Core members
Invest the most time in the network and receive the most benefits.
Ally members
Similar types of activities as core; however, their less frequent involvement results in fewer benefits.
GrassTops members
Primarily interested in collaborating with the network as an institutional partner.
Core Members
Alvyn is a Property Team Leader and member of Windsor Park Lutheran Church in South Shore. He is involved in a number of projects that make the church a community hub, including a partnership with Leave No Veteran Behind and Cambium Networks that installed an antenna on the church to enhance wi-fi access for the neighborhood. He is a self-described gardening steward and civic tech advocate.
Orrin is the Food Systems Coordinator for the Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Partnerships and Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion at UIC. Orrin is a Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Urban Transformation, and works in advisory roles with the Sweet Water Foundation, the THEN Center, and the Teamwork Englewood Health and Wellness Task Force. He is interested in applying a whole systems approach to the development of healthy and sustainable communities. Orrin prefers to think of “sustainability” solutions as regenerative and restorative design and development systems.
Ted Wysocki is the CEO of ICA, whose mission is to “build a just and equitable society in harmony with planet Earth.” Based on his more than 40 years of community development experience, Ted launched his blog u2cando in 2014. Previously, he was CEO of the Local Economic & Employment Development Council, now called North Branch Works, and CEO of the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations (CANDO). He started his community development career in 1974 with Gale Cincotta, the mother of the Community Reinvestment Act. Ted is a director emeritus of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
