CHICAGO — A beloved community center on Chicago’s South Side, known for being a bastion of safety in a neighborhood often plagued by crime, has recently fallen victim to a break-in and burglary, as reported by organizers to ABC7.
For many years, this center has stood as a sanctuary for local families, offering a refuge from the surrounding turmoil. However, this recent incident has turned the tables, making the center itself a target of the very crime it seeks to protect against.
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The physical damage is evident, with shattered glass and broken doors marking the scene. Yet, these tangible damages are overshadowed by the emotional impact left on the community.
“I feel violated, you know,” expressed Tamar Manasseh, the founder of Mothers And Men Against Senseless Killings (MASK). “When someone intrudes into the place where you feel safe, and where you offer safety to kids, it’s deeply unsettling. They take things, break things, and it just feels wrong.”
Manasseh established MASK to combat violence and provide essential resources like food, job training, and education to children and families in the Englewood area. Over the years, ABC7 has chronicled the organization’s efforts at 75th and Stewart, highlighting the positive impact they’ve had on the community.
“Everyone in this neighborhood knows that if they need help, all they need to do is ask,” Manasseh noted. “There’s no need to steal. We are more than willing to offer assistance, no charge involved.”
Manasseh says Monday morning the group discovered its community resource center, which is housed in three trailers on a formerly vacant lot, had been broken into. Missing were diapers, toilet paper, electronics and multiple freezers full of food that feeds children after school.
“We are dinner for a lot of these kids,” MASK volunteer Jermaine Kelly said. “Standing out here and me telling these kids we couldn’t feed them today because of everything that was going on, one of the kids literally asked his sister, ‘What are we supposed to do now?’”
Manasseh says in the wake of recent rule changes governing SNAP benefits, demand at the center is at an all-time high.
“We won’t quit on these kids,” Manasseh said. “We won’t be the people that make those kids lose faith in adults and in neighbors and in people who say that they care.”
Manasseh says she has not filed a police report, though the damage and loss total in the thousands. She says the center is restocked and is reopening to families Thursday.
Information about donations for Mothers And Men Against Senseless Killings can be found on their website.
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