PASTOR COREY BROOKS: What Christmas really means to Chicago’s poor children growing up

As Christmas approaches during my Walk Across America, my thoughts turn to the children in my South Side Chicago neighborhood. These precious boys and girls, many of them from broken single-parent homes, hang up their stockings and dream of gifts and joy.

We have no choice when it comes to the world we were born into. But we do have the power to choose as we grow in this life. Some have it harder and these children do, because they were born into a world of limited opportunities and dependence on the government.

I can tell you that what they really want this Christmas is not the latest toy, but real opportunity, real safety, quality education and unbreakable hope.

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I’ve seen their faces up close for years. I remember Devin Howard, a young man who came to Project HOOD trapped in poverty and violence, feeling like the streets were his only option. Through our vocational training courses he learned the construction trade, gained confidence and now leads a dignified and purposeful life in the construction sector. Or the countless guys I’ve mentored who light up when someone believes in them. A boy recently said to me, “Pastor, I want to be like you: strong and helping others.”

These are not isolated stories; they are the daily miracles that are happening right now at Project HOOD. Our construction training program has a 94% success rate, placing hundreds of people in high-paying jobs. We’ve launched dozens of businesses, fed thousands of families, and broken cycles of violence through peacemaking and trauma healing. But imagine the explosion of hope when our doors fully open.

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That’s why I’ve been walking across America since September, taking a 2,500-mile journey from Times Square—millions of steps—to raise the final $25 million needed to complete our Robert R. McCormick Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center through Project HOOD. This is not a political stunt. This is my stand for merit, hard work, faith, family and the American Dream. This is my stand against sixty years of post-1960s liberalism that has destroyed our community.

Construction of the 100,000-square-foot Robert R. McCormick Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center was moving along at a steady pace, with a solid foundation, massive steel beams rising toward the sky and concrete being poured for the upper floors. This beautiful facility will include vocational training, entrepreneurship centers, trauma counseling, a theater, basketball courts and even a swimming pool – and at its heart, a private Christian school for boys from single-parent homes, with excellent education, accountability and God’s unbreakable promises.

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Thanks to our violence prevention work, our neighborhood has seen an encouraging decrease in violence this year. Yet the deep scars remain. Too many young black men lost. Too many families have fallen apart, too many children are growing up in poverty without positive role models.

Worse yet, some leadership in our city is actively hindering the kinds of opportunities we are fighting for. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s progressive policies, his downplaying of crime, prioritizing immigrant spending over neighborhood needs, attacking school choice and lowering academic standards in public schools, are hurting the very Black communities he claims to defend. These approaches trap generations in government dependence, stifling the faith-driven empowerment that truly changes lives.

True empowerment comes from faith-based initiatives like Project HOOD, not from endless handouts or divisive racial politics that pit people against each other.

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This Christmas, the greatest gift isn’t the popular gifts or more programs you’re entitled to. It will complete this center debt free. They are opportunities earned through hard work, safety built on healing and prevention, education rooted in biblical truth and excellence, and hope that declares that every child is destined for greatness.

I’ve walked hundreds of miles—over rain-soaked highways, under a blistering sun—to prove that private faith, generosity, and determination can bring forgotten neighborhoods back to life. Just as the Babe in Bethlehem brought eternal light to a weary world, we can bring that light to the precious children of Chicago.

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They deserve miracles that become reality. Let us declare together: these children will rise. They will thrive. They will lead.

Merry Christmas, Chicago. With God, miracles are not only possible; they are also promised.

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