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LSNA is a nonprofit organization that believes strong communities are the foundation of a better society. LSNA is a community-based organization advancing diversity, leader development, and models for engagement as the catalyst for social justice. By empowering local residents and focusing on the individual, we enhance neighborhood involvement and understanding. Our work inspires leadership development among people of all ages and backgrounds to help them achieve their full potential and have a positive impact in their communities.

LSNA directly serves over 8,500 children and adults, and our organizing work supports tens of thousands more. Through our programs, we develop leaders of all ages who create safe spaces for collaboration and consensus building.

LSNA believes that a better society begins with strong grassroots leadership. Our work transforming our local schools has been a resounding success and recognized as a highly replicable model. Now extending throughout Illinois and reaching into more than 10 states and several countries, our model puts an emphasis on leadership at home, in schools, and throughout our neighborhoods to build stronger communities.

LSNA

• Maintained donor database, tracked and evaluated fundraising efforts and researched donor prospects and grant opportunities.

• Middle School & High School Youth Education Prospect Research (academic, social emotional, organizing, leadership development).

• Assisted the development team to organize, track & evaluate fundraising campaigns and research individual donor prospects, as well as grant funding.

• Submitted Letters of Inquiry to funding prospects.

• Solicited and received auction items from local businesses and major professional sports teams.

• Handled thank-you letters to donors• Assisted in the Annual Report

My Work with the Development Department

• A nationally recognized Parent Mentor Program through which local parents work daily in the classrooms of 9 local public schools, directly impacting more than 4,000 students; the Parent Engagement Institute (PEI), which focuses on training and capacity building for Parent Mentor program replication locally, nationally, and internationally;

• Community Learning Centers in three local schools, which stay open until 6pm, providing academic and arts education programming to students and their families;

• The Logan Square Grow Your Own Teachers Cohort, a partnership with Northeastern Illinois University, training local parents to be bilingual educators;

• The “Greater Logan Square Early Learning Coalition,” a future pipeline to Early Childhood careers for community residents, which includes 23 member representatives of local early childcare centers, schools, health care providers, and social services agencies;

• Leadership opportunities and restorative justice practices at the high school level with the Logan Square Youth Leadership Institute;

• A Foreclosure Prevention Outreach Team that visits local properties facing foreclosure, providing both homeowners and tenants with a targeted set of resources based on their respective needs;

• A campaign to preserve the Chicago Housing Authority’s Lathrop Homes as public and affordable housing through historic rehabilitation;

• A Health Outreach Team that distributes important information regarding critical public health issues and links residents to public benefits and affordable, high quality health services;

• An Immigration Team that organizes and provides services for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Legal Permanent Residents seeking citizenship, and the Justice For Our Neighbors Clinic, while also pushing for immigration reform and relief.

Current Programs LSNA supports

This is an annual party and live auction coordinated by Logan Square Neighborhood Association staff members as a means to raise funds for the organization’s general operating expenses. This year was our Seventh Annual “I Love Logan Square” Party & Live Auction, which was held in a beautiful new space in the community on Milwaukee Avenue.Auction items were donated by LSNA staff, community members, local businesses, and non-profits. A Live Service Auction was led by volunteer auctioneers while a Silent Auction was also set up for guests to bid on prizes. Live and silent auction prizes typically consist of theater tickets, weekend cottage stays, tamale making parties, personal training sessions, banjo lessons, bike tune-ups, and catered meals. LSNA relies heavily on the partnerships and networks of our member groups and outside allied agencies to achieve comprehensive program improvements and policy changes in our neighborhoods. Within this context, LSNA develops local leadership to identify, strategize, and organize around significant community issues that impact their lives, such as affordable housing, school reform, immigration, living-wage jobs, economic development, health care, and neighborhood safety. Our goal is to ensure that families are connected to support networks and services that will enable them to develop their own social capital, look out for one another, and work toward common goals that promote community/family well-being.This year was LSNA’s most successful one to date, reaching a total gross revenue of $16,329, with a board match of $2,000, bringing in a total of $18,329!!

I Love Logan Square Party

Successes of the past 9 months

• Foreclosure Prevention – 459 Properties

• Helped more than 108 homeowners save their homes!

• Immigration Services – 1,115 Residents

• No cost DACA services to more than 266 young people!

• Kept 125 families together through free legal services!

• Peace Circles – 255 Youth• Recruitment & Training – 600 Parent

Mentors!• Door-to-Door Outreach – 11,500

Households• Largest Get Out the Vote campaign

ever; Registered 1,500 new voters!• Helped more than 320 local

residents apply for jobs & drivers licenses!

Being an Agent of Social Change

Shana Wills, Development Director & staff of Logan Square Neighborhood Association

References

LSNA: www.lsna.net

After School Matters: http://www.afterschoolmatters.org/

Get Out the Vote: http://www.chicagosprogressivetalk.com/get-out-the-vote/

Parent Mentor Program: http://www.lsna.net/Issues-and-programs/Schools-and-Youth/Parent-Mentor-Program.html

DACA: http://www.lsna.net/Issues-and-programs/Reform/Deferred-Action.html

606 Campaign against displacing families: http://www.lsna.net/news/3233

Amanda L. O’Connell

Logan Square Neighborhood Association

Acknowledgements

• Working on changing the systems (public policy, societal norms, institutional biases) that support social injustice.

• Insight into the functioning and interconnectedness of systems

• Political efficacy, (a belief that what we think and do civically and politically actually matters)

• Promoting sensitivity to and knowledge of issues about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity

• Community influence on individuals• Challenging unjust policies and

practices• Creating partnerships within the

community