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ICA REPRESENTED ON CHICAGO MAYOR-ELECT'S ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION TEAM

5/9/2019

 
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Last month, Lori Lightfoot was elected as the next Mayor of Chicago, making her the first black woman and first openly gay leader of the third-largest city in the United States. While Lightfoot will not assume office until May 20th, the incoming administration has already been working with ten transition teams representing more than 400 local Chicago leaders. ICA staff member Seva Gandhi is serving on the Environment Committee, whose members have submitted public memos to the administration.
Read the Memos

ACCELERATE77 STORY SHARED AT ASSET-BASED COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

5/9/2019

 
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When Terry Bergdall returned to ICA-USA to serve as CEO in 2009, the organization was in the midst of a missional shift to meet the emerging climate crisis. The City of Chicago was also attempting to respond to climate change, but the government’s approach was to convene expert consultants who crafted environmental programs, and then tried to “sell” them to Chicagoans. ICA believed that this top-down approach to policy-making perpetuated the mentality of treating residents as consumers and in 2011 launched the accelerate77 project to instead show that residents as producers.

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SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS BRING SPRING ENERGY TO MARCH MEETING

4/2/2019

 
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The first Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network (CSLN) meeting of the year carried a sense of new energy with a host of familiar names and faces among the 24 who gathered at Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church.
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Our host, Alvyn Walker, has been deeply involved and active in CSLN for years, just as Windsor Park Church is deeply involved in the life of the South Shore community it calls home. To start the meeting, Alvyn gave a tour of the church, explaining both the challenges and opportunities of maintaining such a community anchor.

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GREENRISE FOCUS OF ICA CEO'S REMARKS AT JUST ECONOMY CONFERENCE

4/2/2019

 
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ICA CEO Ted Wysocki attended the 28th annual Just Economy Conference hosted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) this past month. He highlighted the role of ICA GreenRise as a community anchor on a panel about Strategies for Preventing Displacement.

Ted shared reflections on his experience at the conference on his personal blog, U2CANDO, in a piece titled “Preventing Displacement & Championing Justice”.
Read Ted's blog

BOARD SPOTLIGHT: STACEY DARAIO

4/2/2019

 
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"There is not a corner of our planet, not a system, not an individual that does not need ICA methods... We are standing at a tipping point and need to make a decision for ourselves about how to help our planet, our communities, our fellow humans. We need to come together, stand in our wisdom and contribute to a better way. The ICA methods are the engine that helps us do just that."

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FACILITATION COMES INTO FOCUS WITH ONE EARTH FILM FESTIVAL

3/7/2019

 
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​For the One Earth Film Festival (OEFF), when the credits roll, the conversation is just beginning.

“The One Earth audience experience often flows like this: watch the film, absorb and digest, discuss and identify an environmental action you can take”, reads a piece titled Focus on Facilitators in this year’s Festival Guide. “We want audience members to leave with something they didn’t have when they arrived, be it fresh information, a deeper understanding, a new connection, or a pledge that will set them on a course of action for the planet.”

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RESILIENT CHICAGO PLAN FEATURES INPUT FROM SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS

3/7/2019

 
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A resilient Chicago requires its residents to have clear lines of communication and engagement with its local government.

That was the feedback shared by the Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network (CSLN) ​policy team with a team of representatives from the City of Chicago Mayor’s Office across a series of roundtable meetings in 2017 and 2018. During those roundtables, the Chief Sustainability Officer shared an early working version of a resilience plan for the City of Chicago. Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, the new plan sought to prepare Chicago for shocks and stresses that threaten both residents and the city at large.

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ICA BRINGS TECHNOLOGY AND PARTICIPATION TO LOCAL ELECTION FORUM

3/7/2019

 
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​The cultural landscape of Chicago is often described by its 77 community areas and 231 neighborhoods. The political landscape, however, is defined by its 50 wards, each represented by an elected alderperson who serves on the Chicago City Council, the City’s legislative body.

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ICA CONTINUES TRADITION OF GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

2/7/2019

 
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​ICA Program Coordinator Samantha Sainsbury has joined the ICA International Board as Treasurer, taking over for Seva Gandhi, who has served on the ICAI board since 2013. ICA International (ICAI) is a “global community of non-profit organizations advancing human development worldwide” that works to coordinate efforts and support peer to peer programming among more than 30 member organizations. While these organizations work independently on local issues, they share common values and participatory processes for human development at the individual, community, and organizational levels. Participation in the ICAI Board allows the ICA community to share and learn from innovations to these shared methods by colleagues around the world.

THREE DAYS, THREE WAYS OF FACILITATING CHANGE

2/7/2019

 
While ICA programs are often the frontline for the innovation of our methods, we believe that a multiplicity of perspectives and approaches is necessary to creating sustainable change. When we are not organizing educational series in Uptown, sustainability leaders around Chicago, and facilitation trainers across the United States, our team works to cultivate connections and build the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities through direct facilitation, consultation, and training. We’ve started off strong in 2019, jumping into three ways of facilitating change across three days in late January:
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Copyright 2019 The Institute of Cultural Affairs. All rights reserved
  • About Us
    • Mission & Approach
    • History
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Annual Report
    • Contact Us
    • Jobs
  • Programs
    • International
    • Global Archives
    • Facilitation Services
    • Chicago Sustainability >
      • Accelerate77
      • Sustainability Leaders
    • Uptown >
      • Uptown Garden Walk >
        • 2019
        • 2018
        • 2017
        • 2016
      • Uptown Coastal Initiative
  • ToP Training
  • Building
    • About ICA GreenRise >
      • Restoration Project
    • Conference Center
    • Live at ICA
    • Lease at ICA
    • Tenants & Residents
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Publications
    • Past Events
  • Store
  • Donate