will remove both of the current bridges only after having created a new tenth street bridge.



Another community advocacy program called TAKE, Teens Against Killing Everywhere, is Emerson Park’s partnership with the nationally recognized anti-violence “Cease Fire” program. TAKE helps young people speak out against violence in their community. When an Emerson Park teen is killed by another teen, TAKE celebrates the lives of both young people. The program recognizes that the community has lost both the victim and the person who did the killing. EPDC teens involved with TAKE make signs that depict the lives of both teens. They help the family of the teen who committed the crime to understand that they are protesting the action, not the child.

Community advocacy programs such as TAKE, show that young people do care about one another and their community. Another example of this occurred in 2000, when the teens of Emerson Park wanted an after school program and their own charter school. Students lobbied the state senators at the capitol building and after two years, were granted funding for Tomorrows Builders Charter School.
EPDC’s community advocacy efforts show that people are interested in their community and when empowered, can engender positive change.

The Emerson Park MetroLink Station is one of the organization's best examples of Community Building in action. The early proposals for the MetroLinks extension into St. Clair County put the new rail line outside of the Emerson Park Neighborhood and limited the benefits the neighborhood would see.

Residents decided to change this and through a series of protests and community meetings were able to build a consensus among local and state officials to bring the MetroLink through Emerson Park. This neighborhood effort was to turn the tide for Emerson Park. Since its arrival, the MetroLink has brought $100 million worth of investment into the neighborhood in the form of new homes, new schools, and new streets. It has been called the best example of transportation oriented development in the Metro-east area and stands as an example of a what a community can do when it stands together.