Kankakee County Area, IL

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Engaging in EDI

Success by 6 Coalition of Kankakee and Iroquois Counties

In partnership with the Success by 6 Coalition of Kankakee and Iroquois Counties, the EDI was implemented during the 2016-2017 school year in the Kankakee County Area which consisted of the City of Kankakee, Village of Bourbonnais, and the Village of Bradley. Success by 6 and its stakeholders wanted to gain insight on the child development resources available to children before entering kindergarten, and to better prepare them to enter school ready to succeed.

The results collected in 2016-2017 helped capture social, emotional, and mental health data for children, which was one of the key reasons for implementing the EDI. Having data specific to child development in these domains informed conversations with service providers and funders on meeting the needs of young children and their families.*

The results helped Success by 6 identify priorities and develop a strategic action plan. Results also identified areas in need of resources, informed grant proposals and funding allocations, and led to the development and retooling of programs.

For the second wave data collection that took place during the 2019-2020 school year, Pembroke Township was included as community advocates and the leadership of Pembroke Community Consolidated School District 259 felt participation would strengthen organizing efforts to solidify a community sustainability plan.
 

Note: Information provided by Success by 6 Coalition Request for Proposal application to Erikson Institute (2016).

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Naming the Neighborhoods

Written by the EDI Project Team in collaboration with the Community Team of the Kankakee County Area

Wave 1: 2016-2017
Success by 6, which represents the EDI Community Team of the Kankakee County Area, met once to define and name neighborhoods. Members of the Success by 6 collaboration were present at the meeting, including members representing the three contiguous school districts participating in the EDI Project.

Maps from city and village halls were procured to support this naming process, and neighborhood knowledge from members was incorporated. Members representing school districts approached the naming process in various ways, which included utilizing:

• Existing names of local city and village voting districts/wards
• Landmarks, such as shopping centers and the local YMCA
• Names of housing subdivisions
• Names of home developments

School names were not used to identify a neighborhood because the EDI is meant to situate children within the context of their neighborhood and inspire broader, communitywide responsibility for addressing vulnerability. The following names of the neighborhoods were chosen:

1. Aroma Park
2. Blatt Subdivision
3. Bordeaux
4. Briar Cliff
5. Charlton
6. Eastridge
7. Evergreen Acres
8. Hunter’s Run
9. Meadows
10. North Kankakee
11. Old Bourbonnais
12. Riverview
13. Royal Kankakee
14. Sunnyside
15. West Kankakee
 

Wave 2: 2019-2020
In each subsequent EDI wave, it is ideal to keep the original neighborhood names for consistency; however, there is an opportunity to revisit the neighborhood names in Wave 2. Wave 1 sets the baseline and, as communities contextualize the data and gain deeper insight, there may be a need to make modifications.

For Wave 2, neighborhood names may be added to with a slash or hyphen (-, /) to most accurately describe how current residents refer to their neighborhood. The original name is only replaced in rare circumstances, such as when the name reflects a landmark that has moved or no longer exists, or the community feels the name was a misnomer in Wave 1.

The EDI Community Team (Success by 6) met three times from September 2019 to January 2020 and discussed the existing neighborhood names. Over 40 participants were representing various sectors across the county at these workshops. Additionally, there was a shared Google document where team members and residents could add comments and follow up conversations to gain consensus on these names.

Pembroke Township was added for Wave 2 of EDI data collection to help provide guidance on the areas that needed to be prioritized in terms of family supports and resources. Residents of Pembroke Township are making strides in community organizing and solidifying a community sustainability plan. Local advocates and the leadership of Pembroke Community Consolidated School District 259 felt that participation in the EDI Project would strengthen these efforts. As a result, the following additions and one change were made to the neighborhood names:

• Charlton became Charlton/Fifth Ward because Fifth Ward was a more common way to refer to that neighborhood.
   
• Eastridge became Eastridge/East Court because East Court is included in that neighborhood.
   
• Evergreen Acres became Evergreen Acres/Central and East Bradley.
   
• Hunter’s Run became Northfield Meadow/Behind the Mall because residents and administration from the Bradley School District felt strongly that Hunter’s Run was an inaccurate name for the population represented, resulting in confusion when relating to the maps.

• Meadows became Tri-Star Meadows.
   
• North Kankakee became North Kankakee/Northside because that area is generally known as the Northside.
   
• Royal Kankakee became Royal Kankakee/South Kankakee because it is a broad area and encompasses South Kankakee.
   
• Sunnyside became Sunnyside/Riverfront/Downtown because the residents felt that Sunnyside was not as accurate as Riverfront or Downtown, so the title includes all of those names.
   
• Pembroke is a new neighborhood added to this round of data collection.
   

The final neighborhood names for Wave 2 are as follows:

1. Aroma Park
2. Blatt Subdivision
3. Bordeaux
4. Briar Cliff
5. Charlton/Fifth Ward
6. Eastridge/East Court
7. Evergreen Acres/Central and East Bradley
8. Northfield Meadow/Behind the Mall
9. Tri-Star Meadows
10. North Kankakee/Northside
11. Old Bourbonnais
12. Riverview
13. Royal Kankakee/South Kankakee
14. Sunnyside/Riverfront/Downtown
15. West Kankakee
16. Pembroke

Community Data Sources

Download a PDF of the data sources used for Kankakee.

2016 Data Sources
2019 Data Sources