Fall, 2000 — Americans have been taught to equate influence with wealth. We have been conditioned to believe that only the very rich have the means to shape and transform society. The Southwest Youth Collaborative is working to change all that. And Indivisible — a celebration exploring grassroots democracy at work in communities across America — documents that work.

The Southwest Youth Collaborative is one of twelve initiatives around the country featured in the nationally touring exhibition of Indivisible: Stories of American Community. This multi-media project documents the struggles and victories of "ordinary but extraordinarily committed" individuals working together to improve their own lives and the lives of their neighbors. It also provides a wealth of resources for educators and community organizations to teach about and document community action.

Indivisible highlights the Collaborative's efforts "to build youth leadership, cross- cultural understanding, and intergenerational dialogue through a myriad of remarkable programs," including the West Englewood Youth & Teen Center, Greater Lawn Community Youth Network, and the Community Justice Initiative. As described in the project, "The Collaborative grew out of very local needs and concerns, and is guided by community residents who believe that youth-driven, neighborhood-based efforts offer the greatest chance to effect positive change for the area and its families."

The project includes a book and companion CD entitled, "Local Heroes Changing America," featuring the photographs and voices of activists from the Southwest Side and elsewhere telling their own stories. In his foreword, PBS and NPR journalist Ray Suarez writes, "The inability to see your own role in shaping your own future is an epidemic.... Community organizing has been a powerful antidote to the despair that comes from the inability to comprehend your own circumstances and rise above them."

Indivisible also includes an Educator's Guide to help teachers integrate the project's themes into their classroom teaching in conjunction with a visit to the museum. A community booklet, Documenting Community Action, provides a step-by-step guide for community organizations to develop and conduct their own documentary projects. The project Website, www.indivisible.org, offers people all over the world an opportunity to experience Indivisible and to explore additional resources for participating in civic life.

Indivisible will premiere at the Terra Museum of American Art (664 N. Michigan) from October 6 through November 26, then tour museums from Florida to Alaska through the end of 2002. The postcard exhibit will distribute three million free postcards at public spaces such as train stations, libraries, university students unions, and airports nationwide, beginning at the James R. Thompson Center (100 W. Randolph) October 5-19, and at Columbia College (1104 S. Wabash) October 23-November 17. The postcard exhibition will also include an interactive computer station that allows visitors to record their own stories of community. Elements of Indivisible will be on display at the SWYC Open House from 4 to 9 pm on Thursday, November 16 at the Collaborative main offices at 6400 South Kedzie.