(Photo by Mateo Zapata/@mateoxzapata)
The family of Adam Toledo will share plans at an upcoming community meeting about a proposed site for at-risk youth, a media release from Adam’s Place said on Monday.
The community meeting will be held this Wednesday at the Potosi High School Livens Auditorium in Potosi, Wisconsin. Members of the Toledo family will be in attendance, along with their attorneys Adeena Weiss Ortiz and Joel Hirschhorn, who heads up the nonprofit Adam’s Place organization.
Adam’s Place was founded in memory of the 13-year-old Toldeo, who was killed by a Chicago police officer earlier this year.
According to the media release, boys in residence at Adam’s Place would attend Potosi schools. The plans said that the resident would be built on a 70-acre parcel, less than one mile west of Potosi. The Wisconsin town is about a 3.5-hour drive from Chicago.
“Fifty acres will remain in cultivated farmland under a three-year lease with the current tenant farmer with most of the remaining 20 acres in pasture for grazing cattle and sheep. The purchase of the property was completed July 2,” the release said, noting that the facility would include “a small welcome center and administrative office; a barn; and a 5,000 square foot split-level home to house no more than 10 boys, along with an attached apartment for the house parents and their family.”
“In establishing Adam’s Place, the Toledo family wants to help other families who struggle, as they did, to keep their sons away from the lure of the streets and out of harm’s way. Adam Toledo was shot by Chicago Police Officer Eric Stillman on March 29 when he complied with the officer’s order to stop running and show his hands. Footage from a police camera shows Adam standing with his hands raised and empty as he is shot once in the chest. An investigation into Adam’s death is ongoing,” the release added.
According to the release, Adam’s Place has raised close to a third of its $1 million goal—all from private donations. Adam’s Place added that it will be modeled on Boys Farm in Newberry, S.C, noting that “the mission of Adam’s Place is to provide a safe and nurturing haven in a rural setting where at-risk youth from Chicago and other Midwestern cities can develop skills, values, and self-worth by learning to care for the natural world, others, and themselves.”
“Every child’s life matters, every child deserves the opportunity to thrive and grow into a decent, honest, kind, respectful, educated, and productive person… If we can save even one child from life on the streets, the time, emotional, and monetary investment will be well worth our efforts,” Hirschhorn said.
