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Nobel Neighbors is a community organization founded over 25 years ago in 1985 for the improvement of quality of life for residents and for those who go to school within the borders of North Avenue, Pulaski, Division, and Kostner in the West Humboldt Park area.

In our mission to strengthen the quality of life for residents, Nobel Neighbors has addressed issues such as housing, jobs, education, poverty, and community service. In an area where crime and violence are high (we are the 5th most common destination for ex-offenders in the state of Illinois), local and surrounding residents are afraid to venture out and service the community.

Over the past 25 years, Nobel Neighbors has worked to better the community in terms of housing, education, and community service through just some of these acts:

In an area dominated by rental properties and itinerant residents, the Nobel Neighbors HUD-approved Housing Counseling Agency counseled over 300 families annually on home ownership and foreclosure issues for over 3 years. Nobel Neighbors’s most recent survey of the area shows that with proper rehabilitation, new homes have been built, there are fewer run down properties, and fewer homes have been put up for sale.
With a new Wal-Mart located within the community, the store has helped to re-employ about 300 people that had been left jobless. Nobel Neighbors has worked with local industries to help introduce other areas of business such as Menards, Aldi, Advanced Auto, and Family Dollar to provide further careers and jobs for residents.

Community organizations such as the Leader Per Block Club and CPS Administration help to appoint resident leaders on community and educational issues facing residents and students within the Humboldt Park community.

While unemployment, crime, gang, and drug activity are still too high, the community is safer and more vibrant than it was 15 years ago, thanks in no small part to the work of Nobel Neighbors and its allies. However, our community is a victim of its own success: now that residents feel safer, they are less drawn to urgent issues of community development. Yet Nobel Neighbors is a community institution and strives to continue its long history of addressing issues in West Humboldt Park.