HYDE PARK — South Siders looking to start themselves or their loved ones on a path to a science-based career have a new resource at their fingertips.
The South Side STEM Opportunity Landscape is a project to inform residents about the available educational opportunities for STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in nine South Side neighborhoods.
The map and data can also be a resource for community groups to collaborate with each other and improve their programs as they prepare people for STEM careers, organizers said.
Douglas, Oakland, Grand Boulevard, Kenwood, Hyde Park, Washington Park, Woodlawn, Greater Grand Crossing and South Shore are included in the project. The effort is led by the Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University’s Digital Youth Network.
The landscape project “cultivates new partnerships and opportunities to [create] a pipeline from STEM programming to careers,” said Meredith Bruozas, Argonne’s institutional partnerships director.
“There’s a ton of funding available from federal agencies toward the green revolution, toward decarbonizing the Industrial Revolution. How do we prepare … opportunities in this space for those that are engaged?”
To date, the project includes an asset map, where people can find STEM employers and resources available at workforce development centers, schools and community organizations serving local youth.
Neighbors can use the asset map to learn about existing opportunities surrounding them, like the digital media studio at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Grand Boulevard, or the slime workshops through which kids learn chemistry at Ruggles Elementary in Greater Grand Crossing.
The project can play matchmaker for neighborhood groups, Bruozas said, like if a community center has an available computer lab and a nonprofit is looking for a place to hold coding classes.
“There’s a lot of places like computer labs, engineering spaces, community gardens and learning kitchens that are hidden in places like Park District [facilities] and schools and YMCAs that I’m not sure everyone realizes is a gem — an opportune space to bring more programming,” Bruozas said.
“There are many program providers that don’t have a physical location on the South Side but have a lot of programming to give.”
Employers and resource providers who aren’t shown on the map can reach out to the landscape team using a form on the project homepage.
The landscape also includes a data dashboard, which visualizes the accessibility of programs in the community, the STEM resources available — and needed — in various topics and much more. The dashboard relies on data from an opportunity landscape survey, the city’s My Chi. My Future. program, the census and other public sources.
The STEM Opportunity Landscape can draw attention to South Siders’ unique needs, said Jason Coleman, executive director and co-founder of Project Syncere. The organization offers education, internships and other experience to prepare kids, primarily those on the South and West sides, for engineering careers.
“I’m not going to say there’s a deficit of STEM programs, though there may be a deficit in certain communities,” he said. “I also think there needs to be more scaled programs. When it comes to STEM, there’s a lot of one-off opportunities for students to come in and maybe do a summer camp, a 10-week program. But once a student goes through that program, then what do they do afterward?”
As Project Syncere pitches funders and local leaders on these needs, the opportunity landscape provides “the data to help back up what we’re saying,” Coleman said.
Moving forward, the landscape project needs clearer messaging on how people can benefit from the wealth of information it provides, Coleman said.
From families who could join programs like Project Syncere’s E-Cademy, to corporate leaders seeking to fund community projects or offer volunteer opportunities to their employees, information on South Side STEM resources should spread as far as possible, he said.
“I’m not sure who the target audience truly is right now,” Coleman said. “A [public relations] campaign really needs to be done to bring about awareness, but also help educate people on the [project’s] utilizations — how it can be used for good.”
The landscape project is a work in progress, as organizers plan to host monthly meetings that put community organizations in touch with each other and help “increase awareness of STEM opportunities on the South Side,” Bruozas said.
“If we get people in a room and everyone shows what resources they have, we naturally see these partnerships happen,” she said. “Helping people on the South Side plug into this info — that’s the first step as we start to think about how these things grow.”
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