Communities United

CU is a very disorganized workplace, and the way CU functions is unsustainable. The organization has very unclear structure and processes. There is incredibly poor communication throughout the organization and it starts from the top and continues on down. Being flexible is a skill thats good to have in any professional settings but working in CU its an absolute necessity. Its not uncommon to have meetings, task and changes occur at the last minute. This makes planning an absolute nightmare and contributes to a stressful work environment. I have also seen quite a few staff members on the edge of burnout. Deadlines are spoken of but rarely ever met. Also, its not uncommon to have key staff show up late to a meeting or miss the meeting entirely, despite having advanced notice of the meeting on their calendar. Organization wide task like weekly staff reports are instituted by management, only to quickly be forgotten by them weeks later, making it feel pointless for staff who actually take time do complete said task. There is a constant emphasis on check-ins & debriefing, which generally speaking is good, however when it comes to check-ins, depending on the size of a meeting, its normal to have a quarter of the meeting time spent on just introductions and responding to check-in questions instead of addressing the focus of the meeting at hand. Debriefs on the other hand feel like they happen for the sake of debriefing. There is never really space given for more critical feedback during debriefs, which often results in the same issues that happened previously reoccurring. Lessons learned in debriefs are quickly forgotten by the time the next event, meeting, etc occur. The young people and community members youll meet throughout the work are great, but I feel the organization do the young people a disservice by not doing an adequate job preparing them for life outside of the CU bubble. It feels like leadership is more concerned with photo-ops and numbers for grant reports than the effectiveness of the program and events that happen. Lastly, even though the organization considers itself survivor led, which is true to a degree, I have seen a couple of examples of input from young people in particular being disregarded because it differs from views held by leadership.
Jan 10th, 2024

As a young and ambitious leader with Communtiies untied, I am beyond grateful and honored to be part of the movement to bring social Justice, empowerment and peace to our neighborhoods!!
Jun 17th, 2023

Jan 27th, 2022

Nov 5th, 2021

Purpose Driven people fighting for Equity in chicago .
Feb 23rd, 2020