Where: St. Mary’s of Evanston, 1012 Lake Street, Evanston, IL

Why: Executive Director of Evanston Neighborhood Conference

 

Karen Chavers is the Executive Director of the Evanston Neighborhood Conference, a community capacity building organization of more than 100 organizations, neighborhood groups, congregations, institutions, and small businesses. In addition to providing community leadership, Mrs. Chavers also offers consulting services through her firm, Chavers and Chavers, Inc. She dedicates her vocational and avocational life to family, church, personal and spiritual development, people development, and as being a change catalyst.

BLACK CATHOLIC CHICAGO: Thanks for meeting. Tell me a little about yourself.

KAREN CHAVERS: Well let’s see. I’m a community organizer, trainer, administrator, wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, auntie, and child of God. For the past seven years I’ve served as Executive Director of the Evanston Neighborhood Conference (ENC). I also run a small consulting business [Chavers and Chavers, Inc.].

What does your firm do?

CHAVERS: Chavers & Chavers is a management resource development firm offering meeting facilitation, motivational speaking, management resource development and training, teambuilding and alternative dispute resolution mostly to not-for-profits, small businesses, and corporations in the Midwest.

Tell me about the Evanston Neighborhood Conference?

CHAVERS: It’s a grassroots organization. I’ve been its director for the last seven years. It’s a membership organization of stakeholders (individuals, community groups, social action committees, etc.) that has a mission of community capacity building. Our key goal is to make sure that the quality of life is balanced in every Evanston neighborhood regardless of race or income level. We help to ensure that things are fairly leveraged.

We also do a quarterly newsletter called Community Matters. We have a website [www.letus.org/enc] under construction to help promote understanding and awareness throughout the community. We want to have a community that is fairly leveraged for all of Evanston’s citizens. We define citizens (community stewards) as people who live, work, and invest in the community. Evanston is an urban suburban community struggling with the realities of inclusive urban development or how to welcome all neighbors.

What else has your organization done?

CHAVERS: We produced a video called Race Is/Race Ain’t Class Is/Class Ain’t. It’s a teen empowerment video designed to promote discussion and understanding among groups. In the film, a multicultural group of kids go around stereotyping each other and taking on each other’s personae. It’s a satire that’s meant to be a discussion piece. The teen producers of the video [Jerusalem Singleton and Tom Golebiewski] were invited last spring to the Taos Talking Film Festival in New Mexico.

We also helped produce another video, Peace by Piece, that was conceived by a young man named Albert Smith. That video is about teens against violence and how they organized a community awareness march following a drive-by shooting of his sister in Evanston. The whole thing was planned and organized by teens. That video received the Chicago Youth Film and Video Award in 2000. Mindy Faber, Fault Line Productions and ENC Board Member is the professional advisor and consultant on these nationally recognized products.

Are you originally from this area?

CHAVERS: I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised between Louisiana and the south side of Chicago – spending many a summer in Evanston. I was born in Calliope Housing Project – the same project that Master P [rapper, CEO of No Limit Records] was born in. It’s funny, when I speak to young people I always tell them that. They always get a kick out of that. I still love to go down to ‘Nola’ (New Orleans).

I understand you’ve been recognized for many of your achievements?

CHAVERS: I am very excited to be one of the many Black Catholics being tapped for recognition by the Chicago Archdiocese Office of Ethnic Ministries this October 6 at their Sixteenth Annual Father Augustus Tolton Banquet. I am one of three Black Catholics from the Evanston community who will receive the Augustus Tolton award and I have been chosen to receive the prestigious Dr. Nathan Jones Award.

You received another award last year, right?

CHAVERS: Last year I received the Sister Thea Bowman Award for community service.

I’m not familiar with Thea Bowman.

CHAVERS: Sister Thea Bowman was a woman of courage and a source of inspiration to me and many others who took her challenge to be about the business of living the Gospel. I had the pleasure of meeting Sister Thea at Xavier University in New Orleans as she taught about the many contributions that people of African descent have made to Catholicism and the world. Sister Thea passed in 1990 and left me and us with a challenge to live the Gospel beyond Sunday.

That’s a wonderful recognition.

CHAVERS: The humanitarian awards honor me but most importantly pay tribute to my family values instilled by Harold and Thyra Clark of St. Felicital Parish in Chicago and my ancestors. Especially my grandmothers: Agnes Francois Blouin, a founding member of Court 67 St. Monica (Chicago, IL) and Lucille Williams Clark of St. Monica and Holy Ghost Parishes (New Orleans, LA).

How would you characterize the social climate in Evanston these days?

CHAVERS: Gentrifying. By income mostly. Not so much by race. During the late 1920’s, my grandparents and relatives came as newlyweds from the south. My grandparents settled on the south side of Chicago and the rest of the family in Evanston. Right now, this community is roughly comprised of 73,000 people. Hispanics are roughly 6% and Blacks are roughly 25% of that figure.

Does your organization sponsor social functions?

CHAVERS: Oh yes. We call them community builders. We have barbecues, block parties, and cultural events such as African American storytelling. Also we’ve had a mariachi band. We do a lot of social things throughout the year to get people to interact and learn about each other. They’re more like sophisticated icebreakers intended to move dialogue into action.

What are some of your other interests?

CHAVERS: My spiritual growth is connecting self, community and church. I am currently committed to the Diocesan Racism and Ethnic Sensitivity Workshops in an effort to eradicate racism within the institutionalized Catholic Church—locally and metro wide. I enjoy the workshop facilitation opportunities with the church community of Evanston/Skokie and facilitating housing workshops with staff from the Office of Peace and Justice. I also like to write. I really like to write about life experiences and challenges.

Where are some places you’ve traveled?

CHAVERS: I’ve been to Mexico and the Caribbean. I would like to go to Africa someday. Maybe Central Africa. I love going down to the little bayou places in Louisiana. In White Castle [Louisiana] I get to explore the land of my slave ancestors. My family history in this country centers around the White Castle Plantation that was owned by General He’bert. My father and family own a small parcel of land once a part of the White Castle Plantation. I like going there among the pecan and cypress wood trees to stay in touch with my ancestors. I don’t feel complete until I’ve communed with them. I have two volumes of history on my ancestors.

Why is that important to you?

CHAVERS: It’s who I am. It’s where I came from. You cannot move forward without embracing where you come from.

Any last thoughts? What are some of your future goals?

CHAVERS: I’d like to capture the wisdom of other professionals and para-professionals – especially people of color -- in order to improve peoples’ quality of life. There’s a lot of wisdom that never gets captured at the grassroots level. We have to start telling our own stories and speaking in our own voices. I wish to be a catalyst for change – nurturing and training a new circle of leaders.

I would be a part of inclusive redevelopment as we look at our communities in the United States. We need creative, out-of-the-box thinking and implementation that will allow us to live together. The dynamics must be changed. I hope to continue to broaden my own learning by showing people how to use their talents and interests for communal gain.

Thank you for this opportunity to share and connect with other struggling souls as we strive to live the word as one Faith, many peoples.

 

 

CREDITS: Written by Lasana Kazembe