{"id":66030,"date":"2018-01-30T15:38:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T21:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=66030"},"modified":"2018-01-30T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T21:39:06","slug":"10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"10-year-old social entrepreneur\u2019s &#8216;Blessing Bags&#8217; raise awareness about homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Eunice Wang<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Ten-year-old Jahkil Jackson is a young social entrepreneur who founded Project I Am \u2014 an organization to help the homeless \u2014 two years ago. He brings street comfort to homeless people with what he calls &#8220;blessing bags.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Teaming up with volunteers from different local organizations, Jahkil passed out 5,000 blessing bags by the end of 2017. His compassion for the homeless has won him a 2017 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and attention from former president Barack Obama on Twitter. He said he is planning to distribute 6,000 blessing bags this year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"10-year-old social entrepreneur&amp;rsquo;s &#039;Blessing Bags&#039; raise awareness about homelessness\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/253490282?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->As he gets more attention from the public, Jahkil is often invited to give speeches. His mom, Na-Tae\u2019 Thompson, said Jahkil always finishes his speech by saying \u201cMy message for kids is that you don\u2019t have to wait until you are an adult to start your own business or be a changemaker, &#8217;cause you can do it now. We don\u2019t have to wait. I am doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Jahkil Jackson worked with local non-profit Ladies of Virtue to pass out blessing bags and lunch bags at the Lincoln Park Community Shelter. Jan. 20, 2018. (Eunice Wang\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Eunice Wang Medill Reports Ten-year-old Jahkil Jackson is a young social entrepreneur who founded Project I Am \u2014 an organization to help the homeless \u2014 two years ago. He brings street comfort to homeless people with what he calls &#8220;blessing bags.&#8221; Teaming up with volunteers from different local organizations, Jahkil passed out 5,000 blessing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":66032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3912,28,675,3987],"tags":[3544,192],"class_list":["post-66030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2017","category-general-interest","category-social-justice","category-winter-2018","tag-promote","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>10-year-old social entrepreneur\u2019s &#039;Blessing Bags&#039; raise awareness about homelessness - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10-year-old social entrepreneur\u2019s &#039;Blessing Bags&#039; raise awareness about homelessness - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Eunice Wang Medill Reports Ten-year-old Jahkil Jackson is a young social entrepreneur who founded Project I Am \u2014 an organization to help the homeless \u2014 two years ago. He brings street comfort to homeless people with what he calls &#8220;blessing bags.&#8221; Teaming up with volunteers from different local organizations, Jahkil passed out 5,000 blessing [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-30T21:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-30T21:39:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Feature-photo-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"619\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"zhejunwang2018\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"zhejunwang2018\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/\",\"name\":\"10-year-old social entrepreneur\u2019s 'Blessing Bags' raise awareness about homelessness - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Feature-photo-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-30T21:38:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-30T21:39:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/7885a2e7a2108d8dd4a15be5df248a36\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Feature-photo-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Feature-photo-1.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":619,\"caption\":\"Jahkil Jackson was working with Ladies of Virtue on passing out blessing bags and lunch bags at the Lincoln Park Community Shelter.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/10-year-old-social-entrepreneurs-blessing-bags-raise-awareness-about-homelessness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"10-year-old social entrepreneur\u2019s &#8216;Blessing Bags&#8217; 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