On February 25th, our team joined our grantee partner BUILD Chicago as they unveiled their new headquarters in Austin.
Located across the street from Austin’s Michelle Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School, BUILD Chicago’s new campus is open for youth from Chicago’s West Side as a place to explore interests, make friends, and simply be kids.
BUILD staff and supporters were warmly joined by community members, local elected officials, and other partners to celebrate the new space, a first-of-its-kind in South Austin, “This [building] is the realization of your investment and your belief that all youth deserve to thrive,” said former CEO Adam Alonso.
Complete with several features, including a full-sized gym, art and music studios, and the “Soul Center,” the heart of BUILD’s community mental health programs, the new 51,000-square-foot campus serves as a home base for staff members and their violence prevention work, which allows BUILD to expand their capacity and programming in the Austin community.
Investing in Our Youth Together
Austin is a Chicago community within our service region that has faced long-term disinvestment. It is one of Chicago’s largest neighborhoods by population and size. However, over the last few decades, the community has seen public schools, grocery stores, and the local YMCA close their doors. These closures have made access to education, healthy food, and safe spaces difficult for community members, especially youth, and only amplifies the need for BUILD’s new space.
BUILD Chicago, an HCF multi-year grantee partner, recently celebrated 54 years of transforming young lives, and this new facility will help them continue to inspire hope for youth facing systemic obstacles. The new space joins several other projects currently underway that offer youth safe places to learn, grow, and thrive in Austin, including a career training center for Austin youth and families named The Aspire Center, led in part by another HCF multi-year grantee partner, Austin Coming Together.
Although Austin has historically ranked high in rates of community violence, community members, local organizations, and local collaborative efforts are united in amplifying a different narrative: Austin takes care of its people.
From public and private investments to community members and organizations, including our grantee partner Greater Chicago Food Depository, Austin came together as a community to make BUILD’s campus transformation a reality, a tremendous collaborative effort whose impact is not lost on Alonso.
“It took an entire team—our Board, our Associate Board, our incredible team—to make this happen… Partnerships built this building.”
Adam Alonso, Former CEO – BUILD Chicago
Our Partnership with BUILD Chicago
BUILD (Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development) Chicago has been transforming young lives since 1969; their impact spans multiple generations and includes thousands of Chicago’s youth, even touching the lives of one of our HCF team members.
Our former Director of Programs, Nora Garcia, has fond memories of BUILD visiting her elementary school to talk about gang and violence prevention, including presentations from long-time BUILD staff member Heriberto “Coco” Calixto. Coco, who passed away in 2020, passionately served BUILD’s community for over 35 years and his legacy lives on at BUILD’s new headquarters in Coco’s Corner, located in the youth lounge.
“It is amazing to see BUILD’s journey from a second-floor walk-up in Wicker Park to a headquarters that exemplifies how much the organization truly values youth and the community of Austin,” said Nora.
Local youth and families can visit BUILD’s new community hub and connect with mentors who are embedded within an impressive array of holistic programs and services at 5100 W. Harrison Street in Austin.
As former CEO Adam Alonso said, it is a space for “…lives [to be] transformed, smiles, healing, being a kid, maybe feeling home for the first time.”