Latiker, a mother of eight and grandmother to 13, has lived in Roseland — one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods — for 24 years. Back in 2003, after repeatedly witnessing gang-related violence that was threatening the well-being of her own children, Diane decided to respond to the danger in a most unconventional — and to this day most effective — manner: instead of locking her doors and pulling the blinds; instead of hiding from the aggression that was all around her, Diane Latiker chose to do exactly the opposite. She chose to reach out … She invited the neighborhood’s youth into her living room. She made them meals. She helped them with homework. She asked them about their fears and their dreams. She became a 24-hour a day safe haven from Roseland’s drugs and gang violence — even for gang members themselves. “It doesn’t matter where they come from, what they’ve done,” Latiker said. “We’ve had six gangs in my living room at one time. … But that was the safe place. And you know what? They respected that … They say I’m a nut because I let kids into my home who I didn’t even know, but I know them now.”

As she began to see the positive change she was making in many of the young people who visited her home, Diane quit her day job to focus on caring for them full-time. She set up tutoring sessions with teachers and retired educators. She provided job interview training and opportunities to play football, basketball and soccer. She and a handful of volunteers also started taking the youth on field trips to museums, movies, skating rinks, water parks and professional sports games. To put extra money into the program, she sold many of her family’s belongings, including their television. To make room for a computer station for the youth, she gave away her dining room set.

Since first opening her home in 2003, Diane Latiker has gotten to know more than 1,500 young people in this way, a way that has turned into a nonprofit community program she now calls “Kids Off the Block”. “We call it The KOB Youth Community Center, and we invite everyone — all of the youth in the community — to come,” she said. The Center now has well over 300 members from Roseland, and every day 30 to 50 young people show up there for tutoring, counseling or activities such as sports, drama, dance or music.

Through her efforts, Diane Latiker has proven without a shadow of a doubt that there is a light of Goodness within every person, and that open acts of Kindness actually reach others — especially when they are given to those people who mainstream society have shunned or rejected or denigrated or scorned.

“Our young people need help. All of them are not gang-bangers. All of them are not dropouts. But the ones that are, they need our help. Somehow or another, something ain’t right here. And why don’t we take a minute and ask them about it?” ~ Diane Latiker

 

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt