2. THE YOUTH CENTER’S ROLE GLOBALLY
TheYouth center is a branch of the MFCC, it is open to all kids
of all nationalities. The youth center makes many efforts on a
daily basis to help make the world a better place. Examples of
these actions are weekly visits to soup kitchens, engaging in
rallies for humanitarian purposes when offered, having many
canned food drives for the starving kids in the middle east and
always having a donation box to feed the poor. Every one can
participate in these efforts by simply visiting the youth center
and asking on invents coming up.
The youth centers address is 7260 w. 93rd Street ,Bridgeview IL

3. ADVOCACY THROUGH
COMMUNITY
EDUCATION
It is very important to raise awareness
about the Muslim communities in this
society. There are many stereotypes
about Arab-American Muslims and
people don’t realize that not all
Muslims are terrorists and evil people.
CAIR is a great organization that
works to defend the civil rights of
American Muslims in the region, fight
bigotry, and promote tolerance. Cair
Chicago normally speaks out against
hate crimes, terrorism and problems
that tend to occur in the Arab-
American communities. Whenever
events that have to deal with the
Muslim world are bought up to the
media Cair Chicago is usually the first
to take charge, they are on the news
normally and they defend many
innocent Muslims when it is needed.
They have annual conferences that are
very successful and they also
participate in giving lectures to
communities that are not aware of
some of the situations that Arab
Americans deal with. A way to help
keep this great organization going is
making a donation at there website
http://www.cairchicago.org/ and
attending there lectures and annual

4. STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY
The MFCC has a very close-knit community in the Bridgeview area here in Chicago. All the houses
around the mosque foundation are primarily Arab, the youth center is two minutes walking
distance from the mosque and the schools are directly in front of the mosque. Everyone in the
MFCC community knows each other and is willing to give a helping hand out to each other. After
the siege in Gaza, Palestine the youth center felt the need to do something to spread awareness to
people that are unaware of the torture the Palestinian people were going through. They decided to
partner up with AMP (American Muslims for Palestine) and set up a rally downtown Chicago on
Michigan avenue. The rally was complete success the streets were full and the goal that they set out
for them selves which was to spread awareness was more than made. They marched in front of the
Israeli embassy and chanted for hours. AMP is great organization that works here in Chicago to
spread awareness and help the people in Palestine from the occupation by the Israeli government.
They are planning on having big conferences sometime next year and they are trying to bring
President Carter to come speak.
Participating in these rallies and conferences help shape up a strong community. Working with the
youth center when this happened really made me feel like we were all family working to help a
great cause out. One way people can help is by visiting the amp website and just reading facts
about the Israeli occupation and spread the knowledge. The amp website is
http://www.ampalestine.org/

5. Another great way the youth center helps the MFCC
community as well as other communities in Chicago is we
volunteer with habitat for humanities. We normally pick
a day, fill up a bus with volunteers and go revenant a
destroyed house and help out a couple families. These
little actions mean the word to the disadvantaged families
and there communities. I enjoy seeing the smile on there
face’s when they see we have to come simply to help them.

6. POLITICAL ACTIVITY
When the presidential election arrived
a couple years ago, the MFCC youth
center asked for volunteers to go door-
to-door knocking in MFCC community
and register people to vote. I decided to
volunteer and the process was
exhausting we had to walk door-to-door
convincing people to vote but
nevertheless we had a great turn out, we
registered almost every house that
wasn’t registered before.
The Imam of our mosque has influence on
the community and everyone looks up to
him and trusts him. When elections
come about, some people wait to see
who he is voting for and he gives his
reasons, reasons that may better the
community or make it worse and some
people go based on his reasoning. There
are many ways to get involved
politically, for example volunteering and
going door-to-door registering people to
vote, working at the election judge ect.
The youth center offers all these
volunteering opportunities and if any
one is interested you may give them a
call and ask too see when is the next
coming elections! 708-430-5666

7. DIRECT STRATEGIES
As I mentioned earlier the Arab-
American community gets a lot of hate
at times and we need to know how to
approach this hate and show that it is
not ignored. The youth center partners
up with AMP and plan rallies around
Chicago. In the past year we had about 4
rallies on Michigan avenue in relation to
Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the
situation that has been going on in Syria
and Egypt. People need to know that
what they see on TV is not completely
true. The SJP (students for justice in
Palestine) here at Loyola is a great club
for the Palestinian cause, they had two
great events this year that showed people
what is really going on in the west bank.
One event I really liked was the
flashmob event , what they did was
silently walk through the IC with posters
and facts on there shirts , this opened the
eyes of many students. Some of the facts
are Innocent kids are being killed,
women are being beat and the Israeli
defense forces are destroying homes. All
we can do is spread awareness by going
to rallies expressing our voices and
spreading the facts. A way all Loyola
students can get involved is by joining
the SJP here on campus it is a great club
and the purpose of the club is too spread
awareness around campus.

8. VOTING ACTIVITIES
The youth center supports many political activities from
presidential elections to the MFCC board member elections. The
youth center organizes many voter registration drives and they
explain to the community who is running and what they are
fighting for. They youth center tends to hold elections at the
actual youth center, last year I was an election judge at the youth
center for the mayor of Chicago elections. Also the youth center
is a strong supporter of going door-to-door registering people to
vote, they have been gathering volunteers for this cause for the
past five years.

9. COMMUNITY/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Due to the fact that the MFCC is such a close community most people in the community
support each others businesses. In the MFCC community there are
doctors, lawyers, dentists, car dealers, store owners ect. The the youth center tends to
offer kids jobs if they need it, and not only the youth center all the businesses around the
area offer kids jobs if they need them.
The youth center also has a leadership workshop at least once a month and there is
never an open seat. They bring professionals to talk about there careers and show the
kids that going to school and staying on the right track will get them somewhere in life.
The lectures also discuss what leadership qualities the kids should posses at the age they
are in now in order to lead themselves to great futures and making the right decisions.

10. DIRECT SERVICES
The youth center does plenty of great direct
service, not only towards the MFCC
community but towards many other
minority communities in Chicago. They
volunteer in many soup kitchens around
Chicago, the youth center is also very active
in habitat for humanities and food drives.
Tutoring is offered every weekday during
the school year to all kids. The reason
behind this is because the public high
schools in the area are very gang friendly
and have a very high drop out rate. So in
order to keep the literacy rate in the Arab
community up to par we offer free tutoring
to keep these kids in school and show them
that with help it is very doable. Tutoring is
not the only thing offered at the youth
center; there is a weight room, a indoor
basketball court ,a game room and a few
rooms filled with desks, computers and
printer for the kids get there studies done.
The youth center is very kid friendly, the
kids think they are coming to have fun but
in reality they are getting there homework
done, doing better in school and walking out
with religious information due to the daily
religious lectures. The main goal of the
youth center is to keep our youth out of
trouble and in safe place while being
productive and for the past 20 years the
MFCC youth center is doing just that. The
youth center is usually always taking
volunteers so give them a call if your
interested. 708-430-5235