The Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) is a nonprofit community organization that works to advance social justice through leadership development, community engagement, and diversity. It serves over 8,500 children and adults through various programs. These include a parent mentor program in schools, after school community learning centers, training local parents to become teachers, and providing social services around issues like foreclosure prevention, immigration, and health care. The organization also works to develop grassroots leadership to address issues impacting the community like affordable housing, education, jobs, and safety. A key part of its work is the annual "I Love Logan Square" fundraising party and live auction that raises funds for its general operating expenses.

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LSNA is a nonprofit organization that
believes strong communities are the
foundation of a better society. LSNA is a
community-based organization advancing
diversity, leader development, and models
for engagement as the catalyst for social
justice. By empowering local residents and
focusing on the individual, we enhance
neighborhood involvement and
understanding. Our work inspires
leadership development among people of
all ages and backgrounds to help them
achieve their full potential and have a
positive impact in their communities.
LSNA directly serves over 8,500 children and
adults, and our organizing work supports
tens of thousands more. Through our
programs, we develop leaders of all ages
who create safe spaces for collaboration
and consensus building.
LSNA believes that a better society begins
with strong grassroots leadership. Our work
transforming our local schools has been a
resounding success and recognized as a
highly replicable model. Now extending
throughout Illinois and reaching into more
than 10 states and several countries, our
model puts an emphasis on leadership at
home, in schools, and throughout our
neighborhoods to build stronger
communities.
LSNA
• Maintained donor database, tracked and
evaluated fundraising efforts and
researched donor prospects and grant
opportunities.
• Middle School & High School Youth
Education Prospect Research (academic,
social emotional, organizing, leadership
development).
• Assisted the development team to
organize, track & evaluate fundraising
campaigns and research individual donor
prospects, as well as grant funding.
• Submitted Letters of Inquiry to funding
prospects.
• Solicited and received auction items
from local businesses and major
professional sports teams.
• Handled thank-you letters to donors
• Assisted in the Annual Report
My Work with the Development
Department
• A nationally recognized Parent Mentor Program through which local parents work daily in
the classrooms of 9 local public schools, directly impacting more than 4,000 students; the
Parent Engagement Institute (PEI), which focuses on training and capacity building for
Parent Mentor program replication locally, nationally, and internationally;
• Community Learning Centers in three local schools, which stay open until 6pm, providing
academic and arts education programming to students and their families;
• The Logan Square Grow Your Own Teachers Cohort, a partnership with Northeastern Illinois
University, training local parents to be bilingual educators;
• The “Greater Logan Square Early Learning Coalition,” a future pipeline to Early Childhood
careers for community residents, which includes 23 member representatives of local
early childcare centers, schools, health care providers, and social services agencies;
• Leadership opportunities and restorative justice practices at the high school level with the
Logan Square Youth Leadership Institute;
• A Foreclosure Prevention Outreach Team that visits local properties facing foreclosure,
providing both homeowners and tenants with a targeted set of resources based on their
respective needs;
• A campaign to preserve the Chicago Housing Authority’s Lathrop Homes as public and
affordable housing through historic rehabilitation;
• A Health Outreach Team that distributes important information regarding critical public
health issues and links residents to public benefits and affordable, high quality health
services;
• An Immigration Team that organizes and provides services for Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Legal Permanent Residents seeking citizenship, and the Justice
For Our Neighbors Clinic, while also pushing for immigration reform and relief.
Current Programs LSNA supports
This is an annual party and live auction coordinated by Logan Square Neighborhood
Association staff members as a means to raise funds for the organization’s general operating
expenses.
This year was our Seventh Annual “I Love Logan Square” Party & Live Auction, which was held
in a beautiful new space in the community on Milwaukee Avenue.
Auction items were donated by LSNA staff, community members, local businesses, and non-
profits. A Live Service Auction was led by volunteer auctioneers while a Silent Auction was
also set up for guests to bid on prizes. Live and silent auction prizes typically consist of
theater tickets, weekend cottage stays, tamale making parties, personal training sessions,
banjo lessons, bike tune-ups, and catered meals.
LSNA relies heavily on the partnerships and networks of our member groups and outside allied
agencies to achieve comprehensive program improvements and policy changes in our
neighborhoods. Within this context, LSNA develops local leadership to identify, strategize,
and organize around significant community issues that impact their lives, such as affordable
housing, school reform, immigration, living-wage jobs, economic development, health care,
and neighborhood safety.
Our goal is to ensure that families are connected to support networks and services that will
enable them to develop their own social capital, look out for one another, and work toward
common goals that promote community/family well-being.
This year was LSNA’s most successful one to date, reaching a total gross revenue of $16,329,
with a board match of $2,000, bringing in a total of $18,329!!
I Love Logan Square Party
Successes of the past 9 months
• Foreclosure Prevention – 459 Properties
• Helped more than 108 homeowners save
their homes!
• Immigration Services – 1,115 Residents
• No cost DACA services to more than 266
young people!
• Kept 125 families together through free
legal services!
• Peace Circles – 255 Youth
• Recruitment & Training – 600 Parent
Mentors!
• Door-to-Door Outreach – 11,500
Households
• Largest Get Out the Vote campaign ever;
Registered 1,500 new voters!
• Helped more than 320 local residents
apply for jobs & drivers licenses!
Being an Agent of Social Change
Shana Wills, Development Director & staff of
Logan Square Neighborhood Association
References
LSNA: www.lsna.net
After School Matters:
http://www.afterschoolmatters.org/
Get Out the Vote:
http://www.chicagosprogressivetalk.com/get-
out-the-vote/
Parent Mentor Program:
http://www.lsna.net/Issues-and-
programs/Schools-and-Youth/Parent-Mentor-
Program.html
DACA: http://www.lsna.net/Issues-and-
programs/Reform/Deferred-Action.html
606 Campaign against displacing families:
http://www.lsna.net/news/3233
Amanda L. O’Connell
Logan Square Neighborhood Association
Acknowledgements
• Working on changing the systems (public
policy, societal norms, institutional
biases) that support social injustice.
• Insight into the functioning and
interconnectedness of systems
• Political efficacy, (a belief that what we
think and do civically and politically
actually matters)
• Promoting sensitivity to and knowledge
of issues about oppression and cultural
and ethnic diversity
• Community influence on individuals
• Challenging unjust policies and
practices
• Creating partnerships within the
community