A young man appears at a rectory door, terrified. He is trying to get out of a gang, and the members are threatening his life. Rev. Gary Graf, new pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Waukegan, remembers a leaflet he received at a meeting only days earlier. The leaflet advertises Gang Outreach services, coordinated by John Hernandez.
A phone call and a short time later, Hernandez arrives at the rectory and is able to spirit the young man away to a safe house in Chicago. “It’s like the underground railroad,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez, 44, is a short, unassuming man, often dressed in jeans and a baseball cap, who smiles shyly when he meets you. For a year, before his March 1995 meeting with Graf, he had been fighting gangs through prayer meetings at Lake County churches and in one-on-one contacts with members.
“I believe in what he is doing, and I see him as a spiritual person,” Graf said. “He wanted to expand his program, and I wanted to do what I could to facilitate that.” As a result, Graf has extended the use of church space for programs.
Gang Outreach had its roots in an incident two years ago when Hernandez was doing community outreach for the Abundant Life Church in Mundelein and a young woman asked him to visit her brother in the hospital. The boy had been beaten by gang members in a drug deal. After the visit, Hernandez and the young woman prayed together in the hospital chapel, and she beseeched him to “do something.”
A conscientious objector in the 1970s, Hernandez came to Chicago from Ft. Wayne, Ind., to do alternative service in lieu of joining the military. He worked in several programs, including Teen Challenge, a drug rehabilitation residency program. After that he was ordained in the non-denominational Church of the Atonement in Jesus in Skokie and eventually moved to Mundelein to work for Abundant Life with his wife, Barbara, whom he had married in 1976.
After his experience with the sister of the victim of gang violence, Hernandez immediately started organizing prayer meetings in various churches. “People need to pray over this problem,” he said, indicating that it is growing in Lake County and serious enough to warrant the attention of everyone who lives in the county. “The most important thing the average person can do is admit there is a problem.”
With the availability of meeting space, plus the donation of an office in Waukegan by the Urban League of Lake County, Hernandez left his church ministry and began Transitions, a support program for young people wanting to get out of gangs. Under his Gang Outreach banner, he passes out handbills in neighborhoods that he considers at risk for gang formation and makes his program known to others fighting the same problem, such as teachers and probation officers. “I’m a good networker,” he said.
Meetings consist of group support, discussions, prayer, refreshments and recreation. Transition members rise to higher levels as they accomplish certain goals, such as acts of community service (neighborhood cleanups, for example), and show evidence of positive change such as cessation of profanity.
At some meetings there are as many as 25 attending, at others as few as five. Only three teens have successfully completed the program, but success is not measured in numbers, Hernandez said, adding that 14 youths dropped out of a gang after just one Transitions meeting.
Ted, 27 (who does not want his real name used), had been in gangs for 16 years and has a long arrest record. When he came out of prison earlier this year, he knew he had to change, partly because of the pain he was causing his family. “You do not go to jail alone,” he said.
He was referred to Hernandez, whom he calls a “man with a mission, who has a heart for kids.” A member of Transitions, Ted also speaks to families, pointing out danger signs of gang activity, and to teenagers who live in neighborhoods with gang activity.
This year Hernandez began a Thursday summer program for younger children who live in the neighborhood around Holy Family’s Lakeshore Youth Center. Food, organized games and the Waukegan Township Art Etc. mobile studio were featured as well as what Hernandez calls God Rap, a combination of conflict-resolution training, role playing and biblical application, such as the story of the Good Samaritan.
“Society addresses the physical and educational needs of kids but not the spiritual,” he said. “We do not represent any one church. We just encourage them to be involved with some church.” About 40 children from 4 to 12 years old attended the summer program regularly.
Maria Ordonez of Winthrop Harbor, a 21-year-old senior at Marquette University in Milwaukee, volunteered to help with the summer program, as did her brother Orlando, 19, and sister Perla, 15. A social work major who plans to go to law school, Ordonez said, “I am aware of the gang problem in the area, and I wanted to do something to help. My parents left Nicaragua seeking freedom, and (gang members) are infringing on that, taking away people’s freedom.
“I would like to do child advocacy when I get my law degree,” she added, “and John has been an inspiration. He is such a good-hearted person.”
In addition to the regular programs, Hernandez is available to speak at schools, along with former gang members; tries to arrange funding for tattoo removal when necessary; and serves as police chaplain for the Village of Mundelein, often riding along with officers to help defuse potential problems.
On call 24 hours a day, he still works one-on-one with troubled youth and often goes to court with them, sometimes as an advocate, sometimes just to hold the hands of family members as a youthful offender is sentenced.
“He’s a one-person show, and one-on-one is a slow process,” Graf said. “He’s not going to change the scene in Waukegan, but there are individuals who will benefit from his work.”
Mundelein Police Chief Ray Rose said, “For one man to take on a crusade like this is commendable. What makes him unique is he is not focused on one community but looks at the problem countywide. Because there is so much movement, he links the communities. We view him as a valuable resource, to help both the kids and the police officers.”
“No one else is doing what he is in Lake County,” said Carol Yates, project director of Lake County Fighting Back, a liaison for community groups working to promote healthier communities. “I admire his enthusiasm and dedication.” Working out of an adjacent office, she finds that Hernandez often is the one who “makes us laugh, who brightens our day.”
Gang Outreach has no funds except what individuals or organizations donate, and that suits Hernandez fine. “Things get too complex if they get too big,” he said. “I want to stay grass roots.”
He works in food service for United Airlines in Elk Grove Village to pay his own bills and devotes Wednesdays and Thursdays (his days off) to the Gang Outreach program. His wife is employed as payroll and benefits administrator for Bradley Real Estate in Northbrook. They have no children.
Barbara Hernandez does not begrudge her husband the time he devotes to his ministry because she is busy with her own: assisting the poor in Waukegan and Round Lake through Living Word Outreach Church of Ingleside.
Besides, he was an activist when she met him. “Not many people are willing to do what he does,” she said. “He is gentle and kind-hearted, but he can stick to his guns and be tough when he has to.”
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Hernandez can be contacted at 847-249-0558.
