Rochelle Whyte-Washington lost last year’s Fifth Ward election to incumbent Ald. Joe Kent (5th), but she is still implementing her agenda of helping young people in west Evanston.

“I thought being an alderman would be the easiest way to do this,” said Washington, 67, who served on City Council from 1987 to 1991. “But it really wouldn’t have been, because I wouldn’t have had this much time to fulfill my dream of helping kids in my community.”

Whyte-Washington started the Evanston Westside Community Organization last year because she was frustrated with existing social service programs, especially services run by people outside the community. Now there are six people working toward diplomas in the General Educational Development class her group started in January.

She wants to offer more than GED classes, which she started because Evanston Township High School offered to pay for the teacher under an existing program. Her next step will be starting classes in parenting, she said. She also wants to offer vocational training and classes about how to write resumes and dress for job interviews.

But she can’t do any of these things until she receives funding. Whyte-Washington has applied for grants to start the other classes.

“It’s depressing because it’s all coming so slow,” Whyte-Washington said. “Everybody tells me to calm down, to do one step at a time. But I am a doer.”

Whyte-Washington worked as a nurse’s aide after graduating from ETHS, then attended beauty school and worked as a manicurist for more than 20 years. She then became a certified travel agent and eventually ran her own travel agency from 1991 to 1993.

“I just picked up social service work by being a volunteer – that has been like school,” she said. She serves on the Chicago-based Community Economic Development Association’s board and is a registered state and national lobbyist for youth issues.

She has raised four children – two of her own and two adopted – and is currently raising two more. In 1993, she brought her granddaughter, Rochelle, home from the hospital after she was born to Whyte-Washington’s daughter, who has been treated for drug addiction. The next year she adopted her baby great-nephew, Christopher, because his parents were unstable caretakers. Rochelle and Christopher see their natural mothers occasionally, but live with Whyte-Washington and her husband of 31 years, Sidney Washington.

The students who attend Whyte-Washington’s GED classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons sit around a table inside the building at 1607 Simpson St., which the First Church of God Christian Life Center allows her to use for free. Students said they chose this program because of its small size.

“This is better than high school because the teacher takes the time to help you,” said Kelly Fitzpatrick, 17, who dropped out of ETHS last fall as a sophomore. “At high school people just expected me to make them laugh when I came to class. That was my only job there.”

A middle-aged Evanston painter named Barry has been trying to earn his GED for two decades. He is determined to pass with the Community Organization’s help. He did not want to disclose his last name.

“I like the privacy of this program,” Barry said. “I also like that this is not a classroom setting. But really, that shouldn’t matter. You can be writing on a garbage can lid. It’s not the desk, it’s the drive.”

Most other GED classes in Evanston have about 25 students in them, said Phil Radtke, GED coordinator for ETHS.

ETHS teacher Verna Thurton teaches the program, where students work at their own pace. Students wandered in and out of Whyte-Washington’s office during the class as she offered them encouragement.

“I don’t really want to go to school,” Fitzgerald told her during a break last Thursday.

“But you have to,” Whyte-Washington answered firmly.

“I know, I know,” Fitzgerald said and returned to class.

Whyte-Washington said she hopes more students start attending. She said she talked to teenagers hanging out on Evanston street corners and encouraged them to come to class.

“They were very respectful,” she said. “But none of them have come in yet.”

Whyte-Washington said she will work with other Evanston service groups because collaboration will reach more people.

“I don’t feel like one organization or one group of people can’t make a change,” she explained. “But if we could do things together, it will help.”