Chicago area schools rely on tens of thousands of employees to support and protect students around campus. And much like teachers, they’re often underappreciated.

In our Inside Schools series, we talk to some of those unsung heroes: People who make schools run.

WBEZ’s Nereida Moreno stopped by the Austin neighborhood on the West Side to meet with Xavier Williams, a supervisor for the Safe Passage program at Chicago Public Schools. Its workers look out for kids as they travel to and from class. They wear neon-colored vests, manning corners and standing guard in “troubled areas” to keep the area safe.

Williams joined the program in 2010. He oversees about 30 employees across eight schools near the city’s Austin neighborhood, where he was born and raised. And he works to give back to his community. In the winter, Williams teams up with his coworkers to buy coats, gloves and other supplies for students in need.

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“That’s the thing about this job – it’s another form of giving back to the community,” Williams said. “That’s what I love about it.”

What keeps you doing this work?

I have grandkids, I’m a grandfather, and I will want someone out there to make sure that they are OK if I can’t be there, if their parents can’t be there. [I want to] make sure that they’re safe, make sure that as they’re traveling from school, going home or from home going to school, they are OK. They are my motivation because what I do for others, I pray that someone would do for mine. That’s the thing that pushes me every day to get up to come here and to make sure that the children are OK and make sure that the area we’re in is OK and make sure that you know everybody’s OK as much as we possibly can.

What is the safe passage program and how does it work?

Safe Passage is a program that gives us a sense of security to all. We have people posted on different corners. We look at the trouble areas. And we assign workers there to make sure that you know that children are traveling that way, have someone there that can look out for them, and make sure that they’re safe. This corner right here used to be really hot. What I mean by hot, you know, [is that] there were a lot of people standing over here doing things that they shouldn’t have been doing. And I’m glad that we’re here so that we can make sure as long as we’re here, that they’re OK.

What are your job responsibilities?

My job responsibility is to go around to all of my schools, make sure they got the materials that they need, make sure everyone has a vest if they need a vest, to see if there are any problems. I have 30 people that I supervise, so we have Crane [Medical Prep High School], we have Phoenix [STEM Military Academy], we have Austin High School. I try to hit all those high schools first just to make sure that our students actually go inside to school, so that they’re secure and they’re safe.

What are some of the most challenging parts of doing this job?

Getting the kids to go home. Because they like to run, they like to play with one another and all of this and just trying to get them to calm down and just go ahead and go straight home. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t, so we had to be patient with them because we don’t want them out here too long because that’s when things start to happen. We just want to make sure before anything pops off, that they’re clear that they’re going home, that they’re safe and that they are OK.

Nereida Moreno covers education for WBEZ. Follow @nereidamorenos and @WBEZeduation.