Momentum: How Youth-led Kickbacks Are Uniting
Little Village
Presented by Moments Media, TA98’s Digital Storytelling Division
By Araceli Ramirez
A jump rope cracked against the pavement, snapping beneath a girl’s quick steps as her friends shouted the count. Their voices joined the energetic beats from a nearby speaker, soccer games, and scattered chalk sketches that transformed Corkery Elementary’s schoolyard into a community hangout.
In Little Village, nights like this define the Summer Kickback Series.
The events are part of the city’s Year-Round Safe Spaces for Youth initiative operated through My CHI. My Future. This summer, The Alliance 98 (TA98) hired local teens to organize activities, book vendors, and welcome guests.
“A form of resistance is us being happy and still finding ways to enjoy life,” said Amy Ninette Roman, Kickback coordinator and TA98 community program manager.
Roman joined the program as a teen intern in 2022 and now leads TA98’s Kickback team. “That’s what motivates us to keep pushing,” she said. “At the end of the day, these events are youth-led and come from their ideas.”
For the third summer in a row, TA98 partnered with Beyond the Ball, its anchor organization in Little Village, which provides additional resources for activations. Since 2019, the city’s Department of Family and Support Services has managed the initiative, employing 16 local youth each summer across 14 community areas.
The city surveys interns and coordinators each year, project manager Tess Landon said.
“Young people have shared with us that because of this program, they feel more hopeful about their futures or they have new career pathways,” Landon said.
According to the city’s 2024 Youth Impact Report, 97% of youth employees said they felt closer to their communities. In all, last year’s 155 Kickback events drew more than 16,750 attendees.
This summer, interns saw those community bonds reflected in their daily interactions.
For returning intern Angelica Flores, the Kickbacks helped her break out of her “little introvert bubble.” She began connecting with younger community members, including one boy who attended nearly every event and always ran to greet her with a smile.
“Almost every single event he’s here, and you can definitely tell if he’s not,” Flores said. “We just know it’s like we’re missing somebody.”
The same sense of connection shaped the Kickback team, with five returning interns and 11 new faces. Before each event, interns ages 16 to 24 met twice a week to plan, share ideas, and check in with coordinators.
Among them was newcomer Carlos Salas, who came across the opportunity while scrolling on Instagram, but hesitated to apply. Now, he credits the experience with giving him a stronger voice and greater confidence as a leader. “Working with like-minded people, my ideas are always considered,” Salas said.
He also recalled the week he planned a Kickback Friday. “You see that all your hard work has been a success,” he said. “Especially if there’s many people coming through and having fun.”
Along with music and games, raffles with prizes ranging from bicycles to Lollapalooza tickets added to the draw of this year’s Kickbacks. This year’s six TA98 Kickbacks drew an average of 75 young adults, but their impact extended to the families who returned week after week.
On a warm evening in July, Dominga Sandoval sat on a bench under a swaying tree, watching her son, Antonio, kick a soccer ball toward the goal. She has attended every Kickback for the past two summers and said the events give children “a place to try everything from art to sports”.
Alongside families, neighborhood businesses also support the Kickbacks.
“Seeing the kids’ faces light up when they get their fruit or agua frescas and feeling the community come together makes it such a special experience for our family,” said the team at Sabores Neveria y Frutería, a local ice cream shop.
School leaders also noticed a difference. At Corkery Elementary, Principal Alexis Gonzales said the Kickbacks turned the schoolyard into a year-round gathering place where families now gather on weekends. She said the events made them feel welcome and strengthened the school’s culture.
“What I have noticed with TA98 is that people don’t see it as just mine or [the assistant principal’s] school,” Gonzales said. “It is our school. This is a community school.”
That shift toward open, welcoming spaces echoes what researchers have found. A 2021 study in NPJ Urban Sustainability found that neighborhoods with more park visits and street activity had lower crime rates, even after accounting for income and education.
As summer came to a close, the Kickback teams were honored on Aug. 13 at the city’s End of Year Celebration in the Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall. Salas earned MVP for the Little Village team. Roman, a former Kickback participant and now program coordinator, received the 2025 Safe Spaces Coordinator Award.
