Pastor Corey Brooks, a community leader on Chicago's South Side, argues that the welfare state has systematically broken Black families by promoting dependency and fatherlessness, but that work-based programs can help restore the American Dream. Brooks, founder of Project H.O.O.D., recently highlighted how government policies over the past 60 years have targeted Black women, separating them from the opportunities that define American life. He pointed to comments by Christian Maxwell, the Republican nominee for Illinois' 1st Congressional District, who said Black women must begin seeing themselves as fully American rather than as victims for the nation to unify.
Brooks has spent two decades on the South Side witnessing what he calls a divorce between Black women and the American Dream. He argues that the War on Poverty, launched with good intentions, created a set of rules that punished mothers for having a man in the house while financially rewarding them for having more children without one. This, he says, incentivized the breakup of families and trapped generations in a cycle of dependency. Brooks emphasized that these women did not choose the system but were born into it, and his frustration is directed at a bureaucracy that asked them to trust it more than themselves.
Under Project H.O.O.D., which stands for Helping Others Obtain Destiny, Brooks focuses on helping mothers make what he calls the leap from a government check to a paycheck. He describes a real financial gap—sometimes $20,000—that a mother must earn on her own before independence becomes more profitable than dependency. The program provides training and resources in skilled trades and public service, enabling participants to find stable careers. Brooks cited examples such as a mother of four who completed electrician training and now works at an electrical contracting company, and a mother of two who passed the police exam on her third attempt and became a respected officer.
Brooks argues that the government deliberately creates this gap to keep people trapped, but that faith in their own abilities and access to practical training allows mothers to cross into self-sufficiency. He contrasts the lack of celebration when someone receives a welfare check with the joy of earning a first paycheck, renting an apartment, or dining out—a genuinely American story. For Brooks, this is not charity but the restoration of what was already rightfully theirs before government intervention.
The pastor believes that the trades and work-based programs are the key to reconnecting Black women and Black families with the American Dream. He echoed Maxwell's view that when Black women fall in love with this country, the nation will unify like never before. Brooks sees Black women as a powerful force capable of breaking the progressive coalition built on grievances, and he calls on them to embrace their role as full participants in American society.
Brooks' message is rooted in personal observation and a conviction that dependency has been systematically promoted as the safest choice for mothers. By providing resources and belief in their potential, Project H.O.O.D. aims to restore dignity and opportunity. The pastor's work is a direct challenge to the welfare policies he believes have fractured families, offering a path toward economic independence and national unity.