Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny) initially started as a campaign to raise $450,000 to purchase land located at 6625 South King Drive in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago for a Community and Economic Development center on Chicago’s Southside. The campaign for the initial seed amount was raised and Phase I was completed on February 24, 2012. The closing for the property purchase was completed on March 6, 2012.

The street King Drive was named after African American leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to pay homage to his dedication to ensuring that the rights of African Americans in America were given to his generation and beyond.  Ironically, that same street is home to drugs, violence and prostitution as well as many families who suffer from economic hardship. The 66th and King Drive location was once home to a Super Motel where prostitutes, drug dealers and criminals prompted the neighboring New Beginnings Church to take action.

View/Download Project_Hood Vision/Mission Statement

New Beginnings Church played a major role in the motel getting closed through its SHUT EM DOWN campaign. Today the fight continues as Pastor Brooks and the church works hard to build a Community Development Center where the motel encouraging crime once stood.  New Beginnings Church’s Project H.O.O.D campaign is essentially aimed to replace the motel with an oasis for the residents of the West Woodlawn community.

The community center is to feature:

• Commercial Spaces for Businesses (small and large) to spark Job Creation
• Areas for Social Services including expansion of New Beginnings Church’s “Master’s Academy.”
• State-of-the-art Technology Center
• Media & Performing Arts Theater
• Sports & Recreations

One of the features that caught the interest of an anonymous donor is Green Technology and a planned rooftop garden. This generous donor,  who  matched new donations given to the organization’s donations totaling $50,000  in a 48 hour period in order to increase the impact of each donation in the name of Sylvia F. Sobolik (1922 – 2011), an avid gardener. Its a multi-level solution to a many layered problem. . . violence. “No competitive sports programs, no social things, no conflict resolution, no jobs,” Brooks was quoted as saying in The New York Times, “All of that breeds hopelessness, which in turn causes what we’re seeing — murder.”  Rev. Brooks proclaims.

More young people are killed in Chicago than any other American city. Since 2008, more than 530 youth have been killed in Chicago with nearly 80 percent of the homicides occurring in 22 African-American or Latino community areas on the city’s South, Southwest and West sides.

After 10 funerals in one year, I couldn’t take it anymore… After gang members, in broad daylight, began to shoot at the attendees of the funeral of 15-year-old gun victim Carlton Archer, right in front of the church as they were entering the building, I knew something had to be done!  In order to bring awareness to the gun violence issue in our community, I chose to live in a tent on the rooftop of an abandoned motel right across the street from my church.   It’s wintertime in Chicago, I’m fasting on water only for 21 days, needing to raise $450K to purchase and demolish the motel so we could build a $15M community and economic development center to give these kids something to do, the story has gone national… 90 plus days later I was still on the roof until a $100K donation from Tyler Perry helped us reach our goal and complete phase 1 after a total of 94 days.   With phase 2 in full effect, Project HOOD seeks to foster collaboration between the private sector, public sector and faith-based organizations in order to combat the 4 primary ills of urban America: Social dysfunctions, Educational deprivation, Economic deficiencies and Spiritual dehydration. Project HOOD is committed to bringing awareness to the violence issue in Chicago and across America!  Additionally, Project HOOD hopes to become the model for other communities to learn from and leverage our efforts. Ultimately, we hope to offset the violence and give parents the much needed support necessary to make our communities a safe place to raise their families and not a killing field to bury their children. Spending 94 days atop a motel roof in the dead of a Chicago winter was only Phase 1… Phase 2 requires another level of sacrifice and I’m hitting the pavement to make it happen – “LITERALLY,” by walking across America to raise additional awareness about the gun violence epidemic all over America and to raise the $15 million to fund the Project HOOD Community and Economic Development Center in Woodlawn.  The walk starts June 5, 2012, from Times Square in NY, New York and ending at the Staples Center in LA, California.   I believe there are still caring people in this world and if enough of them know about the violence issues, the teenagers that are being killed and the lack of resources available to help, they will give to make a difference! Corey Brooks