It hasn’t been a good year for the immigrant community in Chicago, said Matt DeMateo, a resident and grassroots leader in the Little Village neighborhood.
His team at New Life Centers of Chicagoland, an organization focused on helping underserved families and reducing street violence, had to shift its focus earlier this year to find ways to protect families affected by Operation Midway Blitz, the federal government’s most recent immigration enforcement in the city.
The operation, DeMateo said, filled Chicago’s immigrant communities with fear. Families stopped leaving their homes. Kids stayed home from school. Parents missed work. People were afraid to go to church. Still, DeMateo, the chief executive, rallied his team to keep their heads up, pushing to provide the resources their communities needed.
“We needed to keep safe spaces for our community to avoid more division,” DeMateo said.
Last week, the Chicago Bears surprised DeMateo, naming him the Inspire Change Changemaker Award winner in recognition of his work supporting immigrant and low-income families on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
Former Bears Jerry Azumah and Henry Melton helped deliver the news to DeMateo at the New Life Centers’ food pantry in Little Village. The recognition, which comes with a $10,000 grant, along with the Bears’ current season, “is a bright ray of hope,” for Chicago, DeMateo said.
The Changemaker award is presented annually by each NFL team to someone advancing social justice efforts in their community. Along with the financial award, DeMateo will also be recognized during the Bears game against the Packers on Dec. 20.
“Matt’s work reflects a level of commitment that has made a real difference for families across Chicago,” said Tanesha Wade, executive vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion & chief impact officer for the Bears. “He shows up consistently, listens to community members and responds in ways that create stability, opportunity and trust.”
DeMateo, who has lived in the Little Village area for about 25 years, said the recognition belongs to the larger community of volunteers, staff and residents who have kept New Life’s programs running through crisis after crisis.
“The Changemaker recognition is a huge blessing,” DeMateo said. “It’s not just an award for me, it’s for our entire team and for our community.”
Nonprofits such as New Life have faced increasing financial strain over the last year, losing nearly $2.5 million in funding across the board, according to DeMateo. Those cuts have forced the organization to reduce staffing for its migrant support team from 240 to only 40 people. The $10,000 donation that accompanies the Inspire Change award, DeMateo said, comes at a moment when demand for basic aid, especially food, is growing because of SNAP cuts and holidays.
Matt DeMateo, CEO of New Life Centers in the Little Village neighborhood, on Dec. 2, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
DeMateo has led New Life Centers for more than two decades, expanding the nonprofit from a small faith-based initiative into a major community organization focused on violence prevention, youth programming and food distribution. From his base in Little Village, DeMateo has helped build programs that now mentor roughly 600 young people and run athletic leagues serving more than 2,500 youth. The team also provides free groceries to about 10,000 residents each month through New Life’s Pan de Vida Fresh Market pantry.
In the past three years, the organization became one of the city’s central responders to the arrival of thousands of migrants bused from the southern border. Working with city, state and nonprofit partners, New Life helped open intake centers to greet newly arrived migrants, coordinated housing and distributed hundreds of thousands of basic necessities.
The group’s work has intensified in recent months during Operation Midway Blitz, a federal immigration enforcement surge that has heightened tensions across immigrant neighborhoods, especially Little Village. New Life has also lost staff members to ICE detention, and families have reported sudden disappearances of relatives who were taken into custody without warning.
Azumah, the son of Ghanaian immigrants and married to a first-generation Mexican American woman, said he understands the struggles facing immigrants.
“For us it’s really important, it’s important to give back, to help those in need. It’s been a rough road and everybody needs a little bit of hope,” Azumah said.