Page 50 - June 2017 Newsletter

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Community affairs of cer named CNN Hero
n BY DAN CAMPANA
Jennifer Maddox got the call while eating dinner with her family one night.
Her son asked who it was, to which she replied, “That was CNN.”
What the 21-year Chicago police veteran would soon learn is that one of her sons, a Cook County sheriff’s offi- cer, had nominated his mother for recognition as a CNN Hero for her work with children in Parkway Gardens.
“He sent in this letter in reference to the work I’m do- ing and how hard I’m working. He just wanted to know if [CNN] could acknowledge his mother. That made me feel good, because you never think your children look at you that way,” Maddox explained, adding how the cable net- work quietly vetted her to confirm her story. “Honestly, I didn’t know about it. I don’t even think he thought it was going to this magnitude.”
Since 2007, Maddox has led the effort, now known as Future Ties, to give the approximately 1,200 children liv- ing in Parkway Gardens a place to learn, have fun and gain new experiences. The idea sparked after working the beat and seeing not much available for youngsters.
“I’m walking through ... and we’ve got all these kids out here and there was no playground, no areas to play ball, nothing,” she recalled.
To get closer to the situation, she took a job working se- curity in the area, which gave her an opportunity to meet the kids. She approached management about developing a program to benefit the children but received a mostly indifferent response.
Maddox soon took over an empty basement and filled it with tables, chairs, board games and jump ropes that she paid for with her own money.
“Originally, it started as a drop-in center, just giving them something to do. It was slow at first because they still knew I was the police and security,” Maddox explained.
Soon, parents were coming forward to ask about tutor- ing and summer programs. Maddox researched how to start a registered charitable organization, and the evolu- tion of Future Ties has blossomed since then.
“The name is because I’m working with the future and it takes all the different ties in the community to piece it together. This is something I can’t do alone,” she said. “I was doing this on my own for years, paying for it by myself out of my own pocket. I had to work another job. I was just hustling to get this up and going.”
The big break came when another property manage-
ment company, one that saw the program as an asset, asked Maddox how they could support Future Ties. She said “funding.” That eventually led to Maddox being able to hire a staff, which she selects from among the parents within Parkway.
These days, Future Ties runs 11 months of the year, with an after-school program for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. This summer, it is offering a mentor- ship summer camp to help older teens prepare for join- ing the workforce. Future Ties also has what Maddox calls “family enrichment trips” on weekends for kids and their parents.
With so many kids in a three-block area surrounded by gang territory, Maddox understands the value of creating such an opportunity for children.
“If you don’t have anything for them to do, what do you expect is going to happen?” she said, referring to ever-present concerns over violence.
The interview on CNN has drawn interest from around the country, including a pen pal relationship between her after-school kids and a school in Washington. Maddox expressed appreciation at the honor, but she knows the work isn’t done.
“It needs to be a family-type situation,” she said of Fu- ture Ties bonding with the community in the effort to look out for the children. “The only way it’s going to be sustainable is if they all take care of each other.” d
50 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2017