VALLEJO — Jameelah Hanif got the keys to the new facility for her nonprofit Watch Me Grow a week ago. This morning she received a call that the freshly-painted building had been vandalized.
The glass doors and surrounding facade were coated with thick beige and red paint. Old tires, a mattress and other garbage were piled in front of the door. Dirt had been shoveled out of the planter boxes and strewn on the sidewalk. And a racial slur was scrawled on the debris.
Watch Me Grow has provided youth services online and in Vallejo schools for a decade, according to Hanif, but has never operated in a permanent location. Its first-ever center was scheduled to open Aug. 11 with an after school program and community resources.
Looking at photos of the wreckage Hanif said “My head is hurting, I’m crying.”
A small group of people gathered Friday evening to show support and clean up the mess. They scraped paint off the windows and sidewalk and swept the dirt.
Councilmember Mina Loera-Diaz was among the people who attended on Friday evening. “When these things happen, people have to speak up, and people have to step forward and we have to unite,” Loera-Diaz said. “We have to show that in our town we're not going to tolerate these types of things.”
Vallejo City Unified School District Trustee Carlos Flores said members of his union, District Council 16, plan to help Hanif paint next weekend.
“We need to make a strong statement to the community that we're here to protect the kids. We're here to protect Jameelah and the work she’s doing,” Flores said. “If intimidation and fear is their goal, they didn't succeed.”
Hanif said that the facility is needed by the surrounding community.
“This place was going to be opened up to everybody, really. The kids will come after school,” Hanif said. “Anytime kids are here of course certain people can't come inside, but during the day, we'll have a closet with clothes, with food, we’ll have computers, job placement, resume building workshops, things to help strengthen the community.”
“All I’m trying to do is help,” Hanif said. Her voice cracked as she said “Just got the keys last week.”
A GoFundMe has been started to raise money to repaint the center and to purchase safety equipment.
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