Chicago

The Chicago Portal was first placed outside of the Harold Washington Cultural Center, in the historically Black Bronzeville neighborhood in the South Side.   From December 2016 to the end of October 2017, the Portal remained in Bronzeville but transitioned to the South Chicago Christian Center, a faith based non-profit charitable organization anchored by a thrift shop that was started to empower the community through Christian principles. The Portal moved to a third location in the predominantly Mexican community of Little Village at the Instituto Del Progreso Latino, an alternative school established to serve the educational and workforce development needs of the community. Finally, the Portal moved to the #LetUsBreathe Collective in Back of the Yards - an alliance of artists and activists organizing through a creative lens to imagine a world without prisons and police. Located near the waterfront and the Loop, Bronzeville, Little Village and Back of the Yards are neighborhoods surrounded by a surge of private investment initiatives to attract young professionals to the neighborhoods.  

 

The Chicago Portal hosted 250 criminal justice dialogues - 53 at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, 94 at South Chicago Christian Center, 58 at the Instituto Del Progreso Latino and 45 at the #LetUsBreathe Collective.