The kids file in and out of her home each afternoon. You’d think you were watching a dramatization of the nursery rhyme, “The little old lady who lived in a shoe, had so many children and didn’t know what to do.”
The difference here is Diane Latiker does know what to do – take the children off the streets and provide programming for them to prosper.
The Roseland resident, with eight children of her own, saw about 10 children in her neighborhood nearly five years ago just hanging on the block with nothing to do. Instead of playing with toys, riding bikes or other things young children and teens like to do, they would “tear up the grass, fences and everything else they could find,” she told the Defender.
Latiker’s mother watched how her daughter had a way with children and suggested she channel her energy into them.
After “praying for three days,” she took the suggestion to the children.
“I asked that if I started a program in my house, would they participate. They started yelling, ‘Yes! Yes!’” Latiker said, and Kids Off the Block was born.
Latiker, a former hair stylist, said she was amazed at the career ambitions the children had because none ever expressed their feelings beforehand. They just hung in clusters on the block, trying to figure out their next move.
Many stated they wanted to be doctors, lawyers and in the entertainment field, so to start, those who were interested in music wrote lyrics to songs and raps and performed their work on Friday evenings for an audience of their parents, she said.
______
To read the rest of this article, subscribe to our digital or paper edition. For previous editions, contact us for details.
In photo: Diane Latiker (left) stands with Tracy Brown James, Chair of the 2009 Lewis Hine Awards.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
