FULLER PARK COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
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Mission Statement
Fuller Park Community Development works to address the Economic, Education and Environmental issues that will improve the quality of life for our neighbors. We work daily to equip our residents with information and education that equips them with the necessary tools to help them move up the ladder of success.
About This Cause
Fuller Park Community Development (FPCD) was established to generate new opportunities for fair housing, job training, and environmental education within the Fuller Park neighborhood. Although it is the smallest neighborhood in the city of Chicago, Fuller Park residents carry a disproportionate burden of the effects of industrialization and urban blight, including exposure to lead (at the highest levels in the city), gang-related crime, abandoned buildings and lack of viable housing stock, and lack of access to healthy food. During the more than twenty years since its founding, FPCD has established a firm record of successful community programs that demonstrate a capacity for enacting real change within the neighborhood of Fuller Park. Of the eight distinct community-building programs currently run by FPCD, the most far-reaching within the Fuller Park community and the best example of a successful community program with an emphasis on environmental justice is Eden Place Nature Center. For 35 years the 3.5-acre site that is now Eden Place was an illegal dumpsite and brownfield that poisoned the hearts, minds, and environment of the residents of Fuller Park. When community member, activist, and FPCD Director Michael Howard learned in 1997 that Fuller Park contained the highest lead levels in the city, he decided to rally his community to help clean up the brownfield site that was found to be the source of much of this contamination. Howard worked diligently to acquire the deed for the land and involved the community in a large scale, three-year cleanup of the dumpsite. With the addition of tons of topsoil and thousands of seeds and plants, Eden Place was born as an urban oasis. Today, Eden Place is a not-for-profit educational center and bio-diversified nature preserve that is open to the public year-round. FPCD programs have grown to become foundational within the Fuller Park community and have attracted national and international attention. Using only limited resources and working out of a trailer building, the staff and volunteers at Eden Place have nonetheless built programs that are increasingly recognized as a model for community development and community-based environmental education. Accolades include the following: • Featured in the PBS documentary about the legacy of Aldo Leopold “GREENFIRE” (2012) • National Bank of America Leadership Award for Michael Howard (2009) • Openlands Conservation Leadership Award for Michael Howard (2011) • News features on ABC7 News (2010) and WTTW (2011) • Features in Chicago Wilderness Magazine (2008), Outdoor Illinois Magazine (2009) and Streetwise Magazine (2010) • One of only two Chicago sites visited by the White House Delegation for the America’s Great Outdoors Tour (2010) • EPA Conservation and Native Landscaping Award (2004) • Featured in the PBS documentary “Eden’s Lost & Found” (2004) • Mumford Award for Community Development (2008) • Governor’s Illinois Environmental Hero Award for Michael Howard (2009) • Visits from an International Team of Scientists (left, 2009), the Lebanese Minister for the Environment (2010), and international conservationist Guadalupe Del Rio • Collaborations and partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service International Programs, Sierra Club, Chicago Zoological Society and the Brookfield Zoo, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Bank of America, MB Financial Bank, Comcast, Center for New Horizons, Openlands, and many other local community organizations Signature programs of FPCD include: South Point Academy Southpoint Academy, our adult learning center, has provided skilled training to more than 500 unemployed men and women - many of them former felons and substance abusers. Applicants lacking a high school diploma, GED or that test with low reading and math scores are provided extensive teaching and one-on-one tutoring. Literacy scores are raised an average of 3 grade levels for more than half of our students. Graduates receive job placement in the construction and property management fields. For many, it is their first experience being self-reliant and supporting their families. Several graduates have become entrepreneurs, providing employment and training for others. Community Health & Education Initiative FPCD led the battle to help eliminate dangerous levels of lead in the water system and homes of Fuller Park. Over 4000 homes and families were spared continued exposure after a $200 million infrastructure project removed 100-year-old lead water pipes, and free medical care was afforded all the children of Fuller Park under the age of 16 exposed to lead. Food Pantry FPCD coordinates with area organizations to provide food to elderly neighborhood residents on fixed incomes. Over a half ton of food is dispersed on a weekly basis. Eden Place Farms Eden Place Farms (EPF), a 3 ½ -acre micro-farm in Chicago, IL, a subsidiary of Fuller Park Community. Using organic practices and their background in business the Howard’s Founders of FPCD started EPF as a solution to the severe lack of fresh food in the community of Fuller Park and as a workforce development program for the areas unemployed residents.