Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program class at People for Community Recovery, a not-for-profit organization based in the Altgeld Gardens public housing development.

My name is Everett Johnson and I am 12 years old.

I go to Carver Elementary School. I am an African American boy who wants to be something in life. I have two sisters. They are nice. One is in high school and one is in grammar school. I love them so much. I don’t want anything to happen to either one of them. I love them so much and my mother—she loves me, too. We do a lot together. She works at our school. She’s the manager. Everyday I see her.

I come from a place called Altgeld Gardens. It’s a place where we need things, such as a library and another school. We need a library for kids like me because, after school, kids like me don’t have anywhere to go to get more learning, like a summer reading program.

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Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program.

“We don’t have a library, we don’t have a school, so Mayor Daley what do you want us to do?”

This is the chant that 26 young, protesting residents of Altgeld Gardens housing development shouted at the Daley Center last winter.

The frustrated residents have been without a library now for over a year and counting. The library was an important resource to the community for various reasons such as researching information, looking for jobs, homework or just a place to surf the web. For most residents, the Altgeld Public Library was the only place to use a computer.

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