ANNUAL CROSS-CITY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRINGS TOGETHER OVER 400 YOUNG PEOPLE

Throughout the summer, neighborhoods across Chicago have been hosting weekly neighborhood basketball games through LISC Chicago’s Hoops in the Hood program. Photo Credit: Katherine Newman
Throughout the summer, neighborhoods across Chicago have been hosting weekly neighborhood basketball games through LISC Chicago’s Hoops in the Hood program. Photo Credit: Katherine Newman

Annual Cross-City Basketball Tournament Brings Together Over 400 Young People

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Kids from 22 neighborhoods across Chicago recently came together for a basketball tournament on Columbus Drive in downtown Chicago. The day-long event is the culmination of the city-wide Hoops

in the Hood program that is supported by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Chicago and executed by nonprofit organizations throughout the city.

Hoops in the Hood is a sports-based community safety initiative by LISC Chicago that is used to create safe spaces for youth to interact and build positive relationships with peers and adults from their neighborhood. Aside from the camaraderie, the program also works to reclaim outdoor space in communities that experience higher rates of crime and violence, according to information provided by LISC Chicago.

Through Hoops in the Hood, LISC Chicago partners with neighborhood-based nonprofits who host weekly basketball games for young people in the communities they serve.

“Everybody that lived in a suburb or had this ability to not be concerned about safety remembers just going outside and playing, and there was never a thought about it because that’s what you did,” said Meghan Harte, executive director of LISC Chicago. “That doesn’t exist in these neighborhoods. Hoops in the Hood is about creating that type of environment where kids can just be kids and they can play. For three hours, no one is worried about anything else. They can get some great food, meet people and they’re part of the community. The more we can build off of that, the more impact it will have.”

Every week on the west side of Chicago, UCAN has been shutting down a different neighborhood block in North Lawndale to host their Hoops in the Hood basketball games. Moving from block to block in North Lawndale helps UCAN reach more kids throughout the summer.

“The thing is, if there isn’t something positive going on, there is a good chance that something negative is going to happen and anything could happen. That’s just how it is in impoverished neighborhoods,” said Cortez Atkins, director of Hoops in the Hood for UCAN. “When these guys go home, they are confined to the house because they are scared to go out of their own doors because there is nothing but violence and high-risk.”

Growing up in North Lawndale, Cortez participated in the Hoops in the Hood program and said that it means a lot to him to be working with the young men who participate in the program every week because he knows personally what kind of an impact it can have on them.

“This is something that I take pride in. Hoops in the Hood is a great program that creates safe spaces and invades neighborhoods and blocks that are usually filled with negativity and violence. We go out every Thursday to provide fun activities to show these youth and the adults that we can still turn these blocks into something positive,” said Corte

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