"MISS DIANE TREATS ME LIKE I'M HER OWN SON. AND I TREAT HER LIKE SHE IS MY OWN MOM."
Diane Latiker's 13-year-old daughter and her friends had nothing to do and nowhere to hang out.
It was 12 years ago in Chicago. They were running wild in the neighborhood, and that was a problem: The parks weren't safe. Vacant lots and boarded-up buildings were no place for kids to spend free time.
Latiker decided to invite the children in and figure out what interested them. She wrote them corny rap songs to perform. She took them skating, swimming and to the movies. The kids had a blast.
The next week, three or four others showed up. Then two or three more.
"Within a couple of weeks we had 30 kids coming to the house," Latiker said.
Latiker, a former construction worker and cosmetologist and a mother of eight, saw an opportunity to make a difference for the community she had lived in for more than 20 years.
It started as an overcrowding problem. Now it's a full-time job.
She lived in a modest house in the neighborhood of Roseland — two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small living room and a small dining room. Soon 70 kids were spilling into her kitchen and bedroom.
Latiker sold her television and used the money to buy used computers that she set up in her dining room for the kids who wanted homework help. Her husband said she was crazy, but the kids kept coming, and she kept letting them in.
She named her program Kids Off the Block: A nonprofit organization dedicated to providing alternatives to gangs, drugs, violence and the juvenile justice system. More than 2,000 children have participated, she said.
Some are already in gangs. Others are trying to get out or avoid getting in. Some are fighting with their families and rarely go home. Under Latiker's watch, they take field trips and feast at summer cookouts.
Latiker says they're all looking for the same thing: Someone who will listen.
"The challenges of a kid growing up in Roseland is being able to grow up in Roseland," said Latiker, now 58. "What kids in this neighborhood need more than anything right now is support."
Latiker even cleaned up an empty lot that was full of gang members, drug dealers and prostitutes. She put up a basketball net. Anyone in the neighborhood is welcome to play and learn about her program.
Latiker wants to create a technology center so the kids can learn coding and take lessons in entrepreneurship and job training. A neighborhood church has already volunteered space.
Many of the children she works with have police records and need help building skills toward finding jobs.
"A lot of them now think the only thing they have of value is a gun," she said.
She also plans to rebuild and expand a memorial she built next to the basketball court, with names of people lost to gun violence in Chicago. Every name is a reminder of what the kids in the neighborhood are up against.
"We plant a seed," she said. "I get a little bit in here, a little bit in there, so when they do go out that gate they are filled with positivity."
Shanon Hampton puts it another way.
"When I grow up and move, I will miss this court and I'll miss Miss Diane for letting me come here and how she cares for us." Hampton said.
For now, he's looking forward to leading his team to victory in the summer basketball tournament.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ch...ow-one-woman-chicago-makes-difference-n386411
Real determination life story of a strong black woman of excellence proven to make a change in her own community with our youth.
