20 People to Watch - Malika Whitley

Malika Whitley’s old house looks haunted. Boarded-up windows. Overgrown weeds. Even the mini satellite-dish antenna barely clings to life on the roof’s edge. But in her eyes the abandoned property at 874 Dill Ave. in Oakland City still houses joyful memories. It’s the last place she called home before experiencing unaccompanied homelessness in her teens.

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That’s not a fact she’s been extremely public about in the past. But after she shared some of her story with a panel of judges in October, Whitley won more than their hearts.

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The 26-year-old founder of ChopArt, a nonprofit that empowers homeless and at-risk teens through avenues of creative expression, emerged victorious from a pool of roughly 70 candidates and five finalists to win the nonprofit its first grant. The $5,000 A3C Action grant will pay for 18 youths to attend ChopArt’s 2016 arts summer camp. It could also help turn what has largely been a one-woman show backed by unpaid volunteers into a sustainable vision. Meanwhile, Whitley remains focused on ensuring that one of Atlanta’s most overlooked homeless populations knows that it counts.

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The former National Black Arts Festival intern started ChopArt on a whim during a 2010 internship abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, while attending Oglethorpe University. The sight of children from a nearby township dancing and singing in the streets inspired her to begin a music mentorship program linking the youth with professionals from the recording studio where she worked. She expanded the program to India the following year during a subsequent study abroad.

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As both an advocate and survivor, Whitley describes youth homelessness as a “breeding ground” for Atlanta’s sex trafficking industry — particularly due to the anonymity of unaccompanied youth. The organization she started to help others break that cycle has also helped her find her own voice. “I was so fortunate to get out of that,” says Whitley, who began experiencing bouts of homelessness at 16 while attending Washington High School. “A lot of the kids around me were homeless. A lot of us were going through the same thing, we just weren’t talking about it.”

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Even before enrolling in college, Whitley made herself at home on Oglethorpe’s campus. “You know those things where they say, ‘Come and spend a weekend and get to know the campus.’ I was at all of them,” she says. Though she laughs today about taking advantage of those extended campus visits, the pain fueling her passion resides just below the surface.

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Whitley eventually launched a ChopArt chapter three years ago in Atlanta, where she relies on a host of volunteers, in-kind support, gifts from board members, and personal funding to provide a mix of shelter outreach, summer camps, and year-round programming. The nonprofit partners with other service organizations to offer young people hands-on exposure to a range of creative disciplines to help them create artwork that raises awareness of youth homelessness.

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Last summer, 9,000 young people participated in ChopArt’s government-funded programming in Hyderabad, India. That’s massive compared to the 185 participants in Atlanta last summer.

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The difference in those numbers further highlights what Whitley calls “the hidden nature of youth homelessness in Atlanta.” Due to the underestimated scope, insufficient resources, and overly restrictive state regulations regarding the reporting of unaccompanied minors, homeless teens tend to fall through the cracks. The problem is so elusive that Georgia State University spearheaded a study this year to count the number of homeless children and young adults in the city. While Whitley and other such service providers estimate 2,000-2,500 homeless kids are on the street every night, only about 150 beds are available for them according to local homeless advocate Marshall Rancifer, who took part in the official count.

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It’s the people behind the numbers that matter most to Whitley. And her own experiences have given her the gift of empathy and the ability to relate to those invisible to most. “I always think it’s the most ironic calling ever in life,” she says, crediting the kids she’s helped through ChopArt with her own personal growth.

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“I would never be able to talk about my experience if those kids hadn’t had so much courage and trust in me,” she says. “It never would’ve happened. I’d just be walking around here like a damn scab.”