Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures offers cultural tours to get kids ‘out of their heads and into the world’
A week before a hip replacement surgery, on a February weekend, Crystal Dyer is walking up the steps of a trolley for an hourslong tour of Chicago that begins on the West Side. She sits among dozens of youths and their relatives, ready to showcase the beauty and wonder the city has to offer, starting with the Austin, Garfield Park and Lawndale areas. The youths are a mix of ages: some Girl Scouts in high school, while others are in elementary school.
Before boarding the trolley, the young people partake in craftwork — creating a scarf of their own design, reminiscent of traditional Kente cloth. Art supplies and cloth are provided on a number of tables in a room in Gone Again Travel & Tours, Dyer’s travel agency in the Austin neighborhood. Volunteers, many of whom are retirees, assist the kids as they come ready for the tour.
The activity and tour is part of Dyer’s goal to give youths opportunities — to offer them engaging events through her agency and her nonprofit, Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures, or CAYTA. Given her ability to customize excursions as a travel agent, she designs tours in the same vein for young people, be it a college tour, a trade school tour, or the popular Chi-town Soul Trolley Black Restaurant & History Tour that she started last summer.
“The whole birth of CAYTA is about getting the kids out of their heads and into the world, so they can learn and grow,” Dyer said. “In that, we found kids that had never seen the Chicago River. We take certain things for granted. But if the parent is working all the time, when does the parent get to take the youth to the theater, to explore these different things? This is the life that I was able to share with my own kids, grandkids, so I said let’s bring this to the community, so these kids can have options because that’s all it’s about, options.”
CAYTA opened in 2016 as a result of Dyer’s 18-year-old grandson, Devin, being killed in the Austin neighborhood in 2011.
“That weighed on me,” Dyer said. “When my grandson got murdered, four or five blocks from here, I thought to myself, I’ve got to help these kids. I was working my travel business full time. And then I got that spark: What did you do that helped your children? It was through travel … taking them on excursions on buses and they learned different things that I incorporated into their everyday life, just going all around the city doing things. As they progressed, we started going to other places around the country. And when my grandchildren were born, I would take them all over to different things — that’s how Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures was born. I could take that same outreach, the same love and I could give it to the entire community … get them off the block.”
Dyer gives to the community with the help from volunteers, who Dyer refers to as her “pied pipers.” They spread the word about CAYTA, give their time to CAYTA events and raise funds for the program to make sure the activities remain free for those youths and their families to enjoy. (Dyer charges adults a fee for the trolley tours, but youths ride for free. With many single moms and low-income people in the area, Dyer doesn’t want to put another burden on them.)
Dyer wants to take young people to Ghana in August, an effort that also requires fundraising and donations. Sonya Watts-Davis, CAYTA’s executive director, is doing all she can to spread the word about the program’s work and the need for funds. She wants to have a South Side and a North Side CAYTA.
“We need funds so we can spread this all around the city and the surrounding suburbs,” she said. “The more people hear about what we’re doing, then other people can partner with us to do things.”
Dyer wants to send 180 youths, ages 14 to 23, to Ghana by 2024. She estimates it will cost $5,000 per person for a 14-day visit. (Trips can also be won in a contest that runs through September 2022.)
“The big goal is to take every child to Ghana but we take little steps along the way with so many other activities like trolley rides or going to museums to spend a day studying African art and African history,” said volunteer Rosmarie Rodriguez.
Jeanette “Tivonaw” Johnson, a CAYTA volunteer, went to Ghana with her granddaughter in 2019. Johnson said the experience led her granddaughter to consider architecture as a possible career path. Johnson said she cried when she heard the high schooler was taking architecture classes.
“That was never a conversation prior to going,” Johnson said. “When you go to the motherland, that spirit, that energy just shifts for you. It was her exposure there — she saw what could be; she saw there was a need.”
Johnson said volunteering on the West Side has given her a whole other view of what a community is.
“When we started the food trolleys, focusing on and highlighting our Black restaurants in our communities, I was floored because it wasn’t the traditional restaurants,” Johnson said. “We were talking about restaurants of young people who have graduated, got their degrees and they chose to come back to Austin to establish their restaurants. The stories behind them started when they were little kids. It was a food desert. They didn’t have this or that. They’re coming back to Austin to actually make those things happen. You think there’s no hope, but that’s not true.”
“There is so much going on, (parents) are scared to send the kids out to those places that they don’t know,” Watts-Davis said. “And that’s why we invite the parents too because it’s a holistic approach. We have to be involved as a whole … to build and be able to address these issues. The parent needs some help. We’re here with something that can help the family, that’s what this is about. We want to help the family be able to know that ‘wow, I finally got some support.’ If we don’t do something now to make a difference, then we’re going to lose.”
On that given Saturday, the trolley riders started their trip with a stop at Chubby’s Char House, where everyone received a free hot dog, fries and drink from the owner, Prentiss Harris, who said he opened his business in Austin because he wanted to be an example to young people of color that they can do what they dream, and help the community in the process.
The trolley traveled to Lake Michigan with a guide offering tidbits of Chicago history along the way. Girl Scout cookies were sold en route and enjoyed by the group. Tour attendees learned the answers to such questions as: What iconic Austin shoe shine shop has been serving its customers for half a century and has been written up in The New York Times? (The Shoe Shine King.) And what hospital in Austin has its first Black CEO and what is his name? (Loretto Hospital and George N. Miller Jr.)
Post office worker Yolanda Jennings sat alongside her daughter Taniyah Lee, 7, that weekend. She said the pair would probably be coloring and playing with dolls if she had not opted to join the trolley tour. Often working 16-hour days, Jennings said it’s hard to get out into the community for events with her child that aren’t related to the Park District. She was free that Saturday due to a leg injury.
Alonda Bardney, 17, from West Humboldt Park was on the trolley; her interest was piqued by the idea of learning more about Black-owned businesses and foods along the tour. Soon to be graduating from Steinmetz College Prep, she’s looking forward to a family graduation trip to Jamaica before she focuses on a career in veterinary medicine.
Dyer calls CAYTA an anti-violence program in the area, one that also brings other cultures to the neighborhood. When she started the trolley tours, she said many white people from out of state reached out to her to book a seat.
“This is what they told me: They always wanted to come into the inner city, but they didn’t know how and when they saw my tour, that made them feel safe — they could come in, learn about the history of the community, and eat the foods in the community,” Dyer said.
Dyer said booking for summer tours will begin in May. All are welcome, she said.
Another CAYTA purpose is to bring support to the community, show the pride therein.
“I want them to learn we come from different places, but we don’t have to be mad at each other,” Dyer said. “This isn’t about a trip to Africa, this is about being a better person at home, so you can make better choices. If somebody stepped on your foot, you aren’t pulling out a gun and trying to shoot them. That’s what the CAYTA program is all about. It’s about creating better citizens, helping them with whatever they need, their mental health. I’m giving to help kids make better decisions. Let them see the options so they can make a better decision than to make that split-second decision where they take someone’s life or their own gets taken.”
More information on CAYTA can be found at caytaworld.org .