Prentice Butler, the newly hired executive director of The Neighborhood Bridge, is looking to connect as many individuals and families as possible with needed services, including housing resources, employment aid, financial counseling and health care.
The Neighborhood Bridge is a nonprofit established in 2023 with the intention to work with existing providers of services that also include job training, computer competency and violence prevention. The social ministry will then do outreach to connect families in need with those existing resources.
“There’s no sense [in] reinventing the wheel,” Butler said. “There are so many nonprofits doing wonderful work in Austin and other areas of the region. I just want to make sure I sit down with them and let them know I want to work in partnership.”
The nonprofit is focused on helping families of students in Austin, on Chicago’s West Side. The partner schools are St. Catherine – St. Lucy, St. Angela, Chicago Jesuit Academy, Catalyst Circle Rock, and Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School.
“It is our job … to advocate for those that don’t have a voice,” Butler said. “And make sure they’re connected to outcomes that will service their families and the community.”
Goals and mission
Butler, who started in July, said his main mission is to make sure families with kids in school have the resources they need to allow the kids to focus on their education. There are so many external factors or traumas that can distract a kid from concentrating on their education, Butler said. And teachers, who are already doing as much as they can with little credit, can’t be responsible for all of those extra factors.
“Having one less distraction, I think, will be helpful, in making sure that [the kids] can focus on their education and we can see the increased outcome of these kids graduating and going on with their lives in a productive fashion,” he said.
In his first few weeks as executive director, Butler said he’s been connecting with community members and stakeholders. That includes local government, public safety and health officials, as well as organizations who can provide the resources needed, like Thrive Counseling Center, a mental health crisis and counseling center. So far, Butler said he’s compiled a database of about 25 organizations to connect program participants with.
The Neighborhood Bridge is located at the St. Catherine – St. Lucy rectory in Oak Park, along with Housing Forward’s emergency overnight shelter. The shelter is in the process of an expansion from 20 to 40 beds. The Neighborhood Bridge, Butler said, is an evolution of the previous church ministry.
“We’re still serving the public,” he said. “This is what this place and space has always been about.”
A lot of communities are in need of the services that this nonprofit can connect them with, Butler pointed out. Some individuals who have the privilege of exposure to these services while growing up, and understand how to seek them out, might take that information for granted, Butler said. But others did not have those same privileges.
“Sometimes it takes somebody to say ‘This is how you fill out the form, this is what this means, don’t worry about it, I will assist you, I will help you,’” he said. “We could be a lifeline to a better life.”
What they need
To get the organization up and running, Butler said they need to engage and train volunteers, who will also have required background checks. The volunteers will not only help with intake and identifying issues among families in need but will walk those families through connections with local providers from beginning to end.
“A lot of families are not comfortable navigating the bureaucracy,” he said. “They don’t know how to begin to help themselves. So, you have the volunteers that come in to the process to be a helping hand, a shoulder to rely on.”
Butler said one of his goals is to ensure volunteers are not only trained on services central to the organization’s mission, such as housing and employment resources, but also on resources related to sexual and other types of abuse.
“I want to make sure the volunteers also understand discretion, how sensitive the issues can be,” Butler said. “I want to make sure no harm is done to anybody that may engage our services.”
By the end of the year, Butler said he’d like to have at least 30 volunteers.
Butler said he’s eager to build the program from the ground up. It’ll be challenging, but in a good way, he said. But they also need the finances to operate. Grants and individual donations kick-started The Neighborhood Bridge, Butler said, but moving forward they’ll have to seek more funding, and he hopes that could come from the philanthropic community in Chicago.
“A lot of organizations are beginning to look at the issues of equity seriously in our communities,” he said. “And what [we can do] to address and close the equity gaps that are in communities like Austin and other areas in the city that have been neglected and disinvested in for years.”
About the executive director
Butler said he grew up on the South Shore of Chicago, where his school, Hales Franciscan High School, emphasized the importance of service in its curriculum. As a result of his upbringing and prior work experience, Butler said he’s committed to community engagement and keen on service-oriented opportunities.
The new executive director was formerly the deputy director for the Illinois Justice Project, an organization working to make the legal system more equitable. He’s served on the staff of Sophia King, former alderman of Chicago’s 4th Ward. Before that, Butler was a bankruptcy consultant at the Law Offices of Ernesto D. Borges Jr. P.C.
“[I] would sit down with a lot of clients that were going through traumatic episodes in life and you would see how different policies facilitated those crises that they faced,” he said.
He also worked for the Chicago Area Boy Scouts of America on the southwest side of Chicago and nearby suburbs. Butler has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago, a master’s degree from Loyola University Chicago and another master’s degree from the University of Chicago. He’s also involved with organizations such as the New Leaders Council Chicago and South-Siders Organized for Unity and Liberation.
“I was eager to get back in the field [and] work with communities, work with families,” he said. “This is where I want to be.”
