Blocks Together
3453 W North Ave, Chicago, IL, United States
Nobel Neighbors
1345 N Karlov Ave, Chicago, IL, United States
Block Club Federation
1620 N Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL, United States
Blocks Together
Blocks Together (BT) is a membership based community organizing group serving the West Humboldt Park (WHP) community on Chicago’s Westside for over 17 years. The organization organizes residents around education, housing, economic justice and youth issues. BT is firmly committed to working on issues of social justice and to empowering people in the community to make their own decisions in all areas of their life. We emphasize a social justice analysis within the framework of the organization, providing political education trainings and connecting residents to broader social justice movements.
Our members are individuals who work, worship, live, access services or go to school in WHP. Members make decisions at every level of the organization. They determine all issues to be addressed and recruit additional leaders to participate in the work of the organization. The Board of Directors is composed entirely of residents, including youth members. This is a unique position for most of our members, and BT is working to strengthen BT’s board of director’s role in leading the BT agenda.
BT is one of few community based organizations in Chicago that only does community organizing, we have no service programs. Therefore all of our efforts are geared towards civic participation and leadership. We consider ourselves to be a grassroots community organization devoted to the education and mobilization of low income people of color of WHP.
Nobel Neighbors
Address: 1345 N Karlov Ave
Chicago, IL 60651
Phone: 7732528524
nobelneighborschicago@gmail.com
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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.
Block Club Federation
Address: 1620 N Pulaski Rd Fl 2
Chicago, IL 60639
Phone: 7732271135
maggie@blockclubfederation.org
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Currently serving the communities of Humboldt Park, Hermosa Village and Logan Square. A multifaceted organization that focuses on issues related to youth and seniors. Programs, services and events are available free of charge to anyone.