Anjanette Young, victim of wrong raid, using fundraising effort to help others seek justice

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    CHICAGO, IL (WBBM) — A GoFundMe page has been set up for Anjanette Young, who was the victim of a wrongful Chicago police raid, and so far it has raised nearly $45,000.

CBS 2’s Meredith Barack talked with Young about what she plans to do with all that money.

Inside her church, where she finds comfort and peace, Young reflected on the past few days.

“I’ve had so many people reach out to me offering support,” she said. “It’s been somewhat overwhelming.”

When a professor from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration saw CBS 2’s report, she asked Young, a social worker, if she could set up a GoFundMe page. Young agreed but said she does not want the money.

“I want to be able to honor the code of being a social worker, advocating and supporting others, uplifting the community,” she said.

Young said if it weren’t for her church and its social justice ministry, her healing process would have looked a lot different, so now she is paying it forward.

“I want to be intentional on what I do with this experience that God has given me,” she said. “I don’t like it. I wouldn’t have asked for it. But now I have it, and what do I do with it? I was like the church that I’m a part of has a social justice and counseling ministry. It’s how I got connected to my attorney.”

She plans to donate every single dollar raised through the GoFundMe page to the social justice and counseling ministry at Progressive Baptist Church where she is a longtime member.

“We’re able to offer legal clinic services free to the public,” said Senior Pastor Charlie Dates.

Dates said he could have never imagined providing resources for for Young.

“She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would need the benefit of justice ministry, but that goes to show you how jacked up our city really is,” he said.

Young said she wants the money to help those who may feel helpless or alone. It’s how she felt after her home was wrongly raided while she was naked and afraid. It was her pastor who comforted her in the aftermath.

“I want to make sure that people in the city of Chicago know that it exists and know that it’s not about the church. It’s about us helping the community. That’s what we really want to be about and that’s what I’m about as a social worker. I want to give back. I want to help,” she said.

A lot owned by the church will eventually house the ministry that is expected to be complete in the fall of 2021. That is where the money will go.

“She’s the perfect person, in an unfortunate sense, to be in this circumstance because like Rosa Parks she defies all of the common characteristics of a person who would otherwise be the victim of police brutality,” Dates said. “We’re hoping that much good will come from this highlight to benefit other people in our city.”

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