By Ellen Ray, CEO, Chicago Cares
Chicago Cares believes there is power in service. Service connects, educates, and activates us to build more just and equitable communities. It has the potential to change us, reshaping our hearts, minds, and actions to honor our interconnectedness more deeply. True service isn’t done alone: it forges bonds and ignites action. If we want to realize audacious change, we must foster deep relationships.
That’s why in May we were honored to deepen our relationship with Independent Sector by welcoming Dr. Akilah Watkins, president and CEO, and her team to Chicago. Over the course of four days, we co-hosted six community-building opportunities for Chicago’s social impact sector to engage with Independent Sector and imagine what is possible when we serve and work together.
Building Power through Partnership
Throughout the listening tours and community visits, a recurring theme was building the power of our sector through relationship building and collective action. We heard repeatedly from representatives of social impact organizations, community networks, and faith-based groups that part of how we build our collective power is through deeper cooperation.
During a meet and greet with social impact leaders, co-hosted by local philanthropist Israel Idonije, Dr. Watkins spoke about the importance of partnerships:
“We don’t have to ask permission to build partnerships. We can do it in specific moments and in big and small ways. Someone has to say, I’ll hold the middle here and bring people together. Partnership is a spectrum and all along that path is trust building.”
It was fitting to hold the meet and greet at Impact House, a work club founded by Mr. Idonije and specifically designed to support the city’s funders and changemakers to collaborate more effectively, intentionally sharing ideas and resources, while advancing Chicago’s impact goals.
Dr. Watkins’ wisdom about holding the middle and bringing people together reflects a commitment we share to bridging divides. After 30 years of relationship building, Chicago Cares is proud to be trusted bridge-builders in our city, weaving the community, civic, and corporate sectors together to build the Chicago we all deserve. Chicagoans serve shoulder to broad shoulder, seeing firsthand community assets and challenges, and learning about the aspirations communities hold for themselves. Through service, we make visible our webs of interdependence and build a stronger “we.”
Michelle Rashad, Executive Director of Imagine Englewood if…, who we visited at the Peace Campus in Englewood on Chicago’s South side, shared it best: “At the end of the day, it comes down to … us continuing to be connected and realizing that individually we can do a lot, but together we can do so much more.”
The Spirit of Chicago’s Leaders
Chicago is home to so many standout leaders and civic champions. Dr. Watkins had the honor of meeting many of them during listening sessions and community visits to Chicago’s Englewood, Chicago Lawn, and North Lawndale communities. She noted the hope, imagination, and determination of the leaders, like Michelle, who are working to transform an entire block into a sanctuary for Englewood residents, and Joel Rodriguez, Director of Youth Organizing at Southwest Organizing Project, who has mentored so many young people in Chicago Lawn who are now charting their own path as community leaders.
The celebration of leadership continued at the Chicago Cares Leadership Breakfast. The Breakfast is Chicago’s premiere event for nonprofit, corporate, civic, and philanthropic organizations to network, build relationships, and be inspired by what community-driven service can make possible — setting us all on a journey to deeper relationship and bolder action. Chicago Cares was humbled Dr. Watkins agreed to keynote the event, where after a full week of fellowship with Chicago’s social sector leaders, she celebrated our spirit:
“I know Chicago is plagued with a history of housing discrimination, racism, terror, and violence. But it is also full of hope, fight, and spirit. I have never been in a community where I just experienced and felt the spirit of people who have such a clear vision for their neighborhoods. People are not necessarily trying to leave their neighborhoods. They just want to make it fair, just, and right for their communities.”
Like Dr. Watkins, we believe service can play a role in building a just and inclusive society. We know acts of service alone cannot create lasting equity. But by building bridges across our differences, fostering dialogue, and strengthening the civic fabric in action, we can shift power, resources, and visibility to communities and leaders on the vanguard of social change. Since 2017, Chicago Cares has connected 18,000 volunteers and leveraged $9.2 million to fuel community plans and strategies on our city’s South, West, and Northwest sides. In the end, the power of service is not just about what gets done, but rather, what service makes possible.
Pastor Phil Jackson, Founder & CEO of the Firehouse Community Art Center in North Lawndale, reflected on the work of advancing equity in a visit with Dr. Watkins in his community: ” We can center equity in our work by sharing power, supporting one another, and creating opportunities to heal.”
Hope and Imagination
All week we heard a recurring message: the future will be forged by leaders who can imagine a different future for our communities and country. Over and over, we heard stories from leaders about how they activated their imaginations, cultivated hope, and built transformational relationships to realize change.
Their stories mirror ours. We believe another Chicago is possible and we believe she will be built on the best parts of who we are by people who have the courage to imagine a more vibrant and equitable future. I spoke on the power of imagination in my remarks at the Chicago Cares Leadership Breakfast: “All change is an act of imagination. It is a commitment to the power of what’s possible. You cannot realize that which you cannot imagine. We cannot realize a more just, vibrant, and equitable Chicago if we cannot imagine her.”
Chicago Cares is on a mission to reimagine service. We are committed to relational, community-driven, equity-centered service: service co-designed in partnership with impactful community leaders and organizations building more equitable communities. We believe service can be a powerful force for change, and we are so grateful Independent Sector has a leader that believes service not only transforms communities, but when we give, show up, and contribute it helps us heal, too. Our work together is full of possibilities!
Chicago Cares is proud to be a member of Independent Sector and even prouder to have had the honor of hosting Dr. Watkins’ first stop on her listening tour. Thank you, Dr. Watkins, for the time you spent, the way you listened, and the leadership you bring to our sector and work.
If you, too, believe in the power of service and imagine a future where service sparks a journey that catalyzes connection, investment, and action for more just and equitable communities, we want to deepen our relationships with you, too! We invite you to reach out to uswith your answer to the question: how might we, together, reshape service to build our collective power?
About Chicago Cares
Chicago Cares is where people who love Chicago come to show their love for our city. We go “all in” for Chicago, helping people find their place and power to build the city we all deserve. We shape how Chicagoans serve, learn, invest, and act for a more vibrant and equitable city and support thousands of residents and nearly a hundred companies to forge deeper bonds that ignite collective action. Get connected at www.chicagocares.org or, if you would like to learn about our approach to service, check out our new training series,Power of Service.
