Rakim Covington, Field Coordinator
Pronoun: He/Him
“As I look back over my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better.”
Rakim Covington, Field Coordinator, was born and raised in Brooklyn, largely by New York’s foster care and group home system. He is an expert on what youth endure in the system and the effects of system involvement on young black and brown people. Moving from the system, to foster care, to a group home, Rakim was eventually released into his mother’s custody before facing a state bid a few years later. With the void the system inevitably creates in any life, he sought the love he craved from family in the streets.
After completing five years in prison, Rakim came to CNHJH and, despite having “felt like [he’d] heard it all before,” kept returning to connect with CNHJH staff. In time, he considered the Center to be an extended family and devoted himself to expanding its reach.
A doting father of a young daughter, he is passionate about meeting young kids he ran the streets with, offering his experience and advice on where they will end up if they fail to pursue their own positive potential. Rakim spearheads recruiting and consults on programmatic issues around violence prevention and youth empowerment work.