This article explores Pastor Corey Brooks’ decade-long effort to build a community center in Woodlawn, highlighting his latest push to raise the final $5 million needed for completion. I interviewed Brooks, supporters, and architects to examine the project's impact, challenges, and the role it could play in reducing poverty and violence.

Corey Brooks, also known as the Rooftop Pastor, has a tall order for his congregation and community. If he pulls off his plan, over a decade of fundraising could come to an end. On Nov. 21, he is asking Woodlawn residents, and anyone in Chicago, to camp out for 72 hours in the cold, in hopes of raising awareness – and the remaining dollars he needs – to get his community center project across the finish line.

“Getting sources of funding has been hard. In the beginning, I never doubted it would be possible, but I did not think it would take this long. Building a center that is $43 million is quite a bit of work, especially when you’re trying to make it debt-free,” Brooks said.

For more than a decade, the CEO of Project H.O.O.D. – a non-profit that provides youth programming to eradicate poverty and violence – has been shouting from the rooftops, literally, to spread the word about his idea. In 2012, he spent three months atop an abandoned motel – now the site of his community center – and announced his intention to demolish it and build something in its place to bring new life to a neighborhood burdened by gun violence, drugs and prostitution. In 2022, he did it again – this time for 11 months – yielding $20 million in donations. Now, Brooks is roughly $5 million short of proving skeptics wrong, and said he thinks a strong turnout on Thursday can turn his “pipe dream” into reality.

“I want to close this thing out so we have a little comfort going into the final building stage,” Brooks said. “I don’t underestimate anything anymore because I’ve seen people give big gifts, and many participate with smaller gifts. So if we were able to get $38 million, we can definitely finish this.”

The Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center is strategically located at the corner of 66th Street and King Drive. It is across Brooks’ New Beginnings Church, which is down the street from the Parkway Garden Apartments along ‘O-block,’ which has been dubbed as Chicago’s most dangerous block. He said he sees the center as a public safety investment that interrupts the status quo in Woodlawn, which through Brooks’ eyes, is poverty and crime.

The 88,000-square-foot, three-story center aims to offer to the community what its name describes: leadership and economic opportunity. Brooks called the combination of recreation, job training, and business development as a “lynchpin” that can combat deep-rooted community problems and empower an underserved population. The facility will feature classrooms; a bank; basketball courts; a fitness room; an auditorium; a swimming pool; a rooftop garden; a ground-floor retail space and restaurants; and job training.

“If you want to stop violence, you’ve got to get guys on the street working legitimate jobs. Work brings dignity and if you can get someone employed, they can respect themselves and others,” Brooks said, referencing the center’s trade school, which will teach construction, auto engineering, welding, HVAC, plumbing, and hospitality.

The center’s workforce development program will provide wraparound services and teach soft skills so members are ready to be hired.

“It’s all about providing what the community is lacking, as well as teaching– not only giving them the fish but teaching them how to fish,” said the CEO of the BNMO design, Negin Moayer, who is helping Brooks bring his vision to fruition. She reached out to Brooks in 2012 after seeing him on TV and offered her architectural services.

“It’s been a long process… through so many ups and downs: Covid, business downturns. For fundraising, people have to see some momentum to pitch in more, so that’s always the challenge in the beginning, and we want to build that trust,” Moayer said.

Funding has been a challenge for Brooks, who said he has relied on media exposure and private family foundations to bring in cash. In February of 2023, Brooks received his biggest financial boost yet: an $8 million grant from Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

“Constructing an 88,000 square foot community hub is a complex undertaking… We are excited that the project is on track for completion in late 2025,” said a RRMF spokesperson. “We hope our investment catalyzes additional investments from funders committed to the same priorities.”

Moayer said now that the concrete is complete, they can start to add structural steel, enclose the building with glass, and begin the interior design process, which involves choosing fixtures, furniture and equipment. Brooks and Moayer reiterated that the estimated time of completion is the winter of 2025.

Temperatures are expected to plunge into the high 30s, potentially bringing snow, through sunrise on Thursday. That is when participants will pitch their tents – in front of the church, their backyards, roofs, or living rooms – to stand in solidarity for Brooks’ cause.

“I’ve been a part of the Pastor’s church since I was little, so I’m excited,” Samiyah Wright, 12, said. “My grandma bought me a new sleeping bag for this, so you can catch me out there at 6 am.”