Enlace Chicago

Programs: Education: enlace partners with public schools to transform them into safe, accessible community centers and to promote successful transition to high school and post-secondary opportunities. Community schools provide wrap-around family programming that promotes academic achievement, skill building, socio-emotional learning and leadership development. Little village en route to college provides tailored support to high school students who face barriers in getting to college, including those who are undocumented. Parents are engaged as classroom aides, peer mentors and community leaders, and receive training related to topics such as post-secondary attainment, social emotional learning, and organizing and advocacy. The little village education collaborative convenes stakeholders in order to improve the educational system in little village and enhance educational attainment from birth to old age through system alignment, research and policy advocacy.

violence prevention: enlace takes a comprehensive and trauma-informed approach to building safety and promoting peace in little village. Street outreach workers focus on reducing and preventing gun violence by working closely with program participants, partners and other community members who are most impacted. School-based counselors are master's level social workers that provide counseling and mentorship for students and families in local schools. The safe passage team works to improve safety along the routes that students and families travel to and from school. The little village youth safety network is a collective impact effort focused on preventing youth violence, and the violence prevention collaborative is a coalition of violence intervention program providers.

health: enlace's community health programming is designed to maximize local resources, including strong partners, community hubs, passionate leaders and a culture of wellness, with a focus on chronic disease prevention, healthy food access, mental health promotion, access to care and community health worker capacity building. Community health workers provide health education and peer support groups, and support community members with public benefits and health insurance enrollment, healthcare navigation, and mental health and basic needs referrals. Community and school gardens produce healthy food and promote wellness, community ownership, traditional knowledge, sustainable practices and environmental conservation. Promoting, advocating and educating for health is a network of community health workers based in little village that coordinates peer support, training, professional development and health advocacy efforts.

enlace organizes community-based workshops, provides free legal services and engages in policy advocacy through a partnership with the community activism law alliance. Enlace's free legal clinic provides a wide range of services in the areas of immigration, family, education, labor, criminal records, housing and consumer issues. Attorneys and staff support community members with immigration application processes, and they provide educational sessions related to topics such as "know your rights and current immigration policy. Community leaders work with staff to develop and implement enlace's advocacy platform. Enlace convenes a semi-annual leadership academy concentrating on the fundamentals of power and community organizing. Hundreds of enlace member connect with broader coalition partnerships and participate in advocacy efforts at the local, city, county, state, and federal levels.