St Cloud Live
Sunday September 1, 2024
Hakima Siyad grew up in an African refugee camp, but worked hard to become a first-generation college student and the community liaison at the St. Cloud COP House
Community Liaison Specialist Hakima Siyad connects the St. Cloud Police Department with the predominantly Somali neighborhood on the south side of St. Cloud. She is shown at the St. Cloud COP House on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Stephanie Dickrell / St. Cloud LIVE
Community Liaison Specialist Hakima Siyad connects the St. Cloud Police Department with the predominantly Somali neighborhood on the south side of St. Cloud. She is shown at the St. Cloud COP House on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Stephanie Dickrell / St. Cloud LIVE
ST. CLOUD — Hakima Siyad did not have much of a childhood. She lived in a refugee camp in Botswana, fleeing the civil war in Somalia with her family. Her father died when she was 10 and, as one of the oldest of 10 children, she had to help care for her siblings.
Now in her 20s, Siyad is living her best life — and helping to build up the St. Cloud community at the same time.
As the community liaison specialist at the first St. Cloud Community Outpost House — known as the COP House — she’s building bridges and fostering relationships between law enforcement and the predominantly Somali population of the southside neighborhood.
It’s the perfect gathering place for neighborhood kids, right next to the Southside Boys and Girls Club and Haws Park.
Because of the house’s success, the St. Cloud Police Department is planning on opening two more. The East End COP House will initially focus on free health care, and is expected to open in early 2025.
But for Siyad, the COP House has meant something more personal, allowing her to live the childhood she never got through the kids she helps, doing the things she never got to do: fishing, sledding, bowling, swimming, soccer, laser tag, basketball, ice hockey, ax throwing, camping, pumpkin carving, petting zoos, a trampoline park and so much more.
From refugee to first-generation college student
Siyad’s family moved to Oregon when she was 14 years old, but they relocated to the Twin Cities to be near other Somali families. She’s the first member of her family to graduate high school and college, ending up at St. Cloud State University. This was a big deal for her very traditional Somali mother.
“I'm surprised my mom still let me move out because that's huge in our culture, moving before marriage," Siyad said. "The plan was I'd finish school and come back."
Siyad was interested in criminal justice — she happened to be watching “Criminal Minds” at the time, she joked — so she got a job working at the front desk at the St. Cloud Police Department. Her skills in interpreting and working with the community got her transferred to the COP House.
“Immediately, I loved it. I'm a very social person. … I love the work that they do. And the more I got more involved … I’m like, I actually like this,” Siyad said.
Full-time at the COP House
Siyad graduated with a double major in criminal justice and psychology in May 2022. After a full-time position at the COP House was created, she was chosen out of 13 applicants, said Ryan Sayre, a sergeant in the St. Cloud Police Department who supervises the COP House.
“Hakima always has an aura around her. She’s worked hard to achieve many things. … But more importantly, she was fun to be around in an interview,” Sayre said. “She does a very good job of listening. And then, number one, you need a good problem solver.”
Siyad said that her mom wasn’t too happy with the development initially.
“But she came, and she met my boss at my graduation … as soon as she met him, she loved him,” Siyad said. “She was like, I'm entrusting you with her. Make sure she’s taken care of.”
Sayre has — even taking Siyad and her family to his home in Alexandria for boating and tubing on the lake with his family.
“They've kind of become a second family,” Siyad said.
Forging connections to provide better services
Early on, Siyad needed to forge connections, specifically with parents. That led to the creation of task forces and community meetings aimed at reducing crime and fentanyl overdoses in the neighborhood through education and enforcement, Sayre said.
Through all the work, Siyad has created great relationships.
“The parents are always around now. And we have a much better … relationship with them," Siyad said.
Her upbringing has given her the skills she needs to mediate disputes and create compromise.
“I do play liaison between my parents and my siblings because my mom is very traditional and my siblings grew up here,” Siyaid said.
Sayre said the community has fully embraced Siyad.
“The kids in the neighborhood absolutely love her," Sayre said. "Anytime that they see her car there, they're ringing the doorbell and want to hang out."
The kids call her “Habaryar,” the Somali equivalent of "Auntie," given to beloved maternal authority figures, similar to terms in the black and Hispanic communities.
All this connection has meant better programming at the COP House, giving the community what it actually wants and needs: practical skills such as swimming and self-defense, basic needs such as school supplies and winter coats and more nebulous skills such as confidence and teamwork.
“She brings her life experiences … a good perspective of a culture that most of us don't know a lot about,” Sayre said.
The COP House work has been good for the officers, too, getting them out of the daily grind of policing.
“And sometimes the officers have way more fun than the kids,” Siyad said. “I'm like, are we doing this for the officers or the kids?”
The next step
Siyad is going back to school for a master’s degree in social work so she can help with the community’s mental health issues, planning to graduate in May 2025. Sayre was one of the people who pushed her to go back to school.
She is surprised how far she's come, from her start in an African refugee camp.
“There was no future. Like, a lot of the girls I grew up with, you just get married off with a bunch of babies,” Siyad said. “There were times when I got really depressed. ‘What do I have to look forward to?’”
The opportunities she’s gotten are apparent when she connects with friends who are still there.
“I feel like that's why I've taken advantage of all opportunities, like traveling, school. Not a lot of people get that,” Siyad said. “It just makes me grateful … and I'm like, make the most of it.”
People served by COP House in 2023
Backpack giveaway: 400 people
4-day soccer camp: 420 people
Police Activities League: 430 people
Fishing crew: 111 people
Hoops: 110 people
Youth hockey: 96 people
Swim club: 12 people
Self-defense: 42 people
Total for youth programs: 1,020 people
Total for all programs: 1,658 people
Note : These numbers are the people served in each program, not the total number of individuals who used programs. People can and do participate in multiple programs.