Identify - Connect - Engage

The Mayor decides he wants Chicago to be a leading “green city” in the world.

Plan of Action created by the Chicago Department of Sustainability in 2005

new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment

Youth led garden in an Uptown neighborhood

2011 Urban Academy with students from Oklahoma City University

264 students from 5 Chicago universities in multi-academic disciplines

• Chicago State• DePaul• Roosevelt• Loyola• Northeastern

• Geographic Information Systems• Conservation Psychology• Introduction to Journalism• News Writing• Reporting Metro Chicago• Steans Center – Green Chicago• Environmental Ethics• Freshman Immersion Program• Content Management Systems• Environmental Sustainability• Sustainable Futures• GEO Neighborhood Development

Over 1,000 community initiated activities with documentation on a website

A neighborhood table talking about their group agricultural project at the “Share Fair.”

Share Fair - September 2012 attended by 400

people from 73 of Chicago’s 77 communities

In follow-up to the Share Fair, a strong desire to remain connected

Sharing Session at a Monthly CSLN Gathering

Round Table

Slow Roll Chicago – a community group of

bicyclers that began and grew on the South Side.

Lessons Learned

Action will remove the doubt that theory cannot solve

fromTehyi Hsieh’s Collection of Chinese Proverbs

A Key Lesson Learned:

Don’t wait for all details to be in place before beginning

but continually work to find the means of moving forward

We live in a sea of insanity where reality and future-oriented values are more often ignored than not.

Rather than despair, faithful action

means creating islands of sanity in communities of practice wherever we can.

Margaret Wheatley

Terry D. Bergdall

The Catalytic Role of an Outsider

to download go to

www.abcdinstitute.org/faculty/bergdall