THE YOUTH CENTER’S ROLE GLOBALLY

TheYouth center is a branch of the MFCC, it is open to all kids

of all nationalities. The youth center makes many efforts on a

daily basis to help make the world a better place. Examples of

these actions are weekly visits to soup kitchens, engaging in

rallies for humanitarian purposes when offered, having many

canned food drives for the starving kids in the middle east and

always having a donation box to feed the poor. Every one can

participate in these efforts by simply visiting the youth center

and asking on invents coming up.

The youth centers address is 7260 w. 93rd Street ,Bridgeview IL

ADVOCACY THROUGH

COMMUNITY

EDUCATION It is very important to raise awareness

about the Muslim communities in this

society. There are many stereotypes

about Arab-American Muslims and

people don’t realize that not all

Muslims are terrorists and evil people.

CAIR is a great organization that

works to defend the civil rights of

American Muslims in the region, fight

bigotry, and promote tolerance. Cair

Chicago normally speaks out against

hate crimes, terrorism and problems

that tend to occur in the Arab-

American communities. Whenever

events that have to deal with the

Muslim world are bought up to the

media Cair Chicago is usually the first

to take charge, they are on the news

normally and they defend many

innocent Muslims when it is needed.

They have annual conferences that are

very successful and they also

participate in giving lectures to

communities that are not aware of

some of the situations that Arab

Americans deal with. A way to help

keep this great organization going is

making a donation at there website

http://www.cairchicago.org/ and

attending there lectures and annual

conference at the Rosemont center.

STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY

The MFCC has a very close-knit community in the Bridgeview area here in Chicago. All the houses around the mosque foundation are primarily Arab, the youth center is two minutes walking distance from the mosque and the schools are directly in front of the mosque. Everyone in the MFCC community knows each other and is willing to give a helping hand out to each other. After the siege in Gaza, Palestine the youth center felt the need to do something to spread awareness to people that are unaware of the torture the Palestinian people were going through. They decided to partner up with AMP (American Muslims for Palestine) and set up a rally downtown Chicago on Michigan avenue. The rally was complete success the streets were full and the goal that they set out for them selves which was to spread awareness was more than made. They marched in front of the Israeli embassy and chanted for hours. AMP is great organization that works here in Chicago to spread awareness and help the people in Palestine from the occupation by the Israeli government. They are planning on having big conferences sometime next year and they are trying to bring President Carter to come speak.

Participating in these rallies and conferences help shape up a strong community. Working with the youth center when this happened really made me feel like we were all family working to help a great cause out. One way people can help is by visiting the amp website and just reading facts about the Israeli occupation and spread the knowledge. The amp website is http://www.ampalestine.org/

Another great way the youth center helps the MFCC community as well as other communities in Chicago is we volunteer with habitat for humanities. We normally pick a day, fill up a bus with volunteers and go revenant a destroyed house and help out a couple families. These little actions mean the word to the disadvantaged families and there communities. I enjoy seeing the smile on there face’s when they see we have to come simply to help them.

When the presidential election arrived

a couple years ago, the MFCC youth

center asked for volunteers to go door-

to-door knocking in MFCC community

and register people to vote. I decided to

volunteer and the process was

exhausting we had to walk door-to-door

convincing people to vote but

nevertheless we had a great turn out, we

registered almost every house that

wasn’t registered before.

The Imam of our mosque has influence on

the community and everyone looks up to

him and trusts him. When elections

come about, some people wait to see

who he is voting for and he gives his

reasons, reasons that may better the

community or make it worse and some

people go based on his reasoning. There

are many ways to get involved

politically, for example volunteering and

going door-to-door registering people to

vote, working at the election judge ect.

The youth center offers all these

volunteering opportunities and if any

one is interested you may give them a

call and ask too see when is the next

coming elections! 708-430-5666

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

As I mentioned earlier the Arab-

American community gets a lot of hate

at times and we need to know how to

approach this hate and show that it is

not ignored. The youth center partners

up with AMP and plan rallies around

Chicago. In the past year we had about 4

rallies on Michigan avenue in relation to

Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the

situation that has been going on in Syria

and Egypt. People need to know that

what they see on TV is not completely

true. The SJP (students for justice in

Palestine) here at Loyola is a great club

for the Palestinian cause, they had two

great events this year that showed people

what is really going on in the west bank.

One event I really liked was the

flashmob event , what they did was

silently walk through the IC with posters

and facts on there shirts , this opened the

eyes of many students. Some of the facts

are Innocent kids are being killed,

women are being beat and the Israeli

defense forces are destroying homes. All

we can do is spread awareness by going

to rallies expressing our voices and

spreading the facts. A way all Loyola

students can get involved is by joining

the SJP here on campus it is a great club

and the purpose of the club is too spread

awareness around campus.

DIRECT STRATEGIES

The youth center supports many political activities from

presidential elections to the MFCC board member elections. The

youth center organizes many voter registration drives and they

explain to the community who is running and what they are

fighting for. They youth center tends to hold elections at the

actual youth center, last year I was an election judge at the youth

center for the mayor of Chicago elections. Also the youth center

is a strong supporter of going door-to-door registering people to

vote, they have been gathering volunteers for this cause for the

past five years.

VOTING ACTIVITIES

Due to the fact that the MFCC is such a close community most people in the community

support each others businesses. In the MFCC community there are

doctors, lawyers, dentists, car dealers, store owners ect. The the youth center tends to

offer kids jobs if they need it, and not only the youth center all the businesses around the

area offer kids jobs if they need them.

The youth center also has a leadership workshop at least once a month and there is

never an open seat. They bring professionals to talk about there careers and show the

kids that going to school and staying on the right track will get them somewhere in life.

The lectures also discuss what leadership qualities the kids should posses at the age they

are in now in order to lead themselves to great futures and making the right decisions.

COMMUNITY/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The youth center does plenty of great direct

service, not only towards the MFCC

community but towards many other

minority communities in Chicago. They

volunteer in many soup kitchens around

Chicago, the youth center is also very active

in habitat for humanities and food drives.

Tutoring is offered every weekday during

the school year to all kids. The reason

behind this is because the public high

schools in the area are very gang friendly

and have a very high drop out rate. So in

order to keep the literacy rate in the Arab

community up to par we offer free tutoring

to keep these kids in school and show them

that with help it is very doable. Tutoring is

not the only thing offered at the youth

center; there is a weight room, a indoor

basketball court ,a game room and a few

rooms filled with desks, computers and

printer for the kids get there studies done.

The youth center is very kid friendly, the

kids think they are coming to have fun but

in reality they are getting there homework

done, doing better in school and walking out

with religious information due to the daily

religious lectures. The main goal of the

youth center is to keep our youth out of

trouble and in safe place while being

productive and for the past 20 years the

MFCC youth center is doing just that. The

youth center is usually always taking

volunteers so give them a call if your

interested. 708-430-5235

DIRECT SERVICES