Good Neighbor Spotlight: Khaleelah Abdul-Mu'min of Hyde Park
Khaleelah Abdul-Mu’min, originally from Oklahoma City, has been living in Chicago since 1974 and in her Hyde Park home since 1995. She has a background in accounting, but today, all of her passion is poured into her nonprofit South Side Community Services. Founded in 2011, the organization does work in her own neighborhood and other South Side communities like Lawndale, but Abdul-Mu’min’s work also takes her out to the suburbs and as far as Gary, Indiana. South Side Community Services does everything it can to provide people in need with basic necessities.
“We work all over Chicago: North Side, South Side, and the suburbs too,” she says. “Where there is need, we help.”
On the Road
If you call Abdul-Mu’min, chances are you’ll catch her on the go. She used to have an office, but she found herself hardly using it. Now, she works out of her home when she needs to and gets in the car to pick up donations and lend a hand all around Chicagoland.
Food and Clothing Drives
“We are not as glamorous as some other places, but we try to fulfill basic needs,” says Abdul-Mu’min. Her humble words belie just how much work South Side Community Service does for the people it serves.
Each year, South Side Community Services organizes and hosts large food and clothing drives supported by individual donations and partner organizations. Islamic Relief is just one such organization that helps the nonprofit provide food. During Ramadan, South Side Community Services was able to distribute more than 500 food boxes. In September, the organization was able to distribute 6,000 pounds of meat (lamb and beef) to neighborhoods on the South, North, and West sides of the city.
The organization’s food drives helped Abdul-Mu’min realize she wanted to do more to help senior citizens. At one food drive, a woman was late and arrived only when volunteers were already cleaning up. She told Abdul-Mu’min that she missed her only meal of the day.
“I couldn’t believe this was going on. So, we made a commitment to start feeding our seniors,” she says.
Furnishing Homes
Food and clothing are not the only basic needs South Side Community Services provides. The organization also does a lot of work to furnish homes.
“I was surprised by the number of individuals who don’t have furniture in their homes because they can’t afford it,” says Abdul-Mu’min.
Most of the organization’s furniture donors are out in the suburbs. “We travel quite a distance to pick up donations,” she says. That can mean eight- or nine-hour days of driving and heavy lifting to get the furniture to the families who need it.
Job Training
South Side Community Services is also getting involved with job training. The nonprofit is working with an organization to help men and women earn their commercial driving license, which allows them to get jobs driving trucks.
For the Love of Volunteering
South Side Community Services accomplishes everything it does through the hard work of volunteers. Abdul-Mu’min and a crew of about six rotating volunteers drive out to pick up furniture, organize the clothing and food drives, and work with partner organizations to serve people.
One volunteer has been with South Side Community Services for as long as five years, while others come and go, giving time when their busy lives allow it. The nonprofit’s oldest volunteer is 93 years old.
South Side Community Services has a low-profile. You won’t find a website or social media accounts. Instead, a steady stream of word-of-mouth spreads from community to community, reaching people in need and people who can donate goods or their time.
“We don’t do this to receive thanks. We do this because we love helping people,” says Abdul-Mu’min. “We get up early, and we stay up late. We have to love it.”
At Home in Hyde Park
Her work takes her all over Chicago and beyond, but Abdul-Mu’min retains a strong sense of community in her home neighborhood of Hyde Park.
“I come from Oklahoma. There, you know all of your neighbors, their parents, and their kids. The neighborhood raised us,” she says. “In Hyde Park, I found that. I found community. We care for each other, and we do for each other.”