CURRENT ORGANIZATIONS
A.C.T.S of F.A.I.T.H
BIG (Blacks In Green)
Each One Teach One Literacy
Food Desert Action
Greater Ashburn Community Development Corporation
Invest In The Group
Kusanya Cafe
Latino Instruction in Diabetes to Empower and Reduce Risks (LIDERr)
People's Development Group
Prodigal Sons
Purpose Over Pain
Resource and Research Center>
Revere C.A.R.E. (a Community Actively Reaching Each Other)
Sista's of the Hood
Southside Professional Network Association
Success Kids
The Lady's Ladder
A.C.T.S. of F.A.I.T.H.
Actions Connected To Spirituality: Forming Alliances In Transforming Health
This organization has been established to improve health and wellness, reduce and eliminate health disparities, increase health awareness, increase community leadership in health affairs, and form partnerships with other health organizations in accomplishing its mission. It was created by the power and energy of faith institutions to transform community health. The Founder is Dawnavan Davis, Ph.D. Research Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. The Board President is The Rev. Jacqueline Trish Atkins, Executive Minister, Power Circle Congregation.
Participating Congregations
- Blooming Rose Deliverance Church
- Carter Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
- Faith Community of St. Sabina
- Langley Avenue Church of God
- Metropolitan Community Church
- Mount Calvary Baptist Church
- New Beginnings Church of Chicago
- Oakdale Covenant Church
- St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church
- Salem Baptist Church of Chicago
- Trinity United Church of Christ
BIG (Blacks In Green)
everybody’s global green practices network
We Are Your Green Community Education & Trade Association
Link. Leverage. Lead.
We are a Community Education & Trade Association, born to remind generations of our great cultural legacy – which is our stewardship of the land, and to reinvent that legacy in the age of climate change. As Community Educators, BIG™ teaches communities of color the risks of global warming and the health and wealth opportunities of the new green economy. As a Trade Association, BIG™ works to foster and sustain green, neighbor-owned businesses in black communities. Further, our focus is to recreate community wealth by cultivating next generations of engineers and new generations of green manufacturers. We are proudly one of America’s most diverse environmental networks; yet we stand for self-help, clear that no sustainable substitute exists. Our stand is informed and inspired by America’s great Underground Railroad story – which teaches our need for allies across the bounds of race and class- but only after we evaluate, declare, and prepare for our own freedom-seeking. Our vision is “self-sustaining African diaspora communities” and robust black participation in the new green economy. Our mission is to link, leverage, and lead through a new breed of environmentalists. A key goal was to launch a green business incubator in 2009. Call BIG to apply. Naomi Davis, Founder & President 773-569-4464; daughterstrust@aol.com www.blacksingreen.org.
Build A Village…Make An Oasis
Oasis-Making™ generates green, self-sustaining African American neighborhoods, and will ignite a greenvillage-building movement that affirms, “Yes we can make an oasis wherever we live!”BIGVillage™ is an efficient delivery system for both ancient and innovative green products, practices, nd services. Imagine your neighborhood as a beautiful walkable mixed-income village where green homes, businesses and the commercial buildings housing them are owned by neighbors, and your full-spectrum of consumer needs are supplied through a nearby network of vibrant commercial hubs. Your Saturday errands need no car: the dry cleaner, shoe repair, produce market, bookstore, bank, printer, and salon, are all at the right distance for a “fat-melting” walk. In less than a generation this picture of what was once many black neighborhoods has all but disappeared, replaced – almost without exception and without regard to wealth – by colonized black communities where smart, hard-working neighbors have no means for circulating their dollars locally. Nor have blacks owned a significant percentage of our world’s factories. This shall change. conditions common to African American communities can be transformed by an uplift that results from inventing-investing-manufacturing-merchandising our way out of global warming – solving triple bottom line equations with a balanced, holistic approach. It is compounded by systemic problems which revolve around the cycle of malnutrition, poisoning and addiction… health disparities in aids, asthma, diabetes and cancer…self-hatred projected…miseducation, drop-outs, illiteracy…unprepared parenting and state-supported single-mother homes…hyper-incarceration, recidivism and violence…barriers to voting…and underemployment.
Whole-system thinking created and sustains these crises, and only whole-system thinking will transform them. Yet, one village at a time we can be self-sustaining.
BIG Hub™ is an epicenter for green training, development, and lifestyle transformation created to generate green leaders “in the ‘hood,” and to ensure access/exit points into sustainable jobs, careers, and enterprises. By customizing, connecting, and coaching Hubs, our intent is to synergize efforts that help create and sustain neighbor-owned businesses, the cornerstone of African American self-sustainability.
Each One Teach One Literacy
The Mission
The mission of Each One Teach One literacy is to empower youth and adults to gain access to, and excel in, careers in the global economy. Students develop and strengthen there skills in areas such as Mathematics, Finance, and Technology; discover and maximize their creative abilities; and expand their potential through social, civic and professional engagement.
History
In 2008, Each One Teach One Literacy was founded because of the epidemic pervading our neighborhoods with regard to the increased violence and decreased educational completion of young people in the lower income areas of Chicago. As such, the targeted neighborhoods of Each One Teach One Literacy are Englewood, West Pullman and Woodlawn; three areas where the majority of residence are living at 200% below the federal poverty level, gangs and drugs are as pervasive as housing and where most young people are either dropping out of school, dying or struggling to learn within the school walls consumed with violence, graffiti, drugs, sex, limited textbook availability, teachers who are overworked and underpaid, and families that are trying, yet still broken.
The scoop
Each One Teach One Literacy is a nonprofit organized exclusively for educational purposes. It provides supplementary instruction in Math and Technology as well as life skills to low-income and underachieving youth in inner city Chicago. Additionally, the organization provides GED/TABE ;Math Readiness and Financial Literacy classes to the underemployed adult for job acquisition and/or school advancement.
The organization seeks to provide community members with opportunities for advancement through exposure to technological career paths, college student mentors, caring instructors, life skills workshops, leadership opportunity, accountability learning and through masterful understanding of Math, Technology and Finance. We accomplish this through our three programs: After School Youth Tutoring, Social Innovation Program (Youth Development) and Adult Education Courses.
Our successes have been that of touching lives and mending some of the broken personal and professional issues of those serviced. Participants and family members praise the efforts of this organization and come back to volunteer their time to recreate the change they experienced with the next group of community members.
Each One Teach One Literacy and those serviced believe that young people and underserved adults have a voice and possess the power of the future. It is our responsibility to ensure they feel confident, empowered, and encouraged to affect the kind of change necessary in their future and in ours.
Overview
Each One Teach One Literacy is a program dedicated to Youth Development (for 14 -24 year olds) and Adult GED/Math Readiness (for non-diploma holders over 18 yrs old). The Youth Development works to increase Life Skills, Professional Etiquette, and Math and Technological ability. While the GED Readiness seeks to engage adults in a 7-week cycle committed to improving critical thinking, problem solving, math prowess, finance literacy.
Target
Low-Income, Under-Achieving in school or Non-Diploma holders, Resident of Chicago, ages 14+.
Purpose
Develop the at-risk population- personally and professionally.
Food Desert Action
To eliminate food deserts while providing economic opportunities for Chicago communities to make the case for the viability of grocery stores in Chicago and to partner with for profit community grocery business in developing food desert solutions that provide economic opportunities for the Chicago community.
Greater Ashburn Community Development Corporation
Provides educational advancement, economic stimulation and positive social development for the Greater Ashburn Community of southwest Chicago. (Southwest Chicago/Ashburn)
Invest In The Group
Mission is to provide life skills and activities for youth during out of school time that will catapult youth into society as healthy adults.
Kusanya Cafe
The Kusanya Cafe is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization that exists to provide a gathering place of empowerment and encouragement for the residents of Englewood through a comfortable and high-quality coffee establishment. It is our belief that all people have a deep desire to gather together and connect with each other and The Kusanya Cafe seeks to supply that need to the residents of Englewood. Kusanya will be an inline espresso bar seeking to serve in the south central area of Englewood (69th and Halsted area). The coffee house will be located in a retail space about roughly 800-1200 square feet and provide customers with a comfortable assortment of couches and tables, indoor and outdoor seating, free internet and wifi, in an artistic and inviting decor that encourages the customer to stay and enjoy their beverage amongst friends.
Why a Coffee Shop in Englewood? We passionately advocate that a locally owned and operated coffee shop can provide a social and cultural hub for the people of a community. Without these places and spaces a community will sink into fear and cynicism. Englewood in particular lacks these gathering places where people are allowed to come together to express their views, perform or display their art, and have fellowship with one another.
We believe that having a gourmet coffee shop within a poor and crime-ridden neighborhood can achieve more within its walls than a social service agency with similar goals. We understand that neighborhood empowerment comes not simply through social services and government aid, but a place which allows the power that already exists within the neighborhood to come together and mutually encourage each other.
One of the reasons crime is so prevalent within Englewood is that the law-abiding and civically minded people within the neighborhood have retreated within the walls of their own homes. Without a place to gather, they feel increasingly alone and powerless. This feeling of powerlessness is amplified by the fact that the rougher elements of Englewood are the only ones gathering in public.
But Kusanya by its very nature provides an outlet for these people to come together and gather in public. In accordance with our mission, our target market will be the residents within the south central section of Englewood (roughly a half mile radius around 69th and Halsted). Other professionals working in the area will benefit as well from our presence, but our primary customer base and in turn our marketing thrust will be focused upon those local residents in the immediate vicinity of the cafe.
As a 501(c)(3) Kusanya is in a unique position to provide economic development within a very unpopular economic area. We understand the difficulty of opening a fine coffee establishment within Englewood, but we firmly believe in its long-term success. An establishment like Kusanya would not be able to accomplish the plan we hope to implement without the generous and sustaining donations of persons/organizations which share and support our mission within the neighborhood. Tax-exemption and donations will allow the cafe time to build up a felt-need within the community. Once established within the neighborhood (with the ultimate goal of self sustainability) Kusanya can then reduce its dependence on donations and focus its attention upon expanding service within the neighborhood.
Latino Instruction in Diabetes to Empower and Reduce Risks (LIDERr)
Increases educational access, promoting health and preventing disease by empowering individuals and their families through a health promotion program in diabetes. (Citywide)
People’s Development Group
Increases educational access, promoting health and preventing disease by empowering individuals and their families through a health promotion program in diabetes. (Citywide)
Prodigal Sons
Provides youth, men, and women the opportunity to reach their full potential. (Austin)
Purpose Over Pain
Provide peer support to survivors of children killed by acts of gun violence. To promote a safe environment by advocating for common-sense gun laws and larger prison terms for violent gun offenders.
Resource and Research Center
A household resource center which provides household items including linens, appliances, furniture, and mattresses to families transitioning from shelters. (Austin)
Revere C.A.R.E. (a Community Actively Reaching Each Other)
Fosters and promotes the health, safety, and well-being of residents in the Paul Revere Elementary School community area through block clubs, public safety initiatives, family violence prevention, job training, and resource referrals.
Sista’s of the Hood
Provides a holistic approach to self-sufficiency to victims of domestic violence, including referral services for housing and counseling. (Austin/Lawndale)
Southside Professional Network Association
Seeks to unite professional family childcare providers to create instruments of change that promote quality childcare. (City-wide)
Success Kids
To teach young minds to protect our environment for the future and how to achieve and maintain good physical health.
The Lady’s Ladder
Mission is to secure the financial resources female ex-offenders need to climb from incarceration to economic empowerment. The Lady’s Ladder will afford female ex-offenders the opportunity to pursue their individual gifts and talents to enhance their employment opportunities.
Austin Coming Together (ACT)
The West Side community of Austin has begun to coalesce around an exciting new public-private community partnership spearheaded by Goodcity and supported by the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. The group, called Austin Coming Together, or ACT, evolved out of a series of meetings among Austin community stakeholders designed to identify and discuss opportunities to provide stable employment and community development.
The group, which includes among its high profile community supporters The Friendship Baptist Church, has named Rev. Reginald Bachus, Jr. as its Executive Director. The mission of ACT is to create an intermediary infrastructure of sustainable resources, systems and networks that provide economic and educational opportunities that will ultimately improve the quality of life for those living and working within the Austin community.
From its first official meeting in May 2010 at The Friendship Baptist Church, ACT has made significant progress as an organization, working in collaboration with Goodcity, and the UIC Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement to develop and submit a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods Planning Grant. The ACT application earned national recognition as an Honorable Mention Awardee, and was ranked in the top three Chicago area applicants.
Goodcity has been instrumental from the very genesis of ACT and remains committed to its continued growth and success. Serving as ACT’s fiscal agent, Goodcity also provides in-kind office space and supplies for ACT’s Executive Director.
ACT now functions as a coordinating agency of over 75 public and private organizations who share the common goal of addressing the educational and economic development needs of the Austin community. Stakeholders include community residents, community leaders, educators, academic institutions, elected and government officials, foundations, for-profit entities and not-for-profit organizations, churches and other faithbased organizations.
ACT’s fundamental philosophy is that educational investment equals economic development; as the community invests in its youth, it invests in its future. ACT continues to make progress in implementing a plan to cultivate a homegrown talent pool of highly educated, skilled and motivated students, workers and business owners who will attract the necessary resources and relationships essential to reshaping the future of Austin.
“On behalf of the over 107,000 residents of the Austin community we say thank you and God bless you Goodcity for the work you’ve done and will continue to do for years to come.”
REV. REGINALD L. BACHUS
Austin Coming Together
Executive Director
Advocate Bethany
Goodcity’s Custom Training & Development Initiative
Goodcity’s staff has completed the work with the Advocate Bethany grantees. The experience was positive, challenging, rewarding and successful. The capacity building efforts of each program emphasized board development, strategic planning, fundraising, marketing, staff development, leadership development, community assessment and engagement, budgeting, finance and focused organizational growth. Each program experienced beneficial capacity growth in different areas based upon their need. Here are some quotes from some of the participants…
“Goodcity provided our staff with information and training that helped to build our organizational capacity in the areas of board development, fundraising, budgeting/ finance, planning/marketing and community engagement. Goodcity has a wealth of knowledge that is beneficial to organizations striving to achieve sustainability as a non-profit organization serving Chicago’s inner-city communities.” – Ruby Taylor/Taproots, Inc.
“Goodcity exemplifies what they teach, working to strengthen the team at Sankofa. They modeled good leadership as they performed excellent work.” – Annetta Wilson/Sankofa
“Our involvement with Goodcity brought our Board of Directors to a new level of best practices. Without Goodcity’s involvement, we could not have recruited an excellent and diverse board of candidates.” – Elizabeth Galik/New Life
“Goodcity helped Westside Health Authority (WHA) to provide staff development on topics that were not our expertise. We were pleased with the personal connection and community-based perspective that Goodcity provided.” – Cody McSellars /WHA
“Goodcity has been instrumental in helping Academy of Scholastic Achievement (ASA) with the development of our board of directors and with our marketing and fundraising efforts. Their staff took the time to meet with us regularly and offered advice and expertise that really helped us to look at our organization in a new light and helped to position ASA for strategic growth.” – Sabine Champagne/ASA
Although our work is finished, we will continue our involvement with these programs in many different ways – workshops, networking, individual and group consulting, and specialized trainings. Our staff has created a relational rapport that will last long into the future. The results of these capacity building efforts varied with each program – some short-term and some long-term. These programs have enhanced their outreach as well as their impact and effectiveness through the involvement of Goodcity.