DuCAP Provides Local Youth With Community Support

Community service and leadership, while often admired by the public, are rarely practiced.

This shortcoming helps account for many of the problems faced by society as a whole.

It’s also the reason the , a local non-profit, was launched in 1991—to enable local leaders already contained in the village’s neighborhoods to solve the communities problems.

DuCAP is modeled after the Chicago Area Project (CAP), which was founded in the 1930’s by a University of Chicago sociologist, and believes bringing in outside agencies to fix local problems like juvenile delinquency, gang violence and substance abuse just won’t work.

CAP began developing localized projects aimed at promoting positive youth development, utilizing community building to create a strong network of diverse grassroots organizations to support the projects.

DuCAP runs along the same lines, forming a Neighborhood Action Club (NAC) as the primary force for change, according to its website.

"We are kind of like a conduit to connect people to the resources they need," said Georgia Gilligan, DuCAP’s area project supervisor. "DuCAP started in the Glendale Heights-area and they were looking to expand. That’s how they found me."

Gilligan, a 26-year Bolingbrook resident and mother of four, had developed a broad range of local youth contacts through her work with the local home school group and worked nearly 10 years in the attendance office at Romeoville High School.

"I’ve been doing this now for four and a half years," she said. "I oversee all after-school programs, working with youth commissions in Bolingbrook and Romeoville to make sure kids have everything they need."

Locally, DuCAP has partnered with the Kiwanis Builders Club to take responsibility for guiding young people through an after-school leadership program that targets middle school aged students.

A staff advisor receives modest funding, said DuCAP Executive Director Jimmy Barber. The position is responsible for meetings and club activities, as well as coordinating work with the organization’s NACs.

Although DuCAP works with all students, its focus remains on helping balance what Gilligan calls "teeter-tooter kids."

These kids exist in every community, she said, and are held down because of family dysfunction.

DuCAP’s role is to aid these young people by adding community members as a supporting role.

"I’ve been with DuCAP for seven years and I’m proud of the work we’ve done," said Bob Dzurko, an area project administrator. "I started out in Glendale Heights and now I’m supervising the community centers in Wheaton, Carol Stream, Bolingbrook and Romeoville. We all wear several hats and our responsibilities change all the time. But at the end of the day, it’s satisfying work."

To learn more about DuCAP, visit its website at www.ducap.org or call 630-226-8704.