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Accelerating Initiatives in Chicago’s 77 Communities
Community-based sustainability initiatives are taking place across the metropolitan area of Chicago. These, however, are often relatively isolated activities with limited interaction between them. Though many organizations, foundations, companies, and government agencies have programs and resources to assist local sustainability efforts, many communities are unaware of these opportunities or unfamiliar with ways to access them.
The ICA is the organizing sponsor of accelerate77, a program aimed at accelerating grassroots sustainability initiatives throughout Chicago’s 77 community areas.
In order to ACCELERATE sustainability in a bottom-up fashion driven by practical action, expanded imagination, and greater organizational capacities among local groups, the underlying strategy is to:
The ICA is the organizing sponsor of accelerate77, a program aimed at accelerating grassroots sustainability initiatives throughout Chicago’s 77 community areas.
In order to ACCELERATE sustainability in a bottom-up fashion driven by practical action, expanded imagination, and greater organizational capacities among local groups, the underlying strategy is to:
IDENTIFYIdentify holistic sustainability (environmental, economic, social) leaders and initiatives in all of Chicago’s 77 community areas.
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CONNECTConnect initiatives with one another to inspire new ideas, practices, self-consciousness and motivation through peer interchange.
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COLLABORATEEngage resident leaders, organizations, and groups in systematic learning, planning, and collaborative collective action.
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Listen and Learn
Starting in the fall of 2011, over 200 students from 5 Chicago-based Universities began to uncover the organizations, initiatives and individuals working at the community level toward creating a more sustainable Chicago. Professors from Chicago State, DePaul, Northeastern Illinois, Loyola and Roosevelt integrated the project into their curricula as a civic engagement component to their courses. During the summer of 2012, over 40 interns from around the US continued to uncover what was taking place at the community level within Chicago. All the students were asked to use an asset-based lens when in the communities.
Goals
- Uncover individuals, organizations and initiatives working towards a more sustainable Chicago. Sustainability can mean a lot of different things, but our team decided to refer to it as something that gave life to the community, and strengthened the community socially, culturally or environmentally.
- Engage with college and post college students and introduce them to basic community organizing methods, asset-based approach to community development, and practical ways of understanding social and environmental justice concerns. We also wanted to get them engaged with the city around them, and involved and excited about community areas in Chicago.
Process & Methodology
The key process was preparing students to take a ‘deep dive’ into learning about an unfamiliar community and started uncovering what systems were at play. This process would both get them more engaged in the area, and surface insightful information on who was organizing and working within the area. The students were given an introduction to community organizing theory and tools, safety guidelines, as well as a background in asset mapping. After an evaluation of the pilot with students from Oklahoma City University, we determined it was successful in achieving both of our goals. We continued to partner with several different university professors and students throughout the city. The project was integrated into course curricula - generally as a civic engagement component. Over 200 students participated in the process, and 8 different classes, covering many different fields of study.
Lessons Learned
- There is an amazing amount of energy at the university level, even though it tends to be an untapped resource for community areas.
- Individuals are willing to do an incredible amount of work and invest their time and energy into something they really believe in.
- Sustainability is a hard term to define perfectly. We were able to make a lot more progress as a team when we created our own working definition of the word.
- Students want to be engaged!
Connection Events
Connection events create opportunities to share knowledge, highlight best practices on emerging trends relating to urban sustainability, and learn about resources available to them.
“Sharing Approaches That Work” Share Fair - Sept 15, 2012
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The culmination of 18 months of exploring and uncovering sustainability initiatives was a Share Fair event that aimed to both showcase and connect individuals, initiatives, and organizations from each of the 77 community areas in Chicago.
In this day-long event at Truman College, participants were able to network, learn about local and city-wide resources available to them, and learn about the city’s plan to promote sustainability. Over 400 people attended the event with over 150 local organizations and initiatives showcasing their work. The three main modules of the event included:
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Building Community Energy Strategies forum - Nov 15, 2013
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Participants began the day by meeting each other, creating images of what they think the future of energy looks like in Chicago, then posting these images on the wall and discussing them with others. Participants then split into three tracks for the day for rich, dynamic discussions about reducing, reinventing and transforming energy in Chicago.
These discussions raised key questions and challenged all of us to think about how we play a role in changing the face of energy in Chicago. |
The forum was organized around three tracks:
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After a day full of engaging interchange, Jamie Ponce, of the C40 initiaitve speaking from the unique lens of the Keynote Listener, commented on the days “who, what, when, where, and why”. He spoke to the rich motivation he witnessed of all the participants that attended the event - which stemmed from all different places, like stewardship, community, faith, policy and social justice. He noted the importance of sharing our stories and quoted a participant from earlier in the day: “If we don’t tell our stories, how will anyone know them?”
faith and sustainability forum
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The Faith traditions have played significant roles in social movements throughout history and in the current Climate Change debate. This forum showcased local action happening in Chicago while also pushing the participants to tackle hard questions.
Over 85 participants from communities across the Chicagoland area gathered at the ICA GreenRise to meet like-minds and share approaches on faith based sustainability projects. Event activities included:
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Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network (CSLN)
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The accelerate77 project has led to the formation of the Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network (CSLN). As the organizing sponsor of the network, ICA is currently engaging members of the CSLN, a network of local activists and community organizations/organizers throughout Chicago, in collaborative change making efforts.
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