Help build our Southeast Side community center!
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos: United Workers’ Center (CTU) is located on the far corner of Chicago near the border of Indiana in the South Chicago neighborhood. In 2015 our dream to build a community center on the southeast side came to fruition when a local bank donated a building to us at the corner of 98th St and Ewing Ave. for $1 and the state awarded us a capital grant. We quickly got to work on the construction of the building. However, even with all of this generous support, construction was halted shortly thereafter due to unforeseen challenges tied to the lack of a state budget. Fortunately, we were recently able to resume construction. Thanks to a team of local unions and other community supporters that have stepped in to assist, we will be able to complete the first floor of the building and will hopefully be able to move soon.
We are dreaming big when it comes to this project! There is currently no community center of its kind that serves the diverse and vibrant community on Southeast Side of the city. The plan is to provide community space on the first floor to host citizenship classes, meetings, trainings and more. The basement will be used for our workforce development project and will be converted into an industrial kitchen to incubate worker cooperatives. The upper floor, the second floor, will be transformed into temporary housing for newly arrived immigrant families.
We are on our way to securing the funds needed to continue the renovation of our community center but we need your help! We ask you to join us in our vision to build a strong, healthy and thriving community. Any donation, whether it be financial. material or labor, is greatly appreciated as it will bring us closer to our goal of providing more opportunities and services to communities throughout the Southeast Side and South Suburbs.
Fundraiser!
15 years ago, community leaders came together in the face of a tremendous need to organize low-wage marginalized community residents to challenge the powers that oppress them. These leaders formed CTU, with the mission to organize and build the capacity of our community.This year we are celebrating fifteen years of existence as a community organization. Centro de Trabajadores Unidos: United Workers’ Center (CTU) was founded in 2007 to ensure that the rights of our community members are upheld. We are excited to announce the celebration of our 15th Annual Dinner on Friday, September 16, 2022 @ 6:00 P.M.
This year, as part of our 15th Annual Dinner fundraiser, we’ll be raffling off a NEW Harley Davidson motorcycle!! All raffle ticket purchases will go towards renovating our Southeast Side community center.
When Centro de Trabajadores Unidos was founded, it was evident that there was a tremendous need to organize low-wage marginalized community residents to challenge the powers that oppress them. CTU was formed by community leaders who saw injustice and decided to organize and build the capacity of our community. That mission is still at the heart of what we do. Our membership continues to grow and fight for a healthy, thriving, community free from exploitation.
We have exciting milestones coming our way with the renovation of our future Southeast Side Community Center, new cooperative initiatives, civic engagement, workplace justice campaigns and deportation defense work. We are a membership-based organization and rely on your support to carry out our mission. Please buy a raffle ticket and support our work today!
CTU Accomplishments: Our CTU staff has tripled in the last three years. We have assisted in workers recovering over $3.2 million dollars in stolen wages. We are launching our second worker cooperative, Mujeres Brillantes, a cleaning services business. After long months of advocacy, Norberto Navarro was freed from immigration detention and deportation proceedings. During the pandemic, we provided 12,000 hot meals to low-wage residents and disbursed over one million dollars in emergency funds.
This year we are raffling a brand NEW 2021 Sportster Harley Davidson Motorcycle. If you wish to purchase some tickets, please visit us at https://go.rallyup.com/centro. All funds will go to the renovation of our community center.
To make a donation to the community center, please visit the ‘Donate’ link at the top right hand corner of the page.
If you are interested in getting involved in the construction of the community center, please contact:
Ana Guajardo, 708-790-7760 or aguajardo@ctu-iwp.org.