The Dream Lives On

By LISC/Chicago on Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The 2016 Olympics represented an opportunity for Chicago to place itself squarely on the world stage, and perhaps tilt the economic dynamics of the city towards many of the neighborhoods in which LISC and our partners live and work.

The Olympics gave the city a sense of direction and purpose. That is the vacuum we now face as many are left asking, Where do we go from here? We at LISC are committed to playing a role in answering this question. Fortunately, even as LISC and our neighborhood partners crafted an Olympic agenda last summer, we were mindful that our goals could and should be carried out, with or without the Games. Now we know we will have to accomplish them without.

It is particularly important that we maintain the youth sports programming that really blossomed under the Olympic umbrella. That programming is more necessary, and more relevant, than ever.

The Olympic bid represented an ambition, and it is with the same ambition that we must move on, for the city, for our neighborhoods, and for ourselves. We must work on Chicago’s future together, with great fervor and renewed dedication. The Olympic motto is Faster. Higher. Stronger. With the help of LISC and its partners, the youth of Chicago’s neighborhoods can still be all three.