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By Michael Emmer, Puerto Rican Cultural Center Safe Passages staff

 We are extremely excited to announce that last Wednesday, February 18th, saw the opening of the Parent University/Parent Popular Institute at Clemente high school! The participant workers from CPS' safe passage program are the first group of parents from the community invited to take part in the initiative. Wednesday's first class, "Introduction to Video", is part of a mini course taught by Derek Grace of the Grace Media Group (www.gracemediagroup.net). Parent participants in the Grace video class are learning hands on skills including the fundamentals of lighting, camerawork, sound, the evolution of videography from analog to digital, interview skills, on set vocabulary and much more. The class will culminate with participants producing their own video with the skills they acquire in the course, telling their own stories and sharing their own experiences. 

The Puerto Rican Cultural Center would like to wish all the parent participants good luck in reaching their goals!

The Parent Popular Institute is a project put forward by the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and powered by the Community as a Campus initiative in Humboldt Park, working in tandem with the Parent University, a project of CPS.

On January 1st 2015, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center - Vida/SIDA together with Norwegian American Hospital, launched the Integrated PASEO program. This partnership has allowed us to provide wraparound services for HIV treatment, STI & Hepatitis C care, substance abuse & mental health counseling, for clients within the Chicagoland area. Our bilingual Spanish-English team creates personalized health plans for each client including specialized services referrals, to instill proper level of care and treatment. For more information, contact Jonathan Contreras, Director at 773-772-5455.

By Leony Calderón

Move for Life!  is an annual one day community-driven outdoor event to kick-off the Spring/Summer physical activity seasons. Saturday, April 4th 2015, from 12:00pm-4:00pm. Join us as we Kick-off the Spring with an afternoon of physical activity; walking, biking, Zumba, Yoga, Pilates, games, boot camp, nutrition information, music, games and much more.

Free and For all Ages!

Service Providers join us and showcase your physical activity, nutrition program to the community. To register or volunteer 773-342-0855 Moveforlife@prcc-chgo.org.

The nice thing about it being frigidly cold outside and only one quick month away from busy-bike-shop season is that we have had plenty of undisturbed time for finishing up important shop construction projects and training our new shop apprentices!

We've just completed a big expansion to Ciclo Urbano's shop, adding some much-needed floor-space to our retail area!  We are working hard to put the finishing touches on the final paint and detail work, as well as getting all of our stock ready to show off in the new space.  Soon you'll be able to peruse our expanded selection of used bike clothing and shoes, along with a new area displaying used panniers and bags.  Please stop by soon to check out how great everything looks!

We'd like to give a warm welcome to Deorey and Hector, both of whom have been coming around to West Town Bikes for several years. Deorey came to us through a Bickerdike youth development bike program way back in 2005 - when he was just 10 years old! During his first time in the bike program, he was the only one in his group to achieve a proper hub adjustment on his first try. Little did he know he was well on his way to becoming a pro mechanic...

Hector has been with WTB since 2010 with the Bike Club, and with us he brings his awesome skills and knowledge as a BMX rider and devotee during the past four years as he has worked his way through our apprenticeship program at Ciclo Urbano. Hector's knowledge and enthusiasm for BMX riding has enabled us to increase our expertise so we may better serve fellow BMX riders like Hector, in the community.  Hector also happens to be skilled with automotive mechanics, which has certainly come in handy for everyday tasks and activities we find ourselves busy with here.

Hector and Deorey are both extremely hard working, and they certainly know their way around bikes.  Most importantly, however, they have both quickly learned the difference of what it's like to be working on their own bikes during Bike Club and the responsibilities of working in a high-quality professional repair shop like Ciclo Urbano.

There's no doubt that we'll all have our work cut out for us as we get closer to the official start of Spring - especially with more and more of our fellow Chicagoans learning just how great our city is for those (like us!) who love bicycling!  Come by and visit us in the shop soon!

November Chicago Magazine "Why José López Stands Between Gentrification and Humboldt Park"

Be sure to pick up the November issue of Chicago Magazine, which features an interview by Puerto Rican Cultural Center ED José E. López conducted by Elly Fishman.