Grow Your Own Illinois

The Grow Your Own Teachers initiative in Illinois (GYO) is an innovative partnership of community organizations (Action Now, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Enlace, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Southwest Organizing Project and Target Area Development Corporation), higher education institutions and school districts that supports parents, community members and paraprofessionals in low-income communities to become highly qualified teachers.

Action Now is a grassroots organization of low and moderate-income families working together across Illinois to improve their lives and communities. They are building a transparent organization with leaders, a policy direction and a fiscal decision-making process that will remain open and accountable to their members and the working families whose interests they serve. Action Now's core objective is to organize and win power for regular working families in their communities, their cities and their state.

Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) has been an instrument of grassroots democracy in the North Kenwood and Oakland Communities for over 40 years. KOCO's organizing agenda is driven by its constituents, the low-income and working families of North Kenwood and Oakland. KOCO engages its members in organizing around the following issues: education, affordable housing and issues impacting youth.

Enlace (formerly the Little Village Community Development Corporation - LVCDC) was formed in 1990 by Little Village residents who came together as volunteers to re-develop the abandoned industrial park at 26th Street and Kostner Avenue. Through this effort, the LVCDC founders saw the need to create an organization that would engage neighborhood residents in planning for their community's development. Today the organization has more than 15 staff and has broadened its work to address both economic and educational development. Its mission is to ensure a balanced development of the Little Village community that respects the wishes of community residents. Unlike many community development corporations, LVCDC puts less emphasis on bricks-and-mortar projects, and focuses on community organizing and collaboration with other organizations.

Founded in 1962, Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) is a multi-issue, grassroots, membership organization, which unites a diverse group of institutions and residents to address the challenges facing the Logan Square communities. LSNA focuses on education and school reform, health, affordable housing and economic development, immigration, and community spaces and the arts. LSNA bases its work on its Holistic Plan, which is revised each year through a community process. Today, LSNA represents 41 member institutions, including churches, ten individual schools, block clubs, multi-unit buildings and social service agencies.

The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP)'s mission is to build a broad-based organization of churches, mosques, schools and other institutions in Southwest Chicago, which enables families to exercise common values, determine their own future and connect with each other to improve life in their neighborhoods.

Formed in 1995, TARGET Area Development Corporation, a faith-based organization, is a multi-issue grassroots leadership organization that works for social justice reform and systemic change through local leadership development, organizing, research, programs and collaboration. TARGET Area works to amplify and channel the informed voices of families and other stakeholders into the decision-making and policy development process at the local, city, state and federal level.