Each year, the Uptown Garden Walk grows. In 2016, a garden hub day at ICA planted the seed that would blossom into the first Garden Walk. The next year, the second Garden Walk aligned with the Out and About Uptown’s Coast series to explore connections between present day gardens and the history of Uptown’s coast. During the third Garden Walk, stewards from local gardens greeted participants who opted to guide themselves. On September 7th of this year, the Fourth Annual Uptown Garden Walk featured yoga, a garden workday, educational tours, and a social gathering.

Where Simonds Drive, Montrose Avenue, and Marine Harbor Drive meet, so did participants on August 15th for Bikes, Birds, and Butterflies, a bike ride that explored immersive natural areas and plants thriving in Chicago’s Uptown community. Most of the participants rolled up on their own bikes, while the rest took advantage of loaner bikes provided by Divvy. ​

A clean energy future for Illinois would be based around jobs and economic opportunity, 100% renewable energy, reduction of fossil-fuel-burning vehicles, and a carbon-free power sector under a proposed legislation known as the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). Those four pillars, and the policies and programs contained within them, were crowded-sourced from residents across the state who participated in over 70 community conversations on clean energy as part of the Listen. Lead. Share. (LLS) campaign organized by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.

The first group was large, a cohort of over 60 students from Engage Chicago, a summer field study program offered by Northwestern University. The second group traveled far, a delegation of four senior officers from Singapore nonprofit Yayasan Mendaki. Both groups came to ICA this July to learn about the organizing model that underpins our work.