K-LOVE’s Positive People – by Rafael Sierra, Jr. (complete podcast available) (more Positive People stories)
Pastor Corey Brooks is no stranger to street violence. Once during a funeral service at his New Beginnings church in the southside of Chicago, gunfire broke out in the neighborhood, prompting him to find ways to help end the cycle of violence.
“I realized that I’ve been in this neighborhood and I need to deal more with the violence that’s going on in the neighborhood because these type of things just should never happen.”
So, the good pastor began Project H.O.O.D. - Helping Others Obtain Destiny – providing outreach, job training, food drives and even violence prevention programs to help stem the violence in the community.
“There are so many gangs that’s represented in Chicago,” he says. That, with a lack of jobs, an inadequate educational system and the drugs that are in the neighborhood worsen the situation – “a powder keg ready to explode!”
But despite the many problems, Pastor Brooks saw a way out of and a way forward through Project H.O.O.D. “We want to make sure that we reach as far as we can and get as many people as we possibly can because we believe that that’s the only way we’re going to transform this neighborhood.”
And his efforts are well worth it!
“Having a passion to see people transform their lives and see families stay together and be together are the things that drive me,” says Brooks. “And at the end of the day” he says, “when it’s all over, I definitely want to hear the Lord say, ‘well done good and faithful servant’”
Listen to full interview below:
