The Community Learning Partnership – Chicago (CLP) is officially in full swing for the Fall semester, with Community Organizing classes now underway in both English and Spanish. Following the successful launch of the program at Kennedy-King College in Fall 2025, CLP has expanded its reach this semester with classes at Kennedy-King College in English and at City Colleges of Chicago’s Arturo Velasquez Westside Technical Institute in Spanish, creating new opportunities for Chicago residents to develop the skills and credentials needed to pursue community organizing as a career.
At its core, CLP is designed to build a pathway for people who are directly impacted by injustice to become leaders and professional organizers within their own communities. The program contributes to transformative community and social change by expanding the credentialed workforce of knowledgeable and skilled organizers from and for low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrant communities. Through college coursework, hands-on experience and leadership development, CLP prepares participants to enter careers where they can organize communities and work toward making policies and systems more equitable.
The program grew out of a partnership between five Chicago community organizations—Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) Chicago, Enlace, Northwest Center, Palenque LSNA and Teamwork Englewood—which piloted two cohorts of the Chicago CLP program. The success of those pilots helped establish a partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago and led to the creation of a college-credit pathway at Kennedy-King College, which launched in Fall 2025. With the program now expanding to Arturo Velasquez Westside Technical Institute in Fall 2026, CLP is continuing to build a citywide pipeline for community leaders and organizers. Additional efforts are underway to bring CLP to Wright College Humboldt Park in Fall 2027.
Students working toward the Basic Certificate in Community Leadership complete a series of courses designed to combine the theory, history and practical skills necessary for community organizing. The certificate includes:
· SOCSCI 160: Community Organizing – 3 credit hours, Fall semester
· SOCSCI 260: Community Development – 3 credit hours, Fall semester
· SOCSCI 265: Practicum in Community Leadership – 4 credit hours, Spring semester
· POL SCI 207: U.S. State & Local Government – 3 credit hours
· One elective course – 3 credit hours, selected from:
o AFRO AM 101: Introduction to African-American Studies
o HISTORY 216: U.S. Latinx History
o SOC 207: The Sociology of Sex & Gender
Together, these courses give students an opportunity to understand the communities they serve, examine the systems that shape people's lives and develop the practical skills needed to organize for change. The spring practicum also provides an opportunity for students to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it through hands-on community leadership experience.
Importantly, CLP creates a connection between education and a career that many people may not have previously considered. Community organizing is often a profession people discover only after becoming involved in their own communities, and CLP provides a structured pathway for those individuals to turn that experience into formal training, college credentials and opportunities for leadership.
For qualifying Chicago residents, tuition for the college coursework is covered at no cost through City Colleges of Chicago's Future Ready funding, helping remove one of the barriers that can prevent community members from pursuing higher education and professional development.
As the Fall 2026 semester continues, CLP – Chicago is not simply filling classrooms. It is helping build a growing network of people equipped with the knowledge, relationships and organizing skills to lead change in the communities they call home.
