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A SAFE PLACE

Like a protective mother duck with her young flock in tow, Kimberly Owens and her five children, ages 2 to 8, often walk the six blocks from their apartment to the Woodridge Neighborhood Resource Center.

Pulling open the glass door of the center, which is housed in a strip mall, the children tumble into the carpeted, sunny office followed by Owens. She is carrying a covered dish for a potluck dinner that’s being held after the weekly meeting of a parenting support group.

Just over a year old, the resource center is the site of various social programs and activities for residents, some of whom live in nearby clusters of apartment buildings. The resource center, which is a division of the police department’s community policing unit, was begun as a way to cope with rising crime, particularly in the village’s Janes Avenue neighborhood, where the center is located.

“It is a way to take a proactive stance to deter crime,” said Karolyn Howard, the center’s director. “It’s also a way to reinforce family values, provide a sense of community and make Woodridge a safer place.”

The center attempts to achieve these goals by providing a wide variety of social, educational and recreational programs free of charge to anyone who lives in Woodridge. Programs range from one-on-one counseling to English language tutoring, after-school programs, GED classes, parenting classes and bingo for senior citizens. The Woodridge center also provides food and clothing to families in need.

Woodridge is not the only community to address rising crime through such a center. One opened in Downers Grove this year, and there are centers in Bensenville and West Chicago. Two are operated by the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office in unincorporated areas of Hinsdale and Villa Park. The centers are funded largely by state and federal grants, village monies and private donations.

Usually a police officer is assigned to the centers. In Woodridge, the center does not have enough space for a police officer to have a desk, but Howard said officers visit often. Howard, a police department employee, is a counselor.

Explaining the philosophy behind the centers, Howard said, “They are like (a substitute for) the old beat cop who knew everybody on the street and who the kids knew (by name). That is what community policing is all about.”

Owens admits that she was inititally leery of the center and its association with the police department.

“When I first walked in, I felt intimidated by the (police) officer. I said (to myself), `Oooh, am I walking straight? Are my kids being good?’ “

She said the officers encouraged her children to ask them questions. It was an immediate ice breaker, Owens recalled. “The first thing my kids wanted to know was, `Why do you wear a gun?’ And they said, `To protect against the bad guys.’ For them to ask questions and have them answered took care of the fear (of police) thing,” Owens said. “Usually we look at police as the bad guys, but they’re the good guys.”

Owens, who learned about the center through a flier at her children’s school, said she enjoys taking part in the parenting class. “It’s just nice to sit around and talk (with other parents),” Owens said. “Now I’m a more relaxed parent. I feel like I’m not the only one out there who cares about my children.” Owens lives with her fiance, Richard Graham, who is the father of her children.

Owens has become such a proponet of the resource center that she not only takes part in its activities but volunteers there.

“I sort clothes, sort food, straighten things up,” Owens said. She is joined by about 70 other volunteers who perform a wide range of activities. One is Kay Besold, who for the past year served as an English tutor to another Woodridge resident, Gladys Sjauregui.

“Gladys came here and she didn’t know anybody,” Besold said. “She couldn’t talk to anyone, and she was so lonesome she could bearly stand it.” Sjauregui, her husband and two children are originally from Peru.

The two women met up to three times a week to work on improving Sjauregui’s English. Initially, Sjauregui was so uneasy about her English skills that she would not answer a telephone. “Now she calls me,” Besold said.

Sjauregui said she is glad she took part in the tutoring. “For me it was terrible not to speak English,” Sjauregui said. “Learning with Kay was fun. She is a very good person.”

The Bensenville Police Neighborhood Resource Center conducts a similar program called Hispanic Outreach, which is geared toward easing the isolation that many immigrant women feel. Spanish-speaking women, many of whom are tied to their homes because they have young children, are encouraged to take part in the weekly meetings. Like an old-fashioned sewing circle, the women work on sewing and crafts, but a main goal is to simply let them socialize.

“We (usually) stay in the house all day. But when we come here, we talk, we share stuff, we drink coffee,” said one participant, Estella Estrella of Bensenville.

The program was started by a volunteer, Sister Laurina Kahne of Borromeo Catholic Church. She wanted the women to enjoy one another’s company and to begin feeling at ease at the resource center.

Estrella has grown so comfortable at the center that she often sends her three school-age daughters there for help with their homework.

Wheaton resident Jo Anne Klein, who also teaches 6th grade in Bensenville, said she volunteers to help the kids “because it seemed like such a worthwhile project. I know that many kids don’t have a quiet place at home to do their homework. This gives them a place to spread out their books and materials and work undisturbed.”

According to Howard, volunteers are vital to the programs that these centers offer. The volunteers’ participation is also a way for them to feel like the centers truly belong to them.

Looking around as her children played nearby, Owens said, “This is a safe haven. It’s a place for people to go for help. (Volunteering) makes me feel needed.”