Chicago has truly earned its nickname, “Chiraq” after many years of violence in our communities. The south side Roseland community has been especially hit hard, but
one Roseland mother is fighting back with love, mentoring, and embracing kids through her program, Kids Off the Block. Diane Latiker and her husband have eight children, 4 boys, and 4 girls. In 2003, her youngest girl, Aisha, was still at home and Diane was concerned about her then 13-year old daughter in the Roseland community. “I just wanted to make sure she graduated high school and went to college,” Diane said. So to keep up with her daughter, she began taking Aisha and nine of Aisha’s friends swimming, skating, and to the movies. Diane’s mother noticed the great respect the kids showed toward Aisha and suggested that she do more with them. Diane says she thought about it and prayed about it for three days, then one day when all nine of the kids were outside with Aisha, she approached them. “I asked them what they wanted to do when they grow up. Hands shot up. They wanted to be doctors, lawyers, rappers, singers – then I asked them if they wanted to come to my house just to talk about things. They all said yes.” When the teens began coming to her house and talking, she learned that although she thought she knew them, she really knew nothing about their home situations. “Boys were talking about how gangs were trying to recruit them. All of them were failing in school,” she related. Word of mouth got out, and Diane said the next thing she knew, kids she didn’t know were showing up at her house. Some were homeless, some were trying to get out of gangs, and some wanted to go back to school. Diane opened her home to all of them.
Within three months, seventy-five teens were at her house. She sold her TV to buy used computers and got rid of furniture to make space for kids in her home. Gang
members began threatening her and her family. “My van was shot up,” Diane recalled, “I’ve had 45’s pulled on me. I had a group of kids on a yellow school bus and an AK47
was pulled on all of us.” Diane admits she was afraid, “but in the midst of it, I just couldn’t stop. It was like I found my passion.”
Her passion, which she named Kids Off the Block, has been helping teens in the Roseland community since 2003. The last time she and her husband estimated, 3,100
teens had gone through the program. Some of them got full scholarships. Some started businesses. Some became mentors and came back to the community to help other
kids. “Not all the kids went to college,” she said, “and we lost some to gun violence. And some moved away.” Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Diane has not been able to have kids in her home, but she keeps in touch with
them through internet, phone, and text. She even started a rewards program. “Kids are struggling because they’re at home,” she explained, so I started the program to give
them incentive to keep learning.” During the month, students have to keep a 2.5 GPA or better, and they have to be learning at least 80 percent of the time, and involved in some type of community activity, such as mowing
neighbors’ lawns. The rewards range from game cards and gift cards to one student a month receiving $500. The Kids on the Block program had a building donated and Diane is presently fundraising to get the money to
rehab the building, which is going to be a technology, entrepreneurship, art center. “Kids we serve don’t have lifetime skills and we want to give them skills so they
can work anywhere, no matter what their background is.” She said. She has big plans for the building which, when completed, will have a computer lab, a music studio, a
clothing design program, a construction program, and an art program. In 2011, Ms. Diane, as the kids affectionately call her,
made it to the top ten of CNN Heroes. Chicago needs more heroes like Diane Latiker.
