Success Stories

Village Theatre
In 2001, the Village Theatre's original structure burnt to the ground in an electrical fire. With the help of ESLARP, Christina and Eddie Fisher have been able to build a brand new facility to house their successful youth programming, cultural productions and entertainment. The Village Theatre in its new building has created a stronger more vibrant influence in the community.

Precinct 12 Cleanup
For the past four years, Precinct 12 has conducted seasonal clean-ups around the neighborhood. These clean-ups involve residents and students from the University of Illinois aggressively cleaning up vacant lots in the neighborhood. The organization has paid for 30-yard dumpsters to facilitate removal of trash from the area at no charge to the residents. Precinct 12 has also taken care of tire removal in the neighborhood, eliminating over 700 tires from the area in one clean-up. Annual initiatives include distribution of food baskets during the holiday season, Easter egg hunts for children, and candy for Trick-or-Treating on Halloween. The organization has also been determined to get neighborhood streets repaired and deteriorating housing stock removed.

Farmer's Market
Because there are so few retail enterprises in East St. Louis, residents must travel to the more affluent suburbs for many of their shopping needs. If more residents could buy their groceries in East St. Louis, it would feed the local economy. Members of the Winstanley/Industry Park Neighborhood Organization decided that a local, open-air farmers market would promote small business.    Technical assistance for the market site improvements was provided by ESLARP.
This was an opportunity for true collaboration among students in the departments. They conducted separate studios with distinct objectives, but came together on a regular basis to resolve their differences and arrive at a common solution.