City Bureau and Blocks Together invite you to our Public Newsroom 150: How to Disrupt Unwanted Developments. Blocks Together recently stopped a development from happening in their community when they realized the development was starting construction without a city permit. In this Public Newsroom, these community organizers will break down each step they took to make this happen and how to prevent other unwanted developments.

Free food and drinks provided! RSVP below:

Blocks Together was started by a group of residents in the West Humboldt Park community that were working to address crime and safety issues. From their victories around increased safety measures, the organization began to work on other issues impacting the community, and now has grown to a multi-issue organization working to create new policies and practices to improve the conditions of the community.

BT's mission is to build a grassroots community infrastructure, governed from the bottom up, which provides the resources, leadership development and sustained focused efforts to achieve widespread improvements for the community and advance economic and social justice. We work through three resident led working groups where our campaign initiatives are envisioned and implemented; education, housing and economic justice, and youth development. Recent victories in our Housing and Economic Justice committee include having $2 million reinvested from local Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for job training and job creation, advocated for $10 million dollars into local schools in the last three years, and has done job training for over 250 residents in the last two years.

BT is committed to advocating for more resources in employment, job training, and small business development that can increase the quality of life for the current residents of the West Humboldt Park community. Our goal is to impact policy and practices around resource allocation of public funds for more direct benefit in the community around critical employment and economic development.