COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION CONTINUES LEGACY TO SERVE RESIDENTS
Imani Community Development Corporation hosts food distribution where people can get free fresh produce and other goods. Photo provided by Imani Community Development Corporation.
Imani Community Development Corporation, located at 2314 E. 83rd St., has been serving the Southeast side of Chicago since it was founded in 2001.
The Reverend Jeffrey Hodges, pastor of King of Glory Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, is also the founder and president of Imani Community Development Corporation.
Rev. Hodges, has been the pastor of King of Glory Church for 22 years, but has been at the church for 45 years. He lives in the community, which he said is important when serving a community. “I ride my bike, I walk through the community, so I have a feel for the community. I have a great love for the Southeast side of Chicago,” he said.
Rev. Hodges said the church’s motto is ‘the church that fills the need’. He added that while Imani focuses on the natural needs of the community, the church focuses on the community’s spiritual needs. “That’s the reason why we really started Imani Community Development, to help the church not have walls, and for our church to truly be a community church,” he said.
Dawn Hodges is the executive director of Imani Community Development Corporation. She said the organization handles the food distribution, mentoring program and out of school program. She added, the mission of the organization is to provide resources to the Southeast Chicago community, from a holistic approach that impacts the entire family. “We started it because we saw a great need in our community. A lot of services, there were gaps. And, we felt we could fill those needs as much as we could,” she said.
Food distribution is one of Imani’s signature programs. The organization is part of the produce mobile with the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Once a month, it hosts a produce giveaway. Dawn Hodges said families leave with five to six grocery bags of free fresh produce.
Rev. Hodges said the organization also feeds the homeless, as well as donates food to shelters. He said the church has been doing food distribution for a long time, almost 30 years. There is a different atmosphere of need in the community and the organization is trying to meet that need, he added.
The mentoring program is geared towards boys and young men. Before the pandemic, the group would meet twice a week, Mondays for basketball and on Wednesdays for group mentoring sessions. It is currently being held virtually. Hodges said they were trying to make it work because they didn’t want to lose the boys.
Imani also facilitates workshops on how to interact with the police. Participants are trained on the proper way to deal with the police as well as what rights they have. Rev. Hodges said a moment that touched his heart was when he went into a school and the young men knew the presenter from the church because they had participated in the mentoring program. He said seeing this really made him feel good, knowing that they are touching the lives of the young men and building relationships with them. The program helps keep the young men healthy, encourages them and keeps them focused on going to college, he continued.
Imani is also working with Cabrini Green Legal Aid to do record expungements. Dawn Hodges said there are 28 slots devoted to that. People can go to the Imani Community Development Corporation website at www.imanicommunity.org, and fill out the form.
Another program is the out of school time program for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The program takes place after school and during the summer. Students in the program are offered tutoring as well as anti-bullying and self-esteem workshops. Dawn Hodges said because of COVID-19, the summer session was done virtually. She said it was a good time.
Rev. Hodges said Imani was able to secure a grant for a psychologist. He said this initiative helped keep students from getting sent home due to behavioral issues. “We really have a sincere concern about our young people and that’s what we endeavor to do,” he said. “We try to give an outlet for young people to occupy their time.”
Dawn Hodges said the holistic approach includes having an impact on the entire family. She said she found that children’s behavior was always a direct reflection of what is going on at home. “If I can hit the whole family with the holistic approach, then you are invoking change,” she said. “When we impact the whole family, it’s [a] more sustainable change and the difference is made to the whole community and it trickles down.”
For more information about the Imani Community Development Corporation, visit www.imanicommunity.org.
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