Members of the House Ways and Means Committee visited Project H.O.O.D., a nonprofit focused on providing mentorship, training and community for residents in Chicago’s South Side.
“The fact that they’re coming to see our work and learn about what we’re doing speaks volumes,” Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny) founder and CEO, Pastor Corey Brooks, told Fox News. “It says that we’re on the right path. It means that we’re being recognized for the work that we do, and I think that is a major accomplishment and a major step forward to even finding more recognition.”
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Brooks said the committee had reached out to his organization to set up a meeting and tour their facilities while its House members are in Chicago for a series of hearings this week.
“They reached out to us. They heard about the work that we’re doing,” Brooks said. “They wanted to make sure that they got a tour of our location cause they’re really interested in how we’re getting people from welfare to work.”
Since its founding in 2012, Project H.O.O.D. has continued to expand and transform the lives of individuals living in one of Chicago’s most underserved neighborhoods. In October, the organization broke ground on a $35 million Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center they plan to have completed by 2025.
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The new community center will offer financial literacy programs, workforce development programs, help and wellness programs, violence prevention programs and construction programs for people in the South Side.
“I think that’s a linchpin in what we’re trying to accomplish to transform this neighborhood,” Brooks told Fox News.
Committee members traveled to the South Side on Monday evening to tour the facilities and meet with Brooks. The pastor said he was eager to showcase the 90,000 square foot project to the committee and hopes the visit will expose lawmakers to a blueprint for successful community revitalization programs, so it can be scaled to other major cities across the country.
“Washington needs to know that there’s an organization that’s doing great work in transforming the lives of people in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country,” Brooks said. “And that this model can be used to transform lives across the country, especially in urban centers where they’re having some of these same issues.”
“I really think we can become a model for what works,” he added. “And if they could just come alongside and assist organizations like ours, it would be a great help to the country.”
