Inspire. Empower. Revitalize.

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How it Started…

Eye Love You Summer Camp began in 2015. Kamal Bilal, and a team of 20 young adults raised over $6,000 to provide a free, one week program to 40 students. The camp was located in the South Side of Chicago, targeting underprivileged, high potential youth, ages 4-11. We gave the children the opportunity to express themselves through sports, art and dance. Our campers received three home cooked, healthy meals a day and were educated on topics such as financial literacy, food nutrition, and multicultural history.

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2017…

In 2017, we hosted the camp again. This time it was for 4 weeks. We raised over $23,000 and served 100+ students! This year we focused on creating an Eye Love You pedagogy that focused on: identifying strengths and encouraging individuality; exploring new ideas and environments; as well as alternative discipline methods. We financially empowered the surrounding community by hiring 30 local, teenagers and young adults to help with the camp. This year we added weekly field trips, brought in guest speakers, and had the campers undergo daily meditations every morning.

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2020…

This summer we had a goal to raise $100,000 and serve close to 200 students. However, due to COVID-19 we had to change our course of action. Instead of a summer camp, this May, we raised $20,000 through private donations and distributed the funds to 60 families, artists and entrepreneurs across the Chicago-land area. After seeing the impact we had, we wanted to do more! In June, we started a campaign to raise $50,000 in order to continue impacting our local residents. We want to provide as much support as we can to our community leaders, influencers, and small business owners, especially in challenging times such as these. We have 5 new projects that you can view in our initiatives page.