Maressa Ellis: Model Citizen

Maressa Ellis is the person kids and teens from the neighborhood turn to when they’re scared, need someone to talk to… or have broken the law.

Famously, she walks around with a little black book, attends almost every community council meeting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, taking copious notes for her own personal record. She even has 79th Precinct police officers’ cell phone numbers on speed dial, and will not hesitate to call one when trouble unfolds.

And although she is not an officer, Maressa is the first person her neighbors will text in the middle of the night when violence erupts in their home. She is the one kids reach out to, if an older family member is unresponsive after a night of too much drinking. And she is the person they call if they need help filling out a job application or paperwork for social services.

And when they’re in trouble with the law, some of the teens even go to her first and confess to her. Maressa often is able to convince them to turn themselves in.

“They trust me, because I grew up with their fathers and mothers, I’ve babysat some of them,” said Ellis, 41. “And I’ve seen them mature.

"And then, I’ve seen them turn.”

Maressa has watched it all happen. She can tell the most unnerving stories of households so dysfunctional, the father is serving 15 years; the new boyfriend is selling drugs out the house, playing the kids' playstations all day while also pressuring them into the business. There's sexual abuse. The mother is complicit. There’s multiple children, so the grandmother is helping raising them, and so on and so on...

“And so of course they get lost. Their entire homelife is out of control. And this isn’t one household; there’s multiple households like this.”

Ellis is so connected to the lives of the young people in her neighborhood, she says, because she loves them. And as a native Brooklynite, she understands them.

However, even has a young girl born and raised in Brooklyn and parts of the Bronx, Ellis’ childhood was nothing like the rough and violent ones she sees today. She went to private schools all of her life. Her parents were strict, community activists, and they emphasized the importance of education.

Ellis modeled as a teenager, studied biochemistry in college believing she could find a cure to cancer. But she switched her major to broadcast journalism after she learned curing cancer would take years, and instead focused on her love for journalism.

By most accounts, Ellis’ life was rather charmed. She was beautiful, educated, came from a strong family. She never imagined 20 years ago she would be doing what she does today, which is volunteering pretty much full-time on dozens of committees in the community and trying to make an impact in the lives of troubled teens.

But she loves Bedford-Stuyvesant. And she admits, it bothers her to see so many bright and beautiful children of this community unable to access a real, proper childhood. That, and the violence are the two biggest reasons she has stayed in the community and decided to get involved with the 79th Precinct police community council.

“I’ve never been a victim of crime. But I’m affected by it,” said Ellis. “I feel we all are victims when you’re constantly awakened by gunshots, and police helicopters are hovering over you at 3:00 in the morning. This is my community. But when you don’t have a peace of mind in your community, yeah, you are a victim, because it becomes a quality of life issue.

“And something must be done about it. I don’t think we need more police presence; I think we need more people willing to become active in the community. We need our political leaders to step up to the plate, instead of only coming out when a police brutality case happens. We wouldn’t have to worry about police brutality if more of us were out there policing each other, and there was some kind of balance.”

Right now, Ellis is getting more involved in addressing the living conditions for the elderly in public housing. She’s also trying to raise awareness about the rise in robberies involving electronics, a fast-growing problem she says is fueled by the hundreds of local bodegas in the neighborhood who are buying the phones back from the kids and selling them on the black market.

“We’re so focused on the kids who are doing the robberies, but we’re not looking at the biggest counterparts to the crime, which are the local bodega owners,” said Ellis. “Now you know this little 15-year-old boy you’ve seen grow up dirt poor does not own the 4 or 5 iPhones he keeps selling you, give me a break.

“But you don’t care where he got it from or how he got it. You just want to make your $300 sale on eBay or Craig’s List. The bottom line is, these storeowners don’t care how their actions are affecting Bed-Stuy or any of these poor communities, because it’s not their community. We need to address this, instead of continually locking up these kids.”

You can find Maressa Ellis, without fail, at the monthly 79th Precinct community council meetings. She’s the one with the long legs (a vestige of her modeling days) standing in the back, writing furiously in her famous little black book.

Look for her if you’d like to get involved in the community. She’ll know where to point you.