Antonio “Tony” Daniels has been the President of the Adams Block Club, 5500 since 2012. He moved to the neighborhood in 2009 and quickly got involved in the block club, which has been in existence since 1975. Recently, the Adams Block Club, 5500 has seen increases in community engagement and institutional support. This growth has allowed them to not only refine the annual block party they hold, but also to draw on the perspectives of community members to create and enact new visions for their neighborhood.
Tony’s position as the president of the Adams Block Club, 5500 is directly linked to their annual block party. In 2011, a block party wasn’t yet organized and a neighbor asked Tony when it would be. Tony told her to ask Victor Polk, the president of the block club since its founding. The neighbor replied that Victor had told her to ask Tony, who Victor stated was now the block club’s president. Tony then went to Victor’s home: “So I went to his house with my wife and said ‘Hey we want to talk about this block club thing.’ and he said ‘Come one in!’ and goes to a backroom where he has all these papers and starts talking to us about this takeover plan. […] Over the years, he’s helped me understand why he made that choice.”
Tony took over the Adams Block Club, 5500 during a time of decline. Many of the neighbors who formed the leadership of the block club had moved or were preparing to move and the Austin Community Bank which served the neighborhood had also closed. Tony explains: “From 2012 to the beginning of the pandemic, I was struggling to figure out what our block needed and who I could talk to and focused on building my own cabinet. […] I really wanted to move away from just doing block parties.”
Expanding Beyond the Annual Block Party
In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic directed the Adams Block Club, 5500 towards planning programming outside of the usual annual block party. When the block party was cancelled, the block club turned towards figuring out other ways they could discern the needs of neighbors and serve the community. Tony elaborates:
“We had been working with My Block My Hood My City for about two years, they had started doing community clean ups on our block which was new and fresh and [they] invited volunteers to our block who engaged with our neighbors. This got our neighbors to really start thinking about beautification and the things they could contribute to the block, so this swell of energy started to come about. That partnership with My Block My Hood My City also turned into grants for us, which started with a monthly stipend of $100 that we used to keep things in storage. Then we were also able to get other grants that allowed us to purchase chairs and tables and tents, and things of that nature which came from [My Block My Hood My City] and the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities. Between those two we were able to do more on the block, which allowed other people to start vision-casting and thinking.”
Connecting with Neighbors to Build a Better Block
Connecting with the neighborhood by vision-casting and planning community clean ups and other beautification projects taught Tony a lot about community engagement and working with assets. This in turn improved the annual block party as well. Tony elaborates: “This year’s block party was probably one of the best ones we’ve had in my 15 years I’ve been on the block. And it wasn’t because we had a lot of new stuff […] but it was really because everyone contributed to the ideas of what the block party would look like. This element of this old school block party, allowing people to come out and barbecue in front of their houses, hasn’t happened for a number of years, so people were very engaged.”
Discerning community needs and assets helped the Adams Block Club, 5500 hold a block party that served neighbors, while also generating more value from less resources. One example was food, rather than hiring caterers, neighbors brought out grills to their yards and cooked for the community. This helped save money for other attractions, such as inflatable obstacle courses, waterslides, and bounce houses for children. By creating a designated area for children, with a sign-up sheet and supervision, the block felt comfortable having a separate area that could be catered towards adults and seniors.
Seniors are a particular constituency in the neighborhood that the Adams Block Club, 5500 is interested in supporting. There are 17 houses on the block that are occupied by seniors and they have communicated that they want to be more engaged, checked in on, and celebrated. For the block party, Tony was able to use his professional connections as the Associate Director of Volunteer Engagement at Breakthrough Ministries to book a live band: “Seniors were super excited. It was more of a concert kind of feel for them, they weren’t out dancing, but they were very engaged.” Outside of the block party, the Adams Block Club, 5500 is also working on a documentary for their 50th anniversary next year to capture the stories of seniors on the block.
By connecting with neighbors, the Adams Block Club, 5500 has also been able to create a more unified culture. As they have expanded, they have used new resources to help fuel that culture by creating a common branding that is used throughout the neighborhood. That includes creating new yard signs, street banners, and t-shirts. This year, funds from the 2024 class of Chicago Peace Fellows were used to purchase block club t-shirts: “We did the t-shirts because we wanted them to feel like they’re a part of something and that there is unity there. Same with the banners and same with the block club sign. It gives a uniform feel and a clear indication that we’re unified.”
Creating a unified culture and building on assets has helped the Adams Block Club, 5500 support families and build community on their block. This collaborative effort has relied on input from neighbors on the block and support from local organizations. Through hosting block parties, sharing resources, conducting community clean ups, and seeking the perspectives of neighbors, the Adams Block Club, 5500 has promoted peace, unity, and beauty on their block.
