Shekinah Jones is a Chicago native and joined the Chicago HOPES for Kids team as a community volunteer. Shekinah works for the city of Chicago as a Senior Emergency Coordinator at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC), and she is always looking for an opportunity to give back to her community. Shekinah chose to volunteer with HOPES because our programs allow her to interact with a wide range of people – students to site coordinators to other volunteers. To Shekinah, being a volunteer means truly loving your community and the people who reside in it. It’s a commitment and sacrifice. “The one thing you can never get back is time and taking the time to build the next generation is an extremely rewarding sacrifice.” Shekinah says the students keep her motivated to continue volunteering. “The kids are awesome and it’s important to me that they know it! They are funny and smart and have so much to offer. Watching them glow anytime they accomplish something, especially when they didn’t think they could make my day! I am their biggest cheerleader!” Her favorite memory so far with HOPES has been when one of her students was struggling with homework, and she worked on it with him. After each answer he got right, his confidence grew! After program that day, he told Shekinah that he couldn’t wait to show his mother and teacher his homework. We are so thankful to have Shekinah on our team and for her service as a community volunteer!