- Welcome to "N'Digo Studio," I'm Hermene Hartman.

And today we are going to talk about building communities.

How do you do it?

What do you do?

We've got extraordinary ministers joining us for this discussion.

They have taken their communities with uplift and transformation with their communities.

We're talking about the south side of Chicago, and today we're going to talk to Reverend James Meeks.

He's working in the Roseland Pullman community, where he's been a pastor for 43 years, building one of the largest churches in Chicago.

And now in his retirement, mind you, he is going to build 1000 houses.

Isn't that something?

And then we're going to talk to Pastor Chris Harris.

He's working in the community of Bronzeville.

He's transforming it, hospitals, trauma centers, businesses, just amazing and we wanna know what these initiatives are, how they are, how they work, and what the dynamics are.

So don't go away because we're talking about the future, communities, black communities on the south side of Chicago.

-Cozy conversations drop The knowledge that's for reel.

For more information on this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by Illinois State Representative LaShawn Ford.

The Chicago Community Trust.

Sin City Studios.

Lamborghini.

Chicago.

Gold Coast and Downers Grove.

Commonwealth Edison City Colleges of Chicago.

Broadway in Chicago.

And Governors State University.

So Reverend Meeks, after 43 years of ministry, you saw something else that your community needed, Rosalyn Pullman, and now you're building houses.

Tell me how that came about.

- Well, you know, I was contacted by this group, United Power, and they said to me, pastor Meeks, we see that you're retired and one of the things that we are trying to do on the west side is we are trying to build houses.

So they invited me over to look at the houses that they were trying to build, and I came back to Roseland and started looking at all of the vacant lots that were in the Roseland community and I said, "Now, perhaps this is another reason that this community is so destabilized."

And so we started inquiring.

We looked at the lots that our own church owned, and we owned 10 lots, so we were contributing to the problem, just vacant lots in the community.

So we took the 10 lots that we have, that we owned, and we decided to put the first 10 houses on vacant lots that Salem owned and that's how we got into it.

- So tell me about the houses.

How will the houses be?

What will the houses cost?

What's the house and how do you think it's gonna transform the community?

- I have learned way more about this subject than I had intended to learn.

- In retirement, no less.

- In retirement.

First of all, before I tell you about that, Hermane, I'm gonna tell you about it.

The reason our communities are so destabilized is because we don't have a tax base and we have allowed, we have hundreds of vacant lots in the Roseland community, therefore lots are vacant, there are no stores there, there are no eating facilities there, there's no nothing because there are no houses, there are no people there so they are a haven for gang activity.

These houses are going to be built in a factory and the cost of building a house, this tripped me out, is $400,000, but we can only sell the houses for $200,000, which means we have to build a house at 400,000.

But in order to make it affordable for the people that live in the community, because the one thing we don't wanna do is further destabilize the community by having houses that people can't afford.

So we had to raise the money so that we can write down the prices of the house so that people could afford a house at $200,000.

The houses are built in a factory, and I mean, they are beautiful homes.

- Prefab.

- Prefab homes, built in of a, one bedroom, two bedrooms or three bedrooms, it depends on what the family wanted.

- And so the houses, your target market is for first homeowners?

- Yes.

Yes.

We want people who have never owned a home before to have the privilege of living in a house that was built for them.

So it's a one bedroom a two bedroom or a three bedroom With a garage, with a fence With a garage, with a fence With a large and a fence And it is our paryer And we are hoping, that to stabilize this one block where we are putting all new houses, and if we could stabilize that block, then we move on to the next blocks.

And we are trying to stabilize that community.

But when the houses are brought to the community the lot when the houses are brought to the lot It's already set, right there On the pad.

Set -Ready for move in People can Starr picking out There furniture.

-So we got some houses we're showing some houses as we speak And we are showing not only the exterior but we are showing what The houses can look like with the interior, - Now you've got classes, these are first time homeowners, with their credit scores and so forth, so they can get their mortgages.

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

We're gonna make sure that the people pre-qualify.

The already We working with banks, And uh.. there coming in And uh.. there coming in Make sure the people pre-qualify Or that they have there earning capacity to be in the house The we set these houses up and people get 'em and they can't afford 'em.

- Right.

- And you know, how high interest rates are now, so we're making sure that people can afford these homes.

So they have gone through, everybody who will buy one of our houses will have, they will have to go through the class.

And we have classes now, I think about 25 people are in the present class that we have now and all 10 will be pre-qualified before they move into that house or before they can even get the mortgage.

-The ultimate goal is A thousand houses.

- Now if somebody's watching this show, - Yes.

- And they're interested, what should they do?

What's the steps they should do?

Is there a website they should go to?

- Yeah, they should go to the Hope Center Foundation.

That's all you need, Hope Center Foundation, because our church is Salem Baptist Church.

We built a building called The House of Hope.

Our foundation is called the Hope Center Foundation because we are really praying to bring hope to that community.

One way you bring hope to a community is by stabilizing it.

The other thing that we are doing, is that we purchased a property that used to be the off track betting and we are bringing the first Chick-fil-A, - Wow.

- To the south side.

We already have the agreement with Chick-fil-A and they don't have a Chick-fil-A on the south side of Chicago.

- That's terrific.

- And so, we are bringing the first Chick-fil-A to the south side.

We are in negotiation with several grocery stores because we are bringing a grocery store there.

We hope to bring, we are trying everything we can to bring a Potbelly's there to our community.

Because once you have houses, people need a place to eat.

- Iris Green say, "So houses begets grocery stores begets a fast food store, a restaurant and it just goes on and on."

So your base is the house.

- At the base is the house.

- You're setting a model.

And this is a model not for the city, this is a model for the country.

- And ironically, ironically we built our church, the House of Hope, on the same site where they used to build the Pullman train cars.

- Wow.

- Wow.

- That's the exact same site where they used to build the Pullman train cars.

- Wow, and of course, the Pullman Center there has been declared a national- - A national landmark.

- Landmark by President Obama.

- Yeah.

- Alright, so, we will see the community build up with these anchors in the community of which your church has been an anchor.

- Yeah, we've tried to do all we can as a church.

- We're talking to Reverend Meeks Pastors are trained to preach the gospel.

We are trained to visit the sick, which nobody ever tells us that when we get into these communities, there's violence that we have to deal with.

There's lack of homeownership that we have to deal with.

There's community development.

So we have to learn to be all of these things that the community needs.

Economic development, economic development.

Job, job training.

We have to learn to do all of these things that community needs in order to stabilize the community, because we don't just want people driving in and out to a big church.

And on Sunday and then nothing else is happening in the community.

So Jesus said, go into all the world and get outside the four walls of a church.

And so that's what we're seeking to do.

We want people to live in the community.

Absolutely.

- Pastor Harris, you too are building Bronzeville.

- Yes.

- And you were stimulated by something you saw on a visit in 2012 in Israel.

Tell me about that.

- So first of all, thanks for having me and I'm really, really privileged to be here with you and Pastor Meeks, who's one of my mentors.

And I think he plays down the impact that he's had on a lot of us in the community.

He's one of the real inspirations for the work that I do now.

Born and raised in Bronzeville and Pastor of Bright Star Church, Chicago, the church that I was born and raised in.

And then the second church, St. James Church, Chicago, in the West Pullman Roseland area.

So it's really, really cool to be able to pastor two churches that I was born, raised in, called in and it's amazing.

And working in those communities now.

I went to Israel in December of 2012 and saw a place called Natal, that's a trauma counseling center where those who live under the constant threat of violence and trauma in the entire region, they go to that place, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian, to get their PTSD issues addressed.

And while I was there, I'm saying, wait a minute, they're worried about missiles and sirens even now, but in the black community, most urban communities, we're counting body bags and toe tags every single day.

When I went there in December of 2012, at that time in Chicago, more than 1,146 people have been murdered since January, 2012.

Now, it's more than 7,500 people who have been murdered in Chicago alone.

And that doesn't even include those who have been shot or wounded.

And we ask the question, who did or does the trauma counseling for those families?

Whether it be the victim's family or the perpetrator's family?

In most cases, nobody, because as you all know, black and brown people, they don't really go to counseling for four reasons, they don't know, trust, or think they can afford counseling.

And then number four, the stigma.

Nobody wants to be labeled crazy, but they still come and talk to people like us, the faith leader.

So while I was there- - You all we got.

- That's exactly right.

- Yeah.

- So the Lord told me, I want you to identify, train and certify faith and community leaders to provide trauma counseling based on the Israeli model of Natal.

Well, since that time, Northwestern Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, the United Way, the MacArthur Foundation, Cigna and so many others, they've given us upwards of $16 million to do this work.

We've opened up a trauma helpline of 50,000 people have been helped with that work.

We've put our work trauma counseling in the schools, and it's blowing people away.

- When did you open up, when did you start this work in Chicago?

- Eight years ago.

So eight years ago is when we opened up that helpline.

And it's been pretty amazing, but here's the issue.

When you deal with people's trauma, you open up Pandora's Box, you find out that they need so many more things beyond the trauma.

What's causing the trauma?

The lack of economic investment in our communities, the lack of access to world class education in our various schools.

The lack of having the ability to not only get a job, but retain a job and have financial literacy and all of those other things.

And so now, through Bright Star Community Outreach, our separate 501c3, we have about 115 employees that work for me every day, full-time and part-time.

We've been able to really shift the trajectory that our community has been on.

And we are really excited to replicate that model.

- So I visited with you, I spent a half a day with you.

And you took me to the center.

- Yeah.

- And one of the things I noticed, and you were talking about the the mothers, the parents, the sisters, the brothers, but there's somebody else you are paying attention to.

It's the policeman.

- That's right.

- It's the doctor.

- That's right.

- It's the nurse.

It's the people who are hands on with the trauma, with the terror that's going on in our communities.

Talk about that level of professional person that you too are dealing with.

that's a very, very important element because you are a doctor, you are a nurse, you're in the hospital, but you're seeing the same thing over and over again.

But you human being too.

That's right, that's right.

How do you how does how do you cope?

Well, let me tell you, just like preachers, people look to us for what we do and forget about who we are.

And that's human and a real common level.

And so the reality is hurting people tend to hurt people.

And that's why people always ask, why do we have this vicious cycle of violence?

Hurting people tend to hurt people.

- We don't care who you are, wherever you came from.

While we serve specifically, not exclusively, black and brown people, we make sure that we let everybody know that helpline 833-Turn123.

People can call that phone number.

Anybody can call that helpline because one of the things that we learned, even in the schools, you think the children have trauma and the students have trauma... - The teachers has trauma.

- Talk to the teacher, - Talk to the principal, - Talk to the teacher.

- Talk to the social worker, talk to that crossing guard, the safe passage people.

Everybody in the community is facing some kind of trauma.

It may not be the same kind of trauma, but have a conversation with them, you will learn it's some kind of trauma.

- So it's a comprehensive approach.

- That's exactly right.

- It's not a targeted approach to a single effect, but you're looking at the whole and you're really looking at the community.

- That's exactly right.

- Looking at the whole community.

So Northwestern University, you have worked in collaboration with them and they're going to bring a full hospital or a trauma hospital.

What are they bringing to 48th and Cottage Grove?

- I'm super excited about this.

So Northwestern Medicine was one of our first funders.

And everything that Northwestern has funded, the University of Chicago Medicine has funded equally as well as the United Way.

And so here's what we said.

You know, everybody was talking about Bronzeville and other black communities, but the reality is, here's what I said to them, "Listen, you don't get to date us.

You gotta marry us.

And if you're serious about doing real economic investment in the black community, bring a hospital out here."

You know, most of our black communities are food deserts, health deserts, education deserts, right?

Grocery, that's all of those things.

And so we said to them, if you're serious about it, why make people from Bronzeville and the south side of Chicago come all the way downtown?

Why don't you bring those resources in our community?

And let's just be honest, most of the hospitals on the south side of Chicago are on hospice themselves.

Let's just think about that.

- The hospitals are on hospice.

- Yeah, of course they are.

- Yeah.

- I mean, let's just ask people from the community, where do you go to get your healthcare taken care of?

And if you be honest about it, it's not really healthcare.

A lot of it is sick care, which is very, very different from healthcare because we do things reactively when in fact we should be focused on our health proactively.

So we challenge Northwestern and they heard the voice of the community through tens of thousands of folks talking to them through our focus groups and things like that.

And now on 48th and Cottage Grove, super excited, I'm a part of the development team.

We're bringing a hundred million dollar facility from Northwestern to the south side of Chicago and we are pumped up about that.

- And it will be a full service hospital.

- Well, actually the beautiful part, it's gonna be an outpatient care center.

And we'll be able to address the various social determinants of health and other things that the community is saying we need.

Now, typically, when you think about these other organizations, they try to helicopter in and save a community.

No, no, no.

Black people, we don't need anybody to helicopter in and save us.

Give us the training, the tools and the resources.

We're pretty resilient people.

We built this country for free.

We can save ourselves.

And so they're listening to the community to say, tell us what you need.

And we're telling them, and we are excited about the fact that they're listening and implementing the various things that we have said, this is what we want you to address in this outpatient center.

- So this means jobs.

- Absolutely.

- At every level.

- Not only jobs for folks who will work in the hospital, it means jobs for those who will build that hospital.

Here's what we also said.

Black people can do more than just hold the stop sign or the flag.

No, no, no.

Let us build the building - 'Cause we've done it.

- Absolutely.

So the architects, black owned.

Those who are going to build the construction, black owned.

And we're really excited about that.

- Now, talk about your community outreach in the center that I built, that was that I visited with you.

- Yeah.

- That was a school.

- That's right.

- A closed school.

- That's right.

- Then taken over, closed school by ROM Emanuel and then taken over by University of Chicago.

They didn't successful, and then you went and took it.

And it's the school that you went to.

- Yes.

My elementary school, Carter G Woodson School.

And so it's right across the street from Bright Star on 4444 South Evans.

And the exciting part about what we call the TURN center and TURN is an acronym, T U R N, The Urban Resilience Network.

And so we're gonna replicate this model across the country.

But by the way, the exciting part about our model, it's evidence-based and so we now have through the University of Chicago data, 17% reduction in shootings, 14% reduction in robberies, 12% reduction in assault.

And we are excited about it because now we have proven out the model.

And so I've taken over a 68,000 square foot elementary school, called it the TURN Center.

And now when we cut the ribbon on Juneteenth, the mayor was there, all of our Congress people were there, our funders were there, and thousands of folks were there as we cut the ribbon on that TURN center.

And it will not only house Bright Star Community Outreach, but it's also gonna house other partnering, collaborating, community-based organizations that serve our community with violence prevention.

- So, you all have come up with, through your ministry actually.

- Yep.

- Solutions, - Right.

- To some of the problems that black communities are plagued with.

Now, where does the politician enter?

Or does the politician enter?

Does the politician fund?

Does the politician provide resource?

What's the role of the politician?

- Let me tell you, before we get to the role of the politician, I can also tell you that Chris Harris is one of the only people that I know that everything that he just told you, every step of the way... We have a thread, a text thread of pastors on the text thread.

He invites us to be a part of what he's doing rather than just doing it for his church alone, he shows all of us how we can do what he's doing.

And it's no more this pastor's jealous of other pastors.

- That's right.

- He lets us all in on, all the work that he's doing where the next government funding dollar can come from.

He keeps us all abreast and that's what my prayer is for this next generation.

That this next generation can collaborate better than my generation.

But he's doing a fantastic job.

- So he's modeling behavior.

- Yeah, he's modeling behavior and he's showing other churches how to do what he's done.

Do you think, let's say five years from now you might not have $1,000, but I bet you'll have 500 northwestern to be built.

You think you go around the country showing folks how to do it?

Well, one thing for sure, you can't go around the country unless you've done something at home.

That's right.

And unless you cannot model, unless you have something to model.

That's right.

Unless you have something to show and the politicians come and, they come on the scene based on what you have done.

Not what you're doing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They can't based on what you have when they see just what Chris did with his church alone or what we were able to do with our church alone, then the next thing that we step out to do, they say, oh, yeah, we we have some credibility.

We have you know, some skin in the game.

Well, they give you funding.

Will they help with funding?

Yes, they will help with funding.

The fact that yeah, they will help with funding.

once they know your voting power.

Because as though you.

Put new voters on role.

Two.

Yeah.

You put new voters on the role and, you invite them to do the things that you having and they see all of those people, they will, eventually help with funding.

- Easy, thank God for a great staff of people, executive pastors and other leaders who now understand it's their job to be a part of the actual work.

And so, having about 12 executive pastors, leaving them to lead a lot of the things, I cast vision and then make sure that I continue to guide and develop them so that they can lead in their respective places.

And then also having the same type of great leadership at Bright Star Community Outreach, who allows me to go out and do the CEOing, while they do the rest of the work.

- Right.

So it's kind of a corporate structure.

- That's exactly right.

Meeks, did you do that too?

You built a...

I mean, I know what you did.

You built it from the ground up.

I was there, I saw it.

Did you at one point get overwhelmed or did you have to bring in administration so that you could be the leader, leader and let others do, kind of, management lead, if you would?

- Yeah, well I likened his pastoring two churches to the same question people used to ask me, "How can you be a pastor and a state senator?"

- Yes.

- At the same time.

The only way you can do it is, you have to have qualified people who are controlling the administration of the church.

We had to graduate beyond that.

- You have to grow.

- Yeah, give up the keys.

Let somebody else let the heat man in while we go to Springfield and fight for kids and you know, proper education.

You just have to grow.

You have to have trained people.

And if you don't have them 12 people, then you ain't gonna never, everybody ain't gonna get fed.

- That's right.

- And so we have, trained, qualified staff and we have to pay them.

And then that allows the pastor to become the CEO and to get a whole lot of stuff done.

- Team building is important not just to the ministry, but to the projects that you are developing.

- Absolutely.

- Somebody said teamwork makes the dream work.

- That's right.

- You heard somebody say that?

- I heard somebody say that.

And that's just like, you know, you do a wonderful job in handling N'digo and handling the TV and everything.

- There's a team.

- But there's a team.

- You're looking at the team.

- That's right.

- That's right, I'm looking at all these people around here, behind cameras, behind teleprompters, makeup people, making us look good.

- Social media.

- Social media people.

Because you just can't be a one man band.

- That's right.

- You know?

- That's a hard thing to learn.

As I speak to entrepreneurs, the first thing I tell 'em is, get the team.

If you don't have a team, don't do it because you won't do it.

Gentlemen, thank you.

- But thank you for all of the work that you do.

- Yes, thank you.

- All the help that you give us.

And not just the help, but the professionalism.

You have taught us all how to bump it up and not have it looking raggedy and where nobody would be proud of it.

You have worked professionally.

You are a consummate professional.

Thank you for teaching us how to get information out.

You get information out to the whole world.

And we love you for all that you do.

- Thank you Reverend Meeks.

- And also thank you for educating us, because understanding the plight of black people and black America, we learned that from N'digo and from you.

So thank you for continuing to be the wisdom that we need and the knowledge that we absolutely need to have access to.

- Listen, if we all do what we are supposed to do in the lanes that we have our expertise in, we all live in a better place.

- Amen.

- And so I just go in and out and say, okay Chris, we need to do this.

Okay, Reverend Meeks, let's do it like this, like that, just to pump it up.

And I'm just so proud of all of you.

Chris, trying to put me on that tread you got.

I don't want to get on that tread.

(all laughing) - Y'all get up - I think she deserve to be in that group chat.

- Too early in the morning.

I don't wanna meet you, we'll have lunch, but I ain't getting on that tread, not every day.

- Yeah.

- Ladies and gentlemen, we have had two dynamos with a great discussion on how to, what to and where we are building communities.

We can't keep talking about it, we've got to do it.

Thank you Pastor Harris.

- Thank you.

- Thank you Reverend Meeks.

- Thank you.

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Funding for this program was provided by Illinois State Representative LaShawn Ford the Chicago Community Trust Cine City Studios, Lamborghini, Chicago, Gold Coast and Downers Grove.

Commonwealth Edison City Colleges of Chicago.

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Broadway In Chicago And Governors State University.

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