High School Students Plan the Future of Englewood at ‘Neighborhood Innovation Summit’

The Mansueto Institute co-sponsored the Neighborhood Innovation Summit on July 23 and July 24 in partnership with International House at the University of Chicago, bringing together youth participants ages 12-24 from the Englewood neighborhood to serve as Urban Development Ambassadors, along with their families and community stakeholders. This two-day event was aimed at empowering the students to make a social impact in the South Side of Chicago through teaching them about urban land acquisition and development and ultimate proposing to redevelop a plot of land in Englewood.

Gambit Chicago, a nonprofit providing extracurricular learning opportunities in Englewood, began partnering earlier this year with International House and Urban Equities, Inc., a Chicago real estate and community development firm that focuses on dis-invested communities. Also collaborating were Teamwork Englewood, the Cook County Land Bank Authority, and the Chicago Community Trust. The event was a capstone to a summer of activities through the broader 59th Street Garden: A Community Approach for Solving Neighborhood Crime project, part of the International House’s Worldwide Davis Projects for Peace summer grant program which also awarded grants this year to student projects in Colombia and Turkey.

The Mansueto Institute funded and helped organize the summit through its Urban Innovation Grants for Student Organizations program. The Institute in July awarded six of these grants to University of Chicago student groups across campus working on events, research, or other efforts focused on critical issues and topics impacting cities. The inaugural grants engage with a range of issues affecting the future of cities, such as sustainable and equitable neighborhood development in Chicago, digital governance and smart cities, and urban diplomacy.

“The Neighborhood Innovation Summit is a culmination of leaders at the University of Chicago, community leaders on the South Side of Chicago, Chicago Community Trust, Cook County Land Bank Authority, coming together to try to tackle innovation in low-income neighborhoods and communities like the Englewood area, Auburn-Gresham, and Roseland,” said Olalusi. “We’re going to try to think about innovations in those areas to create a strategy for change and a new narrative for similar urban neighborhoods.”

The focus for the Neighborhood Innovation Summit was teaching students and their families about the process for redeveloping land through the Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) Land and Property Transfer program. The program enables everyday Chicagoans to acquire and revitalize vacant property around the city and has been used to build community gardens, animal shelters, and affordable housing. In the weeks leading up the summit, Gambit Chicago taught students about the purchase of a vacant lot at 650 West 59th Street in 2023, including programming around garden development strategies and land stewardship.

 

“The Land Bank strives to ensure that vacant properties are put back into productive use in a way that benefits the entire community, and that’s what the Englewood Innovation Summit is all about,” said Cook County Land Bank Executive Director Jessica Caffrey, who gave a keynote at the event. “Our work to remove blight in Englewood and throughout Cook County are based on the idea that when neighbors and community organizations have a voice in the future of their community, the future is always brighter.”

Origin Story

Gambit Chicago is led by Joseph Olalusi, a South Side native, a graduate of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and an Obama Scholar. Olalusi started Gambit Chicago programming in Summer 2020, partnering with AfterSchool Matters Program and Urban Prep Englewood Campus, to address youth violence and limited opportunities in Englewood and other Chicago neighborhoods. The program of extracurricular activities, including volunteer federal income tax filing education, tailoring, and urban gardening, is aimed at introducing new career pathways, skills, and community engagement for local youth.

Olalusi began to crystalize his community development ideas at a February 2023 celebration of Black History Month talk at the University of Chicago’s Harris School, where the keynote speaker was Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Preckwinkle, introduced Olalusi to Lennox Jackson, Founder & CEO of Urban Equities, which led to a mentoring relationship between the two. Olalusi started the Urban Development Ambassadors Program within Gambit Chicago and engaged Jackson and Urban Equities as a speaker and Master Class instructor to share his knowledge on urban development entrepreneurship.

“My vision is to assist Gambit Chicago in transitioning students from being sideline observers to becoming self-affirming practitioners capable of planning and executing strategies that drive favorable change through future community and real estate development projects,” says Jackson.

Gambit Chicago eventually purchased land from Cook County Land Bank Authority to create space for more routine programming. The process of this land purchase through the Cook County Land Bank Authority is what is being taught in the Urban Development Ambassadors Program. It was chosen as the primary property transfer program due to its rolling application process for land sales and particularly low sale prices.

About the Summit

The Neighborhood Innovation Summit included a “field demonstration program,” which enabled students to learn skills necessary to transfer their curated development strategies from concept to an actual community garden redevelopment project proposal on vacant Chicago land. Caffrey and Senior Land Acquisition Specialists Anthony Blakley and John L Golliday II, joined to share their experiences and encourage their involvement in the development process. Students also heard from architects Janeen Harrell of Inspired Journey Design Studio, Jose Esquinca, of UrbanWorks and Darrell Garrison of Planning Resources Inc., who advised about the process of urban redevelopment and careers in architecture and design.

By the close of the summit, the students were able to draft a scope of work, prepare a development plan in phases, prepare a proof of funds portfolio, and prepare a zoning and permits review for any Cook County Land Bank Authority land sales that are available. Students also pitched these concepts to other stakeholders, including families and guests, during the summit’s showcase on July 24, and met with local community groups for new opportunities and engaged with representatives from the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement, the Cook County Assessor’s Office, and Teamwork Englewood.

Ultimately, the goal was for students to be empowered to join others in Englewood leading urban innovation and be part of a pipeline of youth interested in investing in the neighborhood’s future development outcomes.