Before I was building programs for other people, North Lawndale was building me.
I grew up around the resources my community offered — the after-school programs, the church basements, the library, the people who showed up when families needed something and didn’t ask any questions first. That’s how I got exposed to college. That’s how I got connected to faith. That’s how I learned that you don’t have to leave a neighborhood to find what you need — sometimes everything you need is already on the block, you just gotta know it’s there.
What Lawndale gave me
Lawndale put real things in my path. Programs that opened doors I didn’t know existed. Mentors who told me I could go to college and then actually walked with me through what that meant. Church communities that fed me — spiritually and literally. People who said, “Come here, sit down, let me show you something.”
That kind of help doesn’t get written about. It doesn’t get a grant announcement. It just happens, quietly, between neighbors. But it raises people. It raised me.
Why I serve the way I do
Everything I do now — the nonprofit work, the housing services for teen moms, my dissertation, this site — it all comes back to that. I wanted to live a life of service because Lawndale showed me what service actually does. It doesn’t just hand somebody a bag and call it a day. It opens doors. It changes what you think is possible.
And the truth is, there are a lot of resources out here. Housing help, food assistance, education programs, healthcare, mental health, legal aid, after-school programs, summer jobs for our kids, support for moms, support for elders. Real things. Helpful things. The problem isn’t that the resources don’t exist — the problem is that nobody tells you about them in plain language, and the people getting paid to tell you sometimes act like they’re doing you a favor.
That’s the whole reason PlantTheVegan exists. To put the resources in one place. To say plain: this is what’s available, this is who to call, this is what you need to know before you walk in the door.
The community gave me a foundation. This site is me giving it back.
If you’ve ever felt like you don’t know where to start — start here. Look through the Resources page. See what’s available. And know that asking for help isn’t weakness; it’s part of how community works. Somebody helped me. Now I help. That’s the cycle. That’s how Lawndale taught me to live.