Southwest Organizing Project

Founded in 1996, the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) pursues a mission to build a broad-based coalition of churches, mosques, schools, businesses, and other institutions in the Southwest Chicago region, which includes Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, and West Englewood. SWOP plans and implements community improvement initiatives within those neighborhoods. SWOP and its institutional members anchor a destabilized commercial node with new retail stores, recreational facilities, and health services that align with the community's vision for the future. This award for general operating support strengthens SWOP as it supports place-based community economic development in Gage Park and other areas in Southwest Chicago.  

The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) was formed in 1996 with a mission to build a broad-based coalition of churches, mosques, schools, businesses, and other institutions in the Southwest Chicago region, which includes Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, and West Englewood. SWOP plans and implements community improvement initiatives in the cluster of neighborhoods, which was a historic center of resistance to racial integration. This renewal award continues support to SWOP and its institutional members in their efforts to anchor a destabilized commercial node with new retail stores, recreational facilities, and health services that align with the community's vision for the future.

The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) was formed in 1996 with a mission to build a broad-based coalition of churches, mosques, schools, businesses, and other institutions in the Southwest Chicago region, which includes Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, and West Englewood. SWOP plans and implements community improvement initiatives in the cluster of neighborhoods, which was a historic center of resistance to racial integration. Building on its Reclaiming Southwest Chicago Campaign, which rehabilitated 80 of 93 vacant properties in these communities, SWOP and its institutional members now anchor a destabilized commercial node with new retail stores, recreational facilities, and health services that align with the community's vision for the future.  

The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) was formed in 1996 with a mission to build a broad-based coalition of churches, mosques, schools, businesses, and other institutions in Southwest Chicago. It plans and implements community improvement initiatives in a cluster of neighborhoods that were a historic center of resistance to racial integration. Today, SWOP and its 37 constituent organizations work to develop local leaders with varying racial, ethnic, and faith backgrounds and educational levels to address common concerns. These include ending predatory lending and foreclosures, reducing violence, protecting the civil liberties of immigrants, and improving achievement in local schools. Building on a pilot effort operated over the past four years, which resulted in the rehabilitation of 80 of the 93 vacant properties in a subsection of the neighborhood, SWOP now launches the Reclaiming Southwest Chicago Campaign. Through the campaign, SWOP is significantly scaling up the rehabilitation of vacant homes, while simultaneously improving school performance and public safety. The combination of these efforts is designed to attract private investors and new home buyers, improve the quality of life, and thereby restore normal housing market functions in a large part of Southwest Chicago.

Founded in 1980, the Southwest Organizing Project brings together the resources and talents of people in its surrounding communities to collectively work on issues of social justice and racial and gender equality. Through its advocacy, organizing, and direct action Southwest Organizing Project works on issues of environmental justice, food justice, youth rights, feminism, and civic engagement. This award enables Southwest Organizing Project to support the legal needs of its community members in response to shifts in federal immigration law and policy, provide community education workshops, and begin the process for the organization to become certified with the Board of Immigration Appeals.