Chicago Black Mother’s Project on Violence, Depression, Resilience, and Sociogenomics

Abstract

This paper explores the South Chicago Black Mothers’ Resiliency
Project that examines issues of violence, resilience, depression,
and sociogenomics within the Chicago Englewood neighborhood.
This study reviews the stories of 93 low-income single
women from the Black Mother’s Chicago project and their reasons
for parenting decisions. This study looks at how the single
mothers view themselves as women and as parents while living
in neighborhoods with high levels of violence crime. The findings
fall into three main categories: commitment to well-being, resiliency
and sacrifices. We see that there is a serious commitment
of the mothers to ensure that their children have the safest and
enriched experience growing up in their own neighborhoods. The
mothers exhibit their resiliency through an adaptation of their environment
by tapping into their resources and hunkering down
within their homes and neighborhoods. Lastly, these mothers are
also consistently sacrificing their daily lives in order to ensure
their children are healthy, and successfully functioning.