Muhammad addresses League of Women Voters at Zoom lunch

SOUTH BEND — The League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area presents Gladys Muhammad as the speaker for “Lunch With the League on Zoom” at noon Jan. 12.

Muhammad served as the associate director of the South Bend Heritage Foundation for more than 35 years and continues to run the Charles Martin Youth Community Center. She will discuss the South Bend Heritage’s activities and how the community benefits from its work.

Born in Mississippi, she moved to South Bend with her family at the age of 3 and has spent a lifetime serving the city.

In 1978, she helped establish and became the first director of the YWCA’s Shelter for Battered Women. After six years, Muhammad became the deputy director of South Bend’s Department of Code Enforcement and, in 1987, she joined the staff of South Bend Heritage as a community organizer.

At South Bend Heritage, she played a major role in the development of affordable housing in a once-notorious, druginfested west side neighborhood.

She was also instrumental in the vision, planning and establishment of the Charles Martin Youth Center, the Salvation Army Kroc Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation of St. Joseph County and the Civil Rights Heritage Center (formerly the Engman Public Natatorium).

Muhammad was in the first class of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Community Change’s “Change Agent Project” and participated in President Clinton’s roundtable on neighborhoods held in Little Rock, Arks.

For more information or to join the Zoom meeting, visit lwvsouthbend.org or facebook.com/LWVSouthBend.