After his family was devastated by gun violence in 2013, pre-teen Kahlil Darden began to dream about changing his community for the better. Now, years later, his organization Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens (YBMKQ) brings together “young men and women who have chosen to stand apart and show the community that young black kings and queens are active, motivated, and empowered to be the change.” YBMKQ’s mission is to engage elementary, middle and high-school-aged youth in becoming the leaders of tomorrow while serving the community. They offer enriching programming for youth, such as mentoring and career exploration services, tutoring through an after school and summer program, and a young entrepreneur incubator program. And now, they are administering these programs from an established headquarters!
Kahlil says the plan to open a full-service community center for youth had always been a goal. Since its inception, YBMKQ was meant to create a safe space for youth to come to, especially when they have nowhere else to go. Fill that space with all the programming (and then some) that YBMKQ has been offering for years, and you have an innovative and unique one-stop-shop that offers underserved youth the care and education they need and deserve.
In 2022, this goal quickly became a priority when Kahlil’s 18-month-old godson lost his life in a drive-by shooting. Shortly after, Kahlil announced the creation of the De’Avry Thomas Community Center, named after his godson.
“I wanted to be able to provide for these kids all the things De’Avry wasn’t able to have, and won’t be able to have, because his life was taken from him,” said Kahlil.
As a believer in visions and supporter of equitable development by and for communities, Neighborhood Allies prides itself on often being the first to invest in inspiring and impactful projects. After hearing the ambitious and exciting plans that the community-based organization Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens had, we decided to provide an initial $15,000 predevelopment grant to support the creation of the center.
The center inhabits the former Lincoln Park Community Center and has a plethora of space. However, it needed work to be functional. Our predevelopment grant provided vital technical assistance that got the ball rolling on rehab.
“Neighborhood Allies’ initial $15,000 grant allowed us to figure out what we needed to work on first, such as fixing the roof. It also helped offset the cost of a program manager to help us envision all the things a community center needed to be,” said Kahlil.
Following additional support from many other funders, YBMKQ has just wrapped up Phase I renovations. This includes: three out-of-school-time classes for their after-school program, two childcare spaces that are rented out to daycare businesses, and an art studio. Phase II will include renovation of another out-of-school-time classroom, a library, a conference room, the gym, a community kitchen, a youth game room, a STEM lab, a therapy suite, a recording studio, and a community co-working space.
Once complete, the center will act as the central hub for programing and provide a space where youth feel safe to learn, explore, and develop positive networks.
YBMKQ is still actively fundraising to complete its next phase. Consider donating at www.ybmkq.org/capital-campaign or reaching out to Kahlil directly at kahlil@ybmkq.org.
