Fighting For Safe Outdoor Play in Little Village

Nine year-old Rosalia Gonzalez and her teammates love playing flag football through Beyond the Ball Girls, a Little Village organization that teaches children life skills through sports. Safe outdoor recreation is especially important to the families in Little Village, a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Chicago impacted by higher rates of gun violence and gang activity compared to much of the city. Little Village also faces high rates of environmental pollution as a result of a coal plant and Target distribution center in the area. In this episode, reporter Gina Castro investigates the intertwined issues facing the neighborhood, and meets the Little Village residents, activists, and community leaders working to make their neighborhood a safer place for children to play outdoors.

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100 Latina Birthdays is made possible by grants from the Healthy Communities Foundation, Woods Fund Chicago, the Field Foundation of Illinois, JB and MK Pritzker Family Foundation, and the Chicago Foundation for Women. Mujeres Latinas en Acción is the series' fiscal sponsor.