Community Development

Adequate, affordable housing is an essential component in maintaining healthy households, strengthening communities, establishing bonds among neighbors, creating the expectation for effective schools, and building healthy business districts. The needs in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods are often greater than what the federal, state, and local governments are able to provide.

Claretian Associates is a singular resource for affordable housing in the South Chicago region. It aspires to create a community that is affordable, safe, and equitable, and it fosters a sense of safety and community. It has created over 240 affordable homes and apartments in a 12-block area and has simultaneously worked with other community partners to undertake housing development projects and services that have enriched the lives of Southeast Chicago residents. It has also developed and sold over 40 single-family homes through the city’s New Homes for Chicago program and plans to develop an additional 89 units in the coming years. Claretian Associates has transformed a geographic area into a community.

Other notable impacts:

SAFETY

• Since 2010, over 600 Chicago residents employed in youth and safety programs
• The Safe Passages program lead a 99% decrease in school fights at participating schools from 2017-2019.

Community Building

• Each year, we have an average of 100 volunteers that work on food security, gardening and community clean-up events
• Claretian Associates works with over 15 local & regional partners in our south Chicago neighborhood network

Claretian Associates owns and/or manages:

An apartment complex offering affordable living for seniors aged 55 and older. Villa Guadalupe’s mission is to enhance the quality of life of local seniors by providing affordable housing and support services within a secure environment. The Villa has been in operation for more than 20 years and has helped stabilize a changing community. It provides access to health services, social programs, and case management at no cost to the residents, in the hopes of providing life-enhancing services to seniors in South Chicago. Seniors can also participate in recreational programs such as dance and exercise classes, holiday events, jewelry-making classes, daytrips, and connecting with nearby schools for programs involving multiple generations.

Villa Guadalupe also runs the Senior Center within the Victory Centre of South Chicago. Located two blocks away, the Center offers affordable meals, activities, and classes for seniors on every weekday.

Gabe’s Place is a youth and young adult leadership development program offering summer school and camps to children in grades K-5. Gabe’s Place provides a summer curriculum and camp experience with learning in the morning focused on math, language arts, and music exploration with typical summer camp activities in the afternoon, led by San Gabriel Mission High School students.

Parenting 4 Non-Violence (P4NV) has been serving communities in Illinois since 2012, building community capacity for violence prevention and empowering parents in order to strengthen youth, families, and communities by building up parent-child relationships. P4NV provides education and support for parents to raise children in emotionally healthy ways, so that their children can thrive personally, socially, and academically.

Jovenes, Inc. helps youth ages 18-25 in southeast Los Angeles County end the cycle of homelessness and unlock their potential by addressing their needs for housing, healthcare, education, employment, and trauma recovery. Jovenes, Inc.’s Immigrants with Disabilities Project seeks to learn about the realities, challenges, and needs of Latinx immigrants living with disabilities in the U.S. in order to better support them.

The Quinn Center of St. Eulalia is a social outreach ministry that addresses social justice concerns in the diverse community of Proviso near Chicago. The Quinn Center collaborates with local organizations to provide the community with programs aimed to promote educational advancement, community development, social justice, and improvement of the overall well-being of youth, adults, and seniors. Learn more here.

The Office of Human Dignity & Solidarity of the Archdiocese of Chicago recognizes the dignity of all life and stands in solidarity with people who are marginalized. The Office coordinates opportunities for service, worship, leadership development, and social justice actions addressing domestic violence, immigration, poverty, and other community development efforts.

The Coalition for Spiritual & Public Leadership is a not-for-profit, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, grassroots-led coalition that enlists parishes, institutions, and communities to address racial, social, economic, and environmental injustices. The Coalition provides trainings for faith leaders and their congregations to cultivate a new generation of leaders who will help improve their communities. Learn more here.

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, or United Workers’ Center is a grass-roots community-organizing group and worker’s center founded by low-income workers in the South Side and southeast suburbs of Chicago. CTU strives to build worker power, especially for immigrant workers, through advancing systemic change that promotes social justice and stabilizes low-income immigrant communities and communities of color.