Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center: Chicago's West Pullman

Introduction

"The Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is more than just an aquatic or fitness center. It's a holistic approach to bringing the community together to change lives, and help to end the violence in Chicago." — The Salvation Army Metropolitan Division, 2012

Studies have shown time and again that the earlier children are introduced to meaningful learning environments, the better they tend to perform academically in later years. The research to date also suggests that because philanthropic resources are scarce, it is important to use these funding resources to their maximum advantage in delivering the wide range of social and educational services needed by many inner-city and lower socioeconomic populations today. Identifying and comparing the types and quality of services provided by such organizations therefore represents a timely and valuable enterprise.

To this end, this paper examines the neighborhood context of the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, including the history of the area and a description of current issues affecting it — among them unemployment, foreclosure, high school education, and violence rates — to demonstrate why the Kroc Community Center is needed. A discussion of the various services offered at the center, including its target population and associated fees, is followed by an analysis of whether local families can afford those services. Finally, the paper examines the Kroc Center's building and operating costs and sources of funding, then compares it to the services offered by the Kids Off the Block organization with respect to grassroots versus corporate philanthropy.

Context of the Delivery Setting

Prior to World War I, a number of districts were forged out of the region south of Chicago, including South Chicago (Lewis, 2008). During the same period, George Pullman transferred his railroad passenger car factory from Detroit to the planned industrial suburb that bore his name (Lewis, 2008). According to Lewis, "While Pullman built a model town designed to produce individual profits and social harmony, another form of land development took place at West Pullman" (p. 57). That "other form of land development" involved separating the industrial district of West Pullman from the residential districts in the surrounding communities (Lewis, 2008). In the following years, the West Pullman community was divided into discrete residential and industrial districts, as well as separate areas for more affluent citizens (Lewis, 2008). Property restrictions kept most African Americans out of West Pullman until the 1960s, at which point Black residents were able to gain access to fringe properties (Reiff, 2004).

As a reflection of the fundamental demographic changes that have taken place in this Chicago district, in 1930 West Pullman was almost completely (98.4%) white, with just 0.6% of its population being Black and 1.0% of other races. By contrast, in 2000 there were just 945 white residents left in West Pullman (2.6%), with the overwhelming majority being African American — 34,399 residents, or 93.9% (Reiff, 2004). Today, the community faces the legacy of its industrialized past; part of the West Pullman industrial district has been designated as an EPA brownfield as a result (Reiff, 2004). In addition, high foreclosure rates associated with the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2008 and persistently high unemployment remain significant constraints for many West Pullman residents, making the need for additional community resources all the more pressing (Reiff, 2004).

It was in this context that the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center was conceived by Joan Kroc, the wife of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc. According to the Kroc Center's website, the vision was to "build state-of-the-art facilities in underserved communities throughout the nation with the highest quality recreational and arts facilities to ensure that all children have equal opportunities to build their natural gifts and talents" (Kroc Center, 2012, para. 1). In fulfillment of this vision, following her death in 2003, Mrs. Kroc endowed the Salvation Army with the largest private donation in history — nearly $2 billion — for the specific purpose of constructing these centers across the country where they were most needed and to fund their perpetual operation (Kroc Center, 2012).

The community and social service facility is situated on 33 acres in West Pullman and offers a wide range of facilities grouped into four categories: (a) Family Life and Education Center; (b) Academy of the Arts; (c) Sports Training and Recreation Center; and (d) Aquatic Center (Kroc Center, 2012). These four general facilities encompass numerous specialized resources and services. According to Lipkin (2012), "The Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, in West Pullman, is expansive — the building is 160,000 square feet on 33 acres of land. The center features a theater, recording studio, classrooms, four gymnasiums, an indoor track, a fitness center, two pools, a football field, and a baseball field" (para. 1). Construction costs for the Kroc Center were estimated at $70 million (Lipkin, 2012).

Services, Target Population, and Funding Sources

The facilities, services, and programs offered at the Kroc Center are not free, but they are modestly priced. Memberships for children cost $15 per year, $20 for senior citizens, $35 for adults, and $60 for a family of five. Importantly, even these modest charges are waived for families who cannot afford them (Lipkin, 2012). This sliding-scale approach ensures that the center's resources remain accessible to the lowest-income residents of West Pullman — precisely the population the center was designed to serve.

Conclusion

The research showed that the need for social and community services in South Chicago is great, with many young people exposed to a daily routine of street life involving gang violence and drugs. In the past, few resources were available to these young people that provided a viable alternative to these harmful influences, but that has changed in recent years thanks to organizations such as Kids Off the Block, whose founder operates a privately funded facility in the Roseland district. Likewise, the research also showed that thanks to the generosity and vision of the founder of McDonald's, the South Chicago community of West Pullman now enjoys an elaborate multi-million-dollar facility in the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center.

Given the extent of the need, the research suggests that these programs — and more like them — are needed throughout the Chicago area as well as in other inner-city communities where young people lack the resources and tools necessary to help them avoid a life of gang activity and drug abuse, along with the increased involvement with law enforcement that such lifestyles entail. In the final analysis, Kids Off the Block's business model appears to achieve more "bang for the charity buck," but the young people in West Pullman are going to love the Kroc Center despite its enormous funding requirements.