| August
2006 |
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Teens Thrive with Build & Ride PROFILE: Who's Behind Build & Ride? Ride Benefits Youth Program and More |
Youth Development Program, Teens Grow
Together
Build & Ride is not only a program to teach teens workplace
skills, mechanics and safe cycling, but it also enables the city
of Chicago to pass bicycle
Like other classes offered through the non-profit organization, After School Matters, the Build & Ride expands out-of-school opportunities for Chicago teens. With its partners, the city of Chicago, Chicago Department of Transportation, Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Park District, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation is helping revitalize Chicago neighborhoods and enrich the lives of teens throughout the city. In 2005, CBF started an After School Matters program modeled after BickerBikes, a youth program created and run by Alex Wilson. Named for the West Side’s Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp., BickerBikes is “a summer program that focuses on bike mechanics and repair and safe cycling and instruction,” Wilson explained. He advises After School Matters instructors, helping with technical and logistical issues.
Like BickerBikes, After School Matters focuses on youth from schools in underserved neighborhoods and uses bike instruction to address larger social issues, from living healthy lifestyles to increasing the accessibility of the city. Wilson said that the students “learn they can use their bikes to take them to places they never imagine going on their own under their own power.” Emily Willobee supervises the Junior Ambassadors. She said that last year, 25 students completed the program and became eligible to apply to be Junior Ambassadors. The program was so successful that this year, After School Matters enrolled 50 students for the classes held on Chicago’s West Side and in Bronzeville. It is estimated the Junior Ambassadors will reach 2,000 more children this year. The Junior Ambassadors develop leadership training and job skills as they teach bicycle safety to children at Chicago Park District day camps. Willobee said she enjoys “seeing these teenagers really take what they are teaching to heart and seeing them grow in their public speaking skills, in confidence.”
“They grow up so much in the six short weeks of the program,” Willowbee said, adding that she hopes to see the program continue to expand. “We have plans for more Junior Ambassadors next year.” Build & Ride is expanding beyond the classes offered through After School Matters. It has become the name under which Chicagoland Bicycle Federation identifies all of its youth development programming. The Train the Trainer program in Logan Square, a branch of Build & Ride with which Wilson also is involved, teaches teenagers bicycle mechanics and safety so they can teach others. One student – an eighth grader at Ames Middle School – now teaches his peers from his basement, which he and his parents converted into a bike shop. Chicagoland Bicycle Federation’s community liaison, Keith Holt, is working to develop an arm of Build & Ride in South Shore. Holt plans to train 10 to 15 participants to work together to improve and overhaul bicycles for each of them. Holt said the curriculum will teach “bike safety and basic maintenance.” The goal, he said, is to help the students “know how to take care of their bikes, and to be able to ride effectively on trails or streets of South Shore.”
Wilson also is working with Jane Herron (founder of the Dick Herron Memorial Fund, in honor of her late husband) to develop a tool kit that will help other organizations, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA and church organizations, implement youth programming of their own. “It’s important to engage younger people,” Wilson said. “Involve them with bicycle advocacy early in life so they will want to promote it throughout their lives.” Healthy lives, jobs skills, and independence: all young people could benefit from Build & Ride. Emily Kirchner is a Bike Traffic volunteer editor and contributor
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