The Silver Fox Cafe and Office Revitalization: KOCO’s offices are expanding to create new community gathering spots as well as enhance economic development.The Silver Fox Café will be a destination for seniors to enjoy good food and meet new friends. It also will be another source for neighborhood jobs. The new upper floors will include business incubation spaces and other rooms where residents can gather to envision and implement plans for an even stronger Bronzeville.

KOCO’s Involved Seniors for Justice grew out of complaints older residents had about the conditions of their senior-living buildings.

Involved Seniors for Justice, or ISJ, continues that fight, while also working with seniors across the city to create a has worked with seniors to create a Seniors’ Bill of Rights to take before the Chicago City Council. ISJ also helps seniors get discounts on medications, reductions on their energy bills and more.

ISJ began when seniors came to KOCO with complaints about living conditions senior citizens are forced to endure at Judge Slater Apartments and Judge Slater Annex, CHA senior housing developments managed by the Woodlawn Community Development Corporation (WCDC).

We worked with them to get a front-page article by columnist Mary Mitchell in the Chicago Sun-Times. The article unmasked a pattern of poor management tolerated by the CHA and perpetrated by WCDC. Subsequently, several meetings have been had to improve the conditions in the building, including a contentious interaction with the CEO for CHA.

During the global coronavirus pandemic of 2020-22, our seniors felt abandoned. With little to no access to fresh foods and medications, they sat in their senior-living apartments and wondered what would happen to them.

KOCO responded by organizing KOCO Serves. Every week we bought healthy, fresh foods, bagged them up and delivered them to 7,000 seniors living in Bronzeville. By 2022, we had more than doubled the number of seniors served to 15,000.

We stepped in when city, state and federal agencies were unwilling or unable to provide the resources to give seniors the support they needed during a worldwide crisis.

Our thanks came from the seniors themselves, who were genuinely touched that someone remembered them and looked out for them. Our seniors are a valuable source of wisdom, guidance and companionship. We are proud to serve them.

Involved Seniors for Justice, a KOCO initiative, brings together seniors to advocate for one another in communities throughout Chicago. They campaign for decent living conditions, equitable treatment and respect from managers and administrators in senior living facilities.

Currently, Involved Seniors for Justice is compiling reports from residents in private and publicly owned senior buildings in order to create a Senior Bill of Rights. Once completed, the Senior Bill of Rights likely will be introduced to the Chicago City Council to get protections for seniors written into Chicago law.

Seniors so far have complained that some of their apartments in buildings have rats, roaches and bed bugs, that managers have been dismissive of their complaints and have treated seniors rudely. Some have even said they have been wrongly threatened with eviction.

Involved Seniors for Justice is gathering their grievances and creating a document that will be the basis for the Senior Bill of Rights.