West Garfield Park group focusing on uplifting young ‘at-risk’ men receives $300,000 grant
Quentin Harris admits he was headed down the wrong path.
He was selling drugs and unsure of his future. But then he was introduced to the MAAFA Redemption Project.
The West Garfield Park faith-based organization, which targets young “at-risk men,” helped him grow and through its programming, he was able to earn his high school diploma.
“I am happy to be a part of the solution and not the problem,” said Harris, who now works for the MAAFA Redemption Project, which was named the recipient of a three-year $300,000 grant by the We Raise Foundation and the MIGMIR Fund Monday.
“We got these young men here, great young men, they are doing the best they can right now and we are helping each other. Iron sharpening iron.”
MAAFA, a Kiswahili word that means “great disaster or terrible occurrence,” is commonly used to refer to transatlantic slave trade, and its long-term effects on those of African descent, according to the group’s website.
Men who are recruited to the organization live at New Mount Pilgrim Church, at 4301 W. Washington Blvd., for nine months. During this period, they take courses on financial literacy and identity-purpose development and work as construction and trade apprentices by rehabbing abandoned buildings on the West Side.
The grant money from We Raise Foundation and the MIGMIR Fund — groups that support Christian organizations working to eliminate poverty, violence and inequities — will go toward outreach and programing at the MAAFA Redemption Project, officials said.
We Raise Foundation President Paul Miles said his organization was impressed by MAAFA Redemption Project’s “solutions to really restore the greatness of West Garfield Park.”
“We believe that the ideas and the leaders to solve the problems in any community exist in that community itself, and so we are here to invest in these leaders,” Miles said. Robert Ervin, MAAFA Redemption Project’s program manager and life coach, was grateful for the grant money “because we need help, we can’t do it by ourselves.”
The former gang member said the MAAFA Redemption Project has given him a chance to give back.
“Now ... I get a chance to help someone get out of that lifestyle that I was once in,” Ervin said. Manny Ramos is a corps member in Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of issues affecting Chicago’s South and West sides.
Illinois is doing very well in testing for the coronavirus — just not well enough to allow high school football players back on the field, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday.
Pritzker announced the state had hit three new testing milestones and touted Illinois as a national leader in this area, trailing only California and New York, but said financial and safety barriers still prevent certain high school sports from resuming.
“I want fall sports. I want fall football, in high school, to play. I do,” Pritzker said. “But what I want most of all is to keep these kids and their parents and their grandparents and their neighbors safe.”
While some high school sports are being played, Pritzker said those “that are high-contact and likely to result in the exchange of sweat and saliva,” such as football, are not viable for the foreseeable future. He applauded college and professional football teams for their coronavirus measures but said high schools can’t afford the intensive testing measures needed to keep athletes safe.
Also Monday, the state health department reported seven additional coronavirus deaths, as well as 1,477 new confirmed coronavirus cases. In all, since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has had of 275,735 cases, including 8,457 deaths, in 102 counties. The statewide positivity rate is at 3.5%.
Pritzker focused on three highlights Monday:
† Illinois has increased its daily capacity for administering tests to 52,000.
† Illinois labs reported they had processed 74,000 tests in one day, a single-day high.
† This past weekend, Illinois became one of the first five states to administer 5 million tests, joining California, Florida, New York and Texas.