Englewood Community Center Targeted in Burglary: Impact on Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) — A community center situated on the South Side of Chicago recently fell victim to a break-in and theft, according to the center’s organizers who shared the news with ABC7.

This center has long served as a sanctuary for families in an often crime-stricken neighborhood. Unfortunately, it has now become a target itself.

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While the damage includes shattered windows and numerous broken doors, the emotional impact is far more profound.

“I feel violated,” expressed Tamar Manasseh, the founder of Mothers And Men Against Senseless Killings (MASK). “It’s heartbreaking when someone invades the sanctuary you’ve created for children to feel secure, only to steal and destroy.”

Manasseh established MASK, and ABC7 has consistently highlighted the group’s initiatives at 75th and Stewart, where they offer food, job training, education, and various resources to the Englewood community.

“Everybody around here knows that if they need something, you need only ask,” Manasseh said. “You don’t have to steal anything. We’ll just give it to you for free.”

Manasseh says Monday morning the group discovered its community resource center, which is housed in three trailers on a formerly vacant lot, had been broken into. Missing were diapers, toilet paper, electronics and multiple freezers full of food that feeds children after school.

“We are dinner for a lot of these kids,” MASK volunteer Jermaine Kelly said. “Standing out here and me telling these kids we couldn’t feed them today because of everything that was going on, one of the kids literally asked his sister, ‘What are we supposed to do now?’”

Manasseh says in the wake of recent rule changes governing SNAP benefits, demand at the center is at an all-time high.

“We won’t quit on these kids,” Manasseh said. “We won’t be the people that make those kids lose faith in adults and in neighbors and in people who say that they care.”

Manasseh says she has not filed a police report, though the damage and loss total in the thousands. She says the center is restocked and is reopening to families Thursday.

Information about donations for Mothers And Men Against Senseless Killings can be found on their website.