We’ve got candidates and campaign workers in the room for The CivicLab Campaign School featuring Kurth Lampe! All attendees received a USB drive with a campaign manual, a sample budget, a sample media advisory, a great communication strategy tool and spreadsheets with the ward-by-ward results of the 2011 Mayoral and Aldermanic elections. Email us at info@civiclab.us to find out how you can get one for yourself!
Want to take a crash course in Tax Increment Financing? If so, watch this 33 minute video that will introduce the topic and reveal the details of TIF in Chicago and the work of the TIF Illumination Project. The presenter is CivicLab co-founder, Tom Tresser, who is the Lead Organizer for the TIF research and presenter at TIF town meetings. The video is on this page. It’s password protected and we’re asking a contribution of $5.00 to get the password. All our work is 100% volunteer driven but we’ve some bills to pay and plans to expand. You’re welcome to invest more in our work, of course! Please use this PayPal link to make your payment. When we receive notice of your payment we’ll email you the password.
July 16, 7pm – 8:30pm @ The CivicLab, 114 N. Aberdeen Street.
In the nonprofit world nothing happens without a powerful and distinctive mission statement. Everything your organization does stems from the mission statement. A compelling mission is why people support you, why funders fund you and why volunteers donate their labor to you.
This is a hands-on workshop where we will:
The instructor is Tom Tresser, co-founder of the CivicLab. The CivicLab is the 13th social enterprise that Tom has led or started.
The cost for this workshop is just $10 and all the proceeds go to the operation of the CivicLab. Register online here: https://mission-statement-7-16.eventbrite.com.
The CivicLab was profiled in the June 27th edition of Progress Illinois.
“July marks one year since the CivicLab, a non-profit organization, opened its “democracy design studio” in the West Loop of Chicago.
Looking ahead, one of the CivicLab’s co-founders says big plans are in the pipeline for year two of the co-working space, which is dedicated to collaboration, education and innovation for social change and civic engagement.
Seven organizations focused on issues such as housing justice, voter registration and health care are currently working out of the CivicLab’s storefront, located at 114 N. Aberdeen St.
Other activists, designers, educators and tech experts also gather and do research at the space, which is housed in a rehabbed 1890s firehouse that sits across the street from Harpo Studios, where “The Oprah Winfrey Show” was previously filmed.
In addition to offering a place where people can collaborate, the CivicLab hosts educational workshops and is behind the volunteer-based TIF Illumination Project, which is working to promote transparency around Chicago’s controversial tax increment financing (TIF) program.” [read the full article]
The amazing arts and education group she crew is in residence at the CivicLab this summer. We are proud to serve as the home for this outstanding arts program!
“Leadership 101 – Introduction To Servant-Leadership”
@ The CivicLab, Wednesday, June 25. 7-8:30pm
114 N. Aberdeen Street
What is leadership? For people and organizations focused on social change and civic engagement, what makes for great leaders? How can we BE better leaders and help bring along more of them?
This workshop will cover the basics of one leadership model, Servant-Leadership. How can you both serve and lead at the same time? How can you train yourself to be a better Servant-Leader? Who are some great servant-leaders working in Chicago right now?
We’ll be covering the “Seven Pillars” of Servant-Leadership as developed and laid out by the Greenleaf Cener for Servant Leadership (https://greenleaf.org/)
CivicLab co-founder Tom Tresser (http://www.tresser.com/) will present this workshop.
The fee for this workshop is $10. The CivicLab is America’s only volunteer-run co-working space dedicated to collaboration, education and innovation for social justice and civic engagement. 100% of the revenue from this workshop will go to operating the space. The short URL for this event = http://
Oba William King teaches a workshop on storytelling at the CivicLab! “Storytelling is the oldest form of communication – it’s part of our heritage, part of DNA.”
{she crew} is a six-week summer program for girls, ages 12 to 14, to engage in a multi-disciplinary journaling workshop that culminates in a theatrical performance written entirely by the participants. We are investigating the question of what it is to be a woman, how one defines womanhood, and how we see ourselves in relation to that definition. It is our goal to investigate feminine topics through broad questions that encourage participants’ engagement and deep reflection. Questions and writing prompts include topics of: womanhood, personal identity, women in relation to family, community, career, and the physical body.
she crew will be in residence at the CivicLab this summer. Apply here.
