Olive-Harvey College Named Beneficiary of Scholarship Funds
Chicago, IL -- City Colleges of Chicago has received $240,000 from the Meatchem Youth Center. This gift has been deposited into the newly-created Mother Rose Meatchem Scholarship endowment fund in the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation."; var txt2="Monies will be used to provide a perpetual source of scholarships for students enrolled at Olive-Harvey College.
“We are honored and proud to be the recipient of such a generous gift,” says City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Wayne D. Watson. “Mother Rose Meatchem devoted her life – more than half a century – to helping at-risk youth in Chicago. The scholarships we create in her name embody the spirit and joy she shared with thousands, and continue her important work.”
Olive-Harvey College was chosen as the scholarship site because of its geographic proximity to the area where Mother Meatchem lived and worked. ";
var txt3="“Olive-Harvey serves the same communities that we served,” says St. Clara Jordan, Executive Director of the Meatchem Youth Center. “Olive-Harvey – indeed, all of the City Colleges of Chicago –
holds the same philosophy that the Meatchem Youth Center holds, which is, every young mind should be nurtured and valued.”
Rose Meatchem founded the Meatchem Youth Center in 1945, in response to what she felt was a very real need in her southside neighborhood to engage young people in meaningful activity. “All my life I’ve known that juvenile delinquency is easier to prevent than to cure,” she explained prior to her death in 1990. “Black children, all children, need things to keep them busy and out of trouble. But most of all, they need love, love for themselves, and for God.”
Meatchem referred to the children at the Youth Center as “my daughters and sons.” "; var txt4="(She had one biological child, a daughter, Florence.) One of the boys attending the center, who later became a minister, began calling her Mother Meatchem. The name stuck, and she became known as Mother Rose Meatchem by all.
In 1975, Mayor Richard J. Daley named Mother Rose Meatchem to Chicago’s Senior Citizens Hall of Fame for having made “significant and continuing contributions to the social and cultural life of Chicago and the metropolitan area.” For more than 24 years, Mother Meatchem also hosted a regular Sunday evening broadcast on WVON-AM.
During its 58 years of operation (1945 to 2003), the Meatchem Youth Center never accepted city, state or federal funds. All funding came from private donations. The $240,000 contribution to City Colleges of Chicago represents all of the remaining assets of the center, including proceeds from the sale of the Meatchem Youth Center building. The center is now officially dissolved, “but the mission continues, albeit along a different path,” adds Jordan.
Contributions to the Mother Rose Meatchem Scholarship Fund are welcome and may be sent to the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation, 226 W. Jackson Blvd., 10th Floor, Chicago, Illinois, 60606. For more information, please call (312) 553-2780.
The City Colleges of Chicago Foundation [CCCF] is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) tax exempt corporation operated exclusively for educational purposes to assist in developing and augmenting the resources and carrying out the educational mission and functions of the City Colleges of Chicago. CCCF’s current operation is primarily focused on providing scholarships to students enrolled at the City Colleges of Chicago.
The City Colleges of Chicago [CCC], Community College District 508, is a system of seven independently accredited colleges. CCC includes Richard J. Daley College, Kennedy-King College, Malcolm X College, Olive-Harvey College, Harry S Truman
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var txt5 ="College, Harold Washington College, and Wilbur Wright College. WYCC-TV Channel 20, a public broadcast station, is also part of the City Colleges system.
CCC provides four essential services. They are: Liberal Arts Education (associates degrees and certificates); Occupational Education (workforce training); Adult Education (General Education Development, English as a Second Language, Adult Basic Education); and Continuing Education (programs that add value to the quality of life). For more information about the City Colleges of Chicago, call (773) COLLEGE or visit www.ccc.edu
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