Steering the Collective

In order to maximize the benefit of driving energy and resources toward Glass Street, The full Glass House Collective team participated in a productive Board Retreat on December 10, 2017 at Dish T’Pass. The afternoon’s focus also in facilitated by Smita Donthamsetty and Nathaniel Bankhead, consultants with a mandate to analyze past progress statistics, using their “theory of change” method to help GHC chart its path ahead. Tracing their theory of change, we learned that our past work has gone a long way to reinforce a sense of pride and confidence in the neighborhood.

Photographs of particular residents and business owners along with quotes from conversations gave the gathering tangible examples of this growth in pride and confidence, a sense that was also reinforced during the most recent report from Michael Schubert, principal of Community Development Strategies, a Chicago-based consulting firm focused on neighborhood revitalization. During his visits in late November, Schubert spent time on Glass Street, listening to residents explain their ideas and feelings about their neighborhood.

During the Board Retreat, participants reflected on three potential directions GHC could take: to continue our current focus, to wrap up the work done so far and write about the value of the lessons learned along the way, or to pivot toward exploring how new business incubation may lend value to the neighborhood, to increase access to information and ownership over space and story. In the end, the combination of consultants’ reports and board feedback pointed toward an agenda to apply the group’s collected strengths along with the community’s assets to address ownership and accessibility.

For starters, GHC plans to pilot a development project in the neighborhood to better gauge and collect data about the community’s interest in accessibility and ownership. Working in, with, and for a neighborhood is complicated work. Rather than racing ahead fast and furious, Glass House Collective is committed to acting with purpose, based on neighborhood input, with expert guides to help us steer wisely as we move forward.