I've been hard on the APCC for years, and yeah, on more than one occasion I wrote negative things about the center, including when this blog was on the Windy Citizen.
The first time they annoyed me was years ago when I tried to hook them up with this dude who used to run a skate board shop and was a mentor to a bunch of local youth. He had issues with the APCC, ranted about them being out-of-touch paper pushers that did nothing all day and when nothing happened between him and the APCC (aka setting up a program for at-risk youth there) I blamed the APCC entirely. The dude was also kind of unreliable, so... my bad there.
But! The vibe in the APCC office building was dingy and weird and my hesitation about the place was echoed by other community members and even other civic organizations. The APCC didn't seem to like or want to answer my questions or respond to any sort of suggestion or complaint for a long while, but perhaps this resistance and cold distance was due to an aging workforce unfamiliar with the new technology.
When artist Indira Johnson began sprinkling her Buddha Heads of peace all over the 'hood, I heard one of the APCC staff complained about them, saying the statues violated the 1st amendment. That type of idiocy made me laugh.
I came around to the APCC after witnessing some of the good work they were doing at their Foster location, teaching English to ESL students and offering daycare, and meeting and speaking with Radhika Sharma Gordon. That goodwill went away when the APCC moved out of the neighborhood. This move pissed me off because of the potential for financial fraud, and an anonymous comment my rant about that received one year later, only made me more wary.
The APCC moving came soon after Gordon left the organization, which made me question the APCC as a force for good all over again. However, after occasionally chilling with the CeaseFire dudes at the Ecuadorian Center this year, the APCC is now all right with me. They informed me the APCC helped them acquire most of the computers in their center and the APCC generally supports the two fellas anti-gang violence efforts regularly, which in my mind, makes up for them closing the CeaseFire center in Albany Park.
Also, check out the Storify below of their latest event. The APCC is officially functioning on Twitter now, and not only that, they actually threw an event where children smiled and had a good time.
As for a Storify of this event, weeks ago, the reason is a teaching one...
The APCC was tweeting these tweets at me, and I couldn't help but think to myself, "put these in a Storify, fool! Don't spam me these pictures!" Nonprofits should get comfortable with Storify (I'm looking at you Casey M. Smagala), as it's really handy as a promotional tool. I like it, have been using it for years (back when I was staff at the Daily Dot, 2011) because it puts tweets in chronological order and makes use of promotional material you've already shared. You can embed all kinds of posts, including Facebook posts.
