Mission Statement
The Imani Pearls Community Development Foundation empowers individuals and organizations to become forces of positive change in the Bronzeville, Douglas, Englewood, Grand Boulevard, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Oakland, and Washington Park communities.
Why We Do What We Do
Our commitment to building a safer, more prosperous South Side is personal.
Many IPCDF members live in or grew up in the neighborhoods we serve. Many more of us work or have relatives and friends living in these communities.
We believe that education and the investment of time — from volunteers living within and beyond the borders of the communities we serve — can reduce crime and end joblessness, which enhances the quality of life for us all.
Did You Know?
- In 2013-14, 69.4 percent of Chicago Public School students graduated from high school in four years or less, a rate 10 percent less than the national average of 79 percent. (Chicago Sun-Times)
- Boys who drop out of an Illinois high school are five (5) times more likely to become incarcerated than males with a high school diploma, and 30 times more likely to land in jail or prison than men with an associate’s degree. (Center for Labor Market Studies, 2011)
- Nearly 64 percent of high school dropouts in Chicago aged 16 to 64 did not work at any time during a 12-month period prior to a 2010 employment study. (Center for Labor Market Studies, 2011)
- In Illinois, 72 percent of young people between 16 to 19 years old were jobless in 2012 — a 12 percent increase in teen unemployment since 2000, according to a report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. (DNA info)