Neighborhood Leader Grows Successful Block Watch in Face of Violence, Crime - The Vindicator

Victoria Allen was multitasking.

Allen, founder and president of the ICU Block Watch on the city’s South Side, was helping a pair of volunteers lay out taco toppings on a plastic table while simultaneously signing delivery invoices and directing a large truck hauling a room filled with video games to a nearby parking space.

Rain clouds had opened up above the parking lot of Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church on Southern Boulevard, forcing Allen to huddle under a canopy with a pair of volunteers from the block watch. Despite the weather, they were determined to ensure the 10th “Southside Summer Experience” of the season — featuring free food, music and games for neighborhood children — would be ready to go for any families willing to brave the rain.

This wasn’t Allen’s first or fifth or 10th community organizing event; she founded the ICU Block Watch in 2010, hoping that open communication and monthly meetings might be a catalyst for an improvement in her neighborhood. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.