Chicago is famous for being a big city with a small town feel, due to its close to 200 neighborhoods, whose residents shape the names and boundaries as much as they do each neighborhood’s unique identity.  The 25th Ward encompasses a diverse group of neighborhoods including the Lower West Side, Pilsen, Greektown, Chinatown, and University Village/Little Italy. While Chicago’s South and West sides have been historically disinvested in, and policies from Redlining to The War on Drugs have created generational poverty and trauma among our majority Black and Brown community members, there are also new challenges that have emerged due to gentrification, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a polarizing political climate.

Since the start of the pandemic, Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez organized biweekly 25th Ward Public Safety committee meetings which include the Alderman and his staff, community leaders, key stakeholders, and our neighbors.  After years of collaboration, in January 2022, several members of the committee joined together to form Two Five Three Two Corp NFP, representing the 25th Ward and its 32 precincts, to directly address the cycles of poverty and violence through youth engagement in the digital and performing arts.