TERRY BERGDALL SPEAKS ON 77 NEIGHBORHOODS

The ICA-USA Board held a reception on November 7thh. ICA-USA President and CEO Terry Bergdall spoke to the gathered Board members and the Resilient Communities Initiatives Advisory Board to talk about the goals and hopes of the Accelerating Change in 77 Communities project. The project is a year-long effort to gather and highlight the sustainable development efforts in each of Chicago’s 77 community areas, ending with a share fair at the ICA in September 2012. ​

One of the small discussion groups during the ICA Board reception in Chicago

The event will involve community groups, businesses, and agencies of city, state, and national government. A report on the 77 neighborhood sustainable initiatives will document successful local undertakings and key lessons learned in their implementation. These will be shared electronically with neighborhoods and nonprofit organizations across Chicago.

The “Sharing Approaches that Work Conference” will help encourage and accelerate local efforts while catalyzing follow-up work in Chicago’s community areas during the next two years through training workshops, local share fairs, and collaboration efforts between neighborhood groups to build a common vision. 

The anticipated result will be multiple local initiatives which will significantly contribute to the success of the Chicago Climate Action Plan by 2020. The ICA-USA is the organizing sponsor with current co-sponsors Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, Millennia Consulting, LLC, Heartland Alliance, Faith in Place, Transition USA and others. Over the next six months, the ICA-USA envisions creating many alliances for building sustainable resilient Chicago communities.

Sharing Conference 
More events have been planned, with the sharing conference in September 2012 being the peak event. Already, 15 events have been set up across the United States and in Europe and Nepal. Events in December included a “surprise” birthday party for ICA colleague Richard Alton in Chicago and the Courage to Lead book study group in Oakland, CA. Events in January included the ICA-UK Annual Meeting and Conference in Manchester, the Grassroots Participation in Community Change in Greensboro, NC, and the Technology of Participation (ToP) Annual Meeting in Sacramento, CA.