A two-bedroom apartment stands at 1417 Meadow Court. There's no name on the lease, yet the rooms are rarely empty, and the doors are always open.
The apartment, known as Buddy House, is known as a place of solace for the residents ofBlackhawk Courts, a public housing project in southeast Rockford.
"When we fi rst got the apartment, (Rockford Housing Authority) didn't have any idea what I meant to do," said Ruth Fairchild, who started Buddy House in 2001. “I said, ‘I have lived in housing and I know what you need to do in order to stop the crime — because people are getting hurt and the kids are frightened.’ I got in at the right time.”
Fairchild, 70, grew up in public housing in Chicago, and has made it her life’s mission to help others in similar situations. By partnering with Zion Lutheran Church, she has turned the two-bedroom apartment she once rented into a place for residents, specifically children, of Blackhawk Courts to feel safe.
“They have fun with each other,” she said. “Here they’re carefree and happy. If someone comes in here sad, they don’t leave that way.”
Buddy House is especially relevant in the wake of a Sept. 27 fatal shooting at Blackhawk Courts. A suspect was arrested Oct. 22.
A safe place
Janice Forrest manages Buddy House with Fairchild, or as most residents call them, Miss Ruth and Miss Janice. Together they host children’s activities including after-school help with homework and movie nights, as well as provide a safe place to play and get a hot meal.
“I can see the benefits of just being here for them, and talking with them and helping them with their homework,” Fairchild said. “This place, I can’t tell you in enough words how valuable it is.”
In addition to supporting the children, Buddy House welcomes parents of the community.
“The ladies will come here, when they’re so stressed out from being beat up, being talked about, whatever,” Fairchild said. “They have just asked can they come and sit quietly. I let them take a bath and do their finger nails. They know that this is a safe place.”
Community service
One of the main problems Fairchild sees in adults in public housing is a lack of direction.
“People come and talk and they tell you what they would like to do, but they have no hope,”she said. “If they can talk to someone who has hope, who has lived in housing, they ask, ‘Well, how did you get a degree?’ They just ask you all the questions so that they can do it, too. I encourage them always to get certified in something. I’m not always advocating that they go to college. I’m advocating that you do what you enjoy doing. Then it’s not work.”
For unemployed residents in Rockford Housing, eight hours of community service hours are required each month. Buddy House helps make those hours accessible to Blackhawk residents.
“Janice gets a tremendous amount of community service hours through the Buddy House,”Fairchild said. “The women like it because they don’t have to dress up — because first of all they don’t have the clothes — and most of them don’t have transportation to go get any. The kids like it because they can get dirty.”
A second chance
Buddy House is across the street from the housing project’s community garden.
Blackhawk Farms and Garden began more than five years ago as a partnership betweenAngelic Organics Learning Center, Zion Outreach and Rockford Housing Authority. It is planted and maintained by the residents, and its produce is available to them at all times.
Yatte Moore, the manager of the farm, is one of Fairchild’s success stories.
“I thought I was going to be stuck out here, never going to make it out,” Moore said.
“When you don’t have a job, and you go out looking for a job, it was hard because nobody was hiring. I wasn’t going to make it. But it changed when Janice gave me a second chance, and I took that and ran with it.”
That choice was not something Forrest took lightly.
“Everybody deserves a second chance,” she said. “And ever since I gave him one — no pajamas, no cussing, no smoking, no stealing, none of that.
“He’s been a perfect example. They respect him. He’ll be out here in this garden, and he’s got like 10 kids following him. They all want to do everything because they feel like they’re working for Yatte, and it’s really beautiful to see.”
Anita Henderson (left) and Yatte Moore meet at the Buddy House on Oct. 25, 2016. Moore is the garden manager for Blackhawk Gardens and Henderson is incoming president of Blackhawk Resident Council. "I thank God for the buddy house," Henderson said. "Because when you're here they show that they're concerned and they care about each other." KAYLI PLOTNER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/RRSTAR.COM
Like a family
Looking back, Moore said he never expected to make much of his life, let alone be a role model for someone else.
“I’m not their biological father, but those are all my kids,” he said. “I think that’s what they need, a positive male role model, because there’s not a lot of us out here doing that.
“By me being one of the few that have moved in, moved up and moved out to my own spot but still work out here is great because the kids still look up to me.”
Moore’s success does not go unnoticed by other members of the community.
Anita Henderson, a Blackhawk resident, does most of her community service through BuddyHouse and the garden.
“I thank God for the Buddy House because when you’re here they show that they’re concerned and they care about each other,” she said.
“This is a good place to show kids that they’re not alone and somebody cares about them.We’re like a family here.”
— Kayli Plotner: 815-987-1391; kplotner@rrstar.com; @kayplot