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Community Initiatives
Community work is the cornerstone of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs’ (JCUA) commitment to Chicago. Since 1964, we have partnered with grassroots organizations in many of the city’s most oppressed communities to combat poverty, racism, and anti-Semitism in order to bring about justice. Guided by the Jewish idea of Tikkun Olam, which suggests that human beings have a responsibility to fix a world that is fundamentally flawed, JCUA’s Community Initiatives Programs partners with a diverse array of organizations in order to achieve the following results:
- Our partner organizations realize their organizing goals.
- Our partner organizations report enhanced self-reliance.
- Jewish communities are meaningfully engaged in our partner organization’s work.
Based on a belief that community empowerment must begin with respect for local leadership, JCUA works under the guidance of those we assist to increase their ability to achieve their goals.
Specifically, JCUA’s Community Liaisons provide capacity building assistance and training, act as temporary or collaborative staff, and help to broker relationships for grassroots community organizations interested in enhancing their organizational capacity and their ability to win community organizing campaigns. Some areas of staff expertise include:
- Campaign planning
- Leadership development
- Day-to-day grassroots organizing
- Media outreach and public relations
- Action-oriented research
- Meeting facilitation
- Curriculum and training design
- Community-based urban planning
- Strategic planning
- Fundraising
- Board development
JCUA’s Community Initiatives department only works with grassroots organizations that request our assistance. Our partners share our commitment to social justice and have limited access to resources with which to achieve their goals. We understand that there are myriad methods of realizing social justice, which we define as the process of eliminating oppression and domination in order to distribute power, resources, and rights equitably. However, we also believe that there is insufficient support in Chicago for independent grassroots organizing groups and contend that community organizing is the most effective means of creating systemic change while catalyzing community empowerment. Therefore, our Community Initiatives Program prioritizes potential partners who are engaged or who would like to be engaged in grassroots, community organizing-- the process of bringing a community together to transform the existing power structure, achieve tangible victories, and build the skills and relationships necessary to sustain broad-based movements for social justice.
While we believe that organizing includes both direct action and political/cultural education, it is important for potential partners to understand that JCUA does not ascribe to any particular community organizing model. Historically, this choice has given JCUA Community Liaisons the flexibility to draw on the best of all models in order to complement the organizing philosophy of the groups with which we partner.
Over the years, JCUA has developed long-term relationships with grassroots organizations working primarily in African American, Latino, and Asian communities and serving neighborhoods like: Lawndale, Kenwood-Oakland, Pilsen, Rogers Park, Englewood, Uptown, and Humboldt Park. In the process, we have addressed such issues as: affordable housing, job creation, community reinvestment and development, transportation equity, neighborhood safety, and education. Some of our Current Campaigns:
Tepochcalli Education Project-JCUA is partnering with TCEP in their efforts to win a commitment from the Chicago Board of Education (CBOE) to build a much-needed new school that will replace the current inadequate and overcrowded facility in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood. This new facility would also double as a community center. JCUA and TCEP scored a significant victory by persuading Chicago Public School officials to tear down the vacant ROTC building where they hope to build their new facility.
Pilsen Alliance-JCUA has been working with residents of Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood for several decades and, at the request of local leaders, helped found the Pilsen Alliance in 1998. Most recently, JCUA has provided leadership support to the Pilsen Alliance on their "Pilsen is not for Sale" campaign which aims to preserve the affordability of its housing stock. JCUA is pleased to say that the Pilsen Alliance has successfully obtained the financial and technical means to operate independently. While JCUA will no longer provide capacity building assistance, JCUA will continue to work with the Pilsen Alliance as an advocacy and policy ally on issues of shared concern including the Developing Government Accountability to the People (DGAP) network.
In addition to these victories, JCUA’s community work has had a significant impact on interpersonal racism and anti-Semitism throughout Chicago. By inviting Jewish communities to meet with and learn from our partners while simultaneously acting as a positive Jewish ally in low-income communities of color, JCUA’s Community Initiatives Program has worked to address many of the stereotypes and misconceptions that Jewish communities and low-income communities of color have internalized about each other. As a result, Chicago’s Jewish communities and communities of color are better able to work side by side to fight racism, poverty, and Anti-Semitism and to realize social justice.
Partners and Allies:
For more information contact Brian Gladstein at briang@jcua.org
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Community Development
