Jennifer Maddox

Founder, Future Ties

2020 Chicago Peace Fellow

Born in Chicago and raised on the South Side, Jennifer O. Maddox is the founder of Future Ties, a not-for-profit organization that provides a safe place where youth can come and experience love, support, and protection. A single mother of two African American males, and a new grandmother to a beautiful grandson, Jennifer holds multiple advanced degrees and has 23 years of service with the Chicago Police Department, currently working in Restorative Justice Division. She fights to educate, protect, and serve communities, and in 2011, she incorporated Future Ties to provide after-school and summer programs to youths and also training in workforce skills and other topics for parents as well as teens of the Woodlawn community, primarily residents of Parkway Gardens Apartments. Jennifer has won multiple awards and honors, including being named one of CNN’s top ten Heroes for 2017 and as “Someone You Should Know” by ABC 7.

Subscribe to the newsletter

Goldin Institute

1235 A N Clybourn Ave. #327
Chicago, IL 60610
+1 (312) 951-1691


Goldin Institute Colombia

Carrera 3 # 17 Sur – 96
Mall Meridiano Novaterra
Mosquera, Cundinamarca, Colombia
+57 315 876 5443


Goldin Institute Tanzania

Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road
Alliance Française Building
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
+255 784 359 641

Privacy Preference Center