About

Our Mission

EarthHeart Foundation connects, celebrates & educates mothers as community change leaders and peace builders. We believe mothers are the catalyst for change in their community, block by block, mom by mom.

Our STORY

Founded in 2012, EarthHeart Foundation began as a support group to help mothers in the overburdened neighborhoods of Englewood and Woodlawn on Chicago's South Side. The goal was to empower women to become community leaders and peace builders in their community.

What sparked the effort? Watching the local news night after night and seeing kids killed on the streets of Chicago, our founder Dede Koldyke decided she had to get involved. As a mother herself, her heart was breaking as she saw the violence happening on the news every night. In her words, "I lived a very privileged life and while this was happening in a community where I didn't live, I just couldn't sit back any longer and watch."

Trained as a family therapist, Dede says her instincts were not just to help impoverished mothers but to build on their core strengths, including the respect they had in their families and communities—and to foster connection and support. Dede could provide resources, but she wanted those she would help to provide the ideas.

Since then, EarthHeart has offered a weekly support group to mothers living in Englewood and Woodlawn, has funded annual community events, and even installed a peace mural between the two neighborhoods, a permanent symbol of the positive change to come.

 

EVERY MOTHER CAN CHANGE HER WORLD.

 
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Meet the Founder

Deirdre ("Dede") Koldyke is the founder of EarthHeart Foundation. After a successful career as a professional counselor, Dede followed her calling to work with mothers in Chicago’s most at-risk communities. In addition to raising four children, she has a Masters in Management from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from the Family Institute at Northwestern University.