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Our mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home.

    Empowerment Hub

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    About the E-Hub

    The Empowerment Hub (or E-Hub, formerly known as the Entrepreneurship Hub) is home to a suite of programs for public housing residents, people with low incomes, and communities of color. Participants engage in cooperative entrepreneurship, informal education, workforce training, and other pathways to employment and economic equity.

    Build Community Wealth

    Cultural Workforce Development Program

    Our Cultural Workforce Development Program addresses systemic and structural barriers to education, training, and entrepreneurship. Our programs and partnerships provide:

    • Hands-on workshops
    • Working and study groups
    • Training, internships, & apprenticeship programs

    Our Museum Educator Ambassador Training Program is a paid 3-week training module (12 hours a week) and our Beauty Turner Academy for Oral History, is a paid 10-week training and is the entry point to joining our Oral History Collective.

    Learn more
    • Screenshot

      Listen

      This episode of Out of the Archives shares entrepreneurship stories from public housing residents.
    • BTA Logo w Ms Beauty

      Beauty Turner Academy for Oral History

      Our oral history training program is open to past and present residents and organizers of all ages and backgrounds who are interested in using storytelling as a tool for social change.
      Learn more and apply
    • D&S

      Corner Store Co-op

      Are you a maker or seller with a story to tell? Showcase your products and grow your business as a vendor with the Corner Store Co-op retail store and online marketplace.
      Apply to be a vendor

    Public Programs

    Our public programs broaden narratives and build community support by promoting the solidarity economy ecosystem, cooperative principles and businesses, community wealth-building, and alternative models to housing as a commodity.

    From selling candy in Cabrini-Green Homes to doing hair in home-based salons in Houston and community gardening outside LeClaire Courts to sharing profits with the Altgeld Gardens Co-op grocery store, public housing residents form creative economies and cooperative networks that power their communities and, by extension, our E-Hub program.

    Our E-Hub Program emerges from authentic stories and innovative strategies shared by public housing residents who have leveraged their homegrown talents to build vibrant economies and sustain their families and communities despite historical disinvestment.

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    E-Hub members, museum staff, and volunteers at our On the Lawn concert at Millennium Park
    Building Together Bag
    A young CHA resident holding up a tote bag they screen printed with the museum.
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    E-Hub member creating a honey-based salve with his son at the Taylor Street Farms.
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    E-Hub member co-leading a painting session at the Taylor Street Farms.
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    Candy store exhibition and pop up shop collaboration with Corner Store Co-op at our 2024 Gala.

    Our programs are made possible through the generous support of the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Kresge Foundation, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

    Contact Associate Director Tiff Beatty, [email protected], if you’re interested in participating in, or supporting our programs and events.

    Group of Teens in Blue