Empowerment Hub
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Garlic Scape Pesto
Inspired by a remarkable heritage of cooperative gardening in public housing projects, the museum has an ongoing partnership with Taylor Street Farms. Located adjacent to the museum on the site of a former subsidized housing complex, Taylor Street Farms is a small community garden that is maintained and operated by volunteers.
We have a small plot at Taylor Street Farms where we grow garlic. Staff harvest garlic scapes and, as a gesture of hospitality, share them with guests during programs and other occasions, along with a recipe card for Garlic Scape Pesto (PDF).
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.
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.
