My Path to Finding Civic Exchange Chicago
This month I started my role as the new Implementation Manager at Civic Exchange, where I will be working with a group of tech, journalism, and civic organizations to re-imagine the future of civic startups in Chicago. As I am learning about the role, I have been reflecting on the organizational experiences that have shaped my time in the city.
Coming to Chicago
To be honest, at first I was skeptical about moving to Chicago. Leaving the Ocoee River and Chilhowee Mountains for a large city seemed so unthinkable, I would tell anyone who asked that Chicago would be a mere two year stop in my life’s journey. Thirteen years later, I am still here and so glad to call this place home.
It took me a while to get to know the city, and my best guides were the organizations I worked with. As a community organizer, I got to meet community leaders in Bronzeville, South Shore, Riverdale, and other south side and south suburban communities. These leaders developed creative solutions to the food deserts in their communities, working to make sure the city’s farmers markets not only accepted SNAP benefits, but incentivized their use.
During my time working with a violence prevention organization, I was on a team committed to reducing intimate partner violence. On the other side of the building, our CeaseFire team worked with young people to reduce community violence and retaliations. In some ways it would have been easy to silo our work from one another. However, being in the same building and sitting together at lunch meant we shared stories about our work. This accidental cross-pollination led the organization to explore the connections between community violence and intimate partner violence, which led to deeper understanding of both and insights that ultimately resulted in increased pathways to safety for the young people in our neighborhood.
A Tradition of Innovation
As I continued working with various organizations in Chicago, a pattern emerged. Many Chicago organizations are pushing beyond simple solutions to challenges by innovating on ideas through collaborations. It seems the city has a history of this practice. Long before colonizers settled these lands, Chicagoland has been a place where Indigenous people gathered to meet and trade and build transformative communities. Through the organizations I worked with, I was learning about one of the elemental characteristics of this city: this land is a hub where goods and ideas can be traded, compared, combined and transformed into something entirely new and completely splendid.
In hosting a diversity of organizations, Civic Exchange continues in this tradition. Each member organization is at the edge of its field, solving old challenges in new ways. Each organization does this independently. As innovators and disruptors in their fields, the leaders of Civic Exchange member organizations have a track record of developing creative solutions for specific problems. Leaders of member organizations also recognize that intentional cross-pollination will lead to dynamic collaborations and have the potential to reveal transformative solutions to entrenched problems. As members of Civic Exchange, these organizations recognize their own contributions, and acknowledge the potential of collective, collaborative action.
As the new Implementation Manager at Civic Exchange, I am excited to take part in this great Chicago tradition: inviting peers to exchange ideas and insights that ensure this city works for all of us. My work will include hosting convenings throughout the year where a broad network of civic founders and startups can share reflections on organizational resilience and how to be nimble when the world suddenly turns upside down. The past year has gifted us with clarity about the shape and weight of so many problems. My work will be an effort to support conversations that allow us to pause as we return to our lives and first ask: how can we reimagine a more inclusive and more engaged world?
