Emanuel, Preckwinkle: Expanded summer programs for kids aim to fight crime

During summer, “school’s out, and neither Mom or Dad are home,” Emanuel said. “We need to make sure [kids] are in an adult-supervised program.”

Neither Emanuel nor Preckwinkle could say how much the program would cost, though Preckwinkle said only existing resources would be tapped on the county’s part. Officials estimated at least 2,000 additional kids would take part in programs run by the county.

The plans are the latest evidence of Emanuel and Preckwinkle’s push for the city and county to join forces on everything from health care, road maintenance and job training to administering elections. They were announced less than a month after it emerged that the city has exhausted federal stimulus funds it used to help pay for summer jobs for young workers last year, meaning it will have 4,000 fewer jobs to offer youths this year than it did in 2010.

But Emanuel said “thousands” of children in four city neighborhoods — Garfield Park, Englewood, Woodlawn and Little Village — will be served by the new programs, which will include sports, mentoring and work placement.

The results of the programs will be evaluated by the University of Chicago’s crime lab to see which worked best, with the aim to expand in the future, he said.

Five foundations are involved: the Field, MacArthur, McCormick and Joyce Foundations and the Chicago Community Trust . The public can also make donations at