The key to the strategy in Elgin is "bringing people together" and whenever that happens - change is the result. Between the launch of One Collective in Elgin in the summer of 2019 and the end of 2020, 1 new staff member joined our team. Dozens of people volunteered to assist with the community needs assessment, spending dozens of hours logging these conversations with the added benefit of getting to know friends and neighbors better. 2 data-specialists spent dozens of hours studying lines of data. Over 100 people have chosen to partner financially to help launch the project.
60+ Local Partnerships
non-profits, city departments, the school district,& 2 colleges
30,000+ People Reached
DURING THE “ELGIN CARES” CAMPAIGN
100+ Financial Partners
EQUIPPING ELGIN FOR THE FUTURE
When COVID-19 hit, the priority of these conversations changed from information gathering to collaborative problem-solving. Over 60 organizations including non-profits, city departments, the school district, and both colleges in Elgin joined the COVID-19 response calls our team organized. As part of these calls, a dozen volunteers organized 100s of volunteers to serve in food pantries and mobile pop-ups so that people could access food. Out of these organizing efforts, Bobby was elected the Chair of the Elgin Human Services Council (EHSC), a group made of the executive directors of Human Service Organizations, and dozens of ED’s joined the Council this summer. Members seek to learn from each other and align their limited resources so they can serve the most people possible.
Together, the EHSC created a mental health campaign called “Elgin Cares,” and developed a mental health tool, which is a social media and print resource for people to use to check-in on themselves and share with their friends and neighbors. Each organization in the EHSC shared this campaign on their own social media page and the result was that in three weeks, the Elgin Cares Facebook received over 1000 follows and over 30,000 views on Facebook. The team translated it into both English and Spanish and are now hard at work distributing 5,000 hard copies of the mental health check-in tool around the city with the goal of printing another 16,000 copies in the next couple of months. This campaign grew so rapidly that the Daily Herald sought us out to report on our work. The Facebook site and social media handles are now being used as a platform for other shared social services initiatives.
You can participate in this collaborative work by following the page yourself and sharing it with your friends (click here to go to the site)
As the research continued, it was discovered that there are people trapped all around us in human-trafficking and that there are no organized, consistent anti-trafficking efforts in Kane county. Our friends at Naomi’s House agreed to expand their efforts to care for victims of trafficking to Elgin. People came together to help them find space to run programming and organized their first fundraiser this past September. A coalition of people who want to fight against trafficking on both the victim and “demand” sides are beginning to form.
Past Projects
The key to the strategy in Elgin is "bringing people together" and whenever that happens - change is the result. Since the launch of One Collective in Elgin in the summer of 2019, 1 new staff member has joined our team. 10 people volunteered to contribute 20 or more conversations, spending dozens of hours logging these conversations with the added benefit of getting to know friends and neighbors better. In the spring, 25 Judson University students in a Christian Missions class participated by meeting between 5-20 people of a different racial or ethnic background from themselves and logging their conversations. 2 data-specialists spent dozens of hours studying lines of data. Over 100 people have chosen to partner financially to help launch the project.
60+ Local Partnerships
non-profits, city departments, the school district,& 2 colleges
30,000+ People Reached
DURING THE “ELGIN CARES” CAMPAIGN
100+ Financial Partners
EQUIPPING ELGIN FOR THE FUTURE
When COVID-19 hit, the priority of these conversations changed from information gathering to collaborative problem-solving. Over 60 organizations including non-profits, city departments, the school district, and both colleges in Elgin joined the COVID-19 response calls our team organized. As part of these calls, a dozen volunteers organized 100s of volunteers to serve in food pantries and mobile pop-ups so that people could access food. Out of these organizing efforts, Bobby was elected the Chair of the Elgin Human Services Council (EHSC), a group made of the executive directors of Human Service Organizations, and dozens of ED’s joined the Council this summer. Members seek to learn from each other and align their limited resources so they can serve the most people possible.
Together, the EHSC created a mental health campaign called “Elgin Cares,” and developed a mental health tool, which is a social media and print resource for people to use to check-in on themselves and share with their friends and neighbors. Each organization in the EHSC shared this campaign on their own social media page and the result was that in three weeks, the Elgin Cares Facebook received over 1000 follows and over 30,000 views on Facebook. The team translated it into both English and Spanish and are now hard at work distributing 5,000 hard copies of the mental health check-in tool around the city with the goal of printing another 16,000 copies in the next couple of months. This campaign grew so rapidly that the Daily Herald sought us out to report on our work. The Facebook site and social media handles are now being used as a platform for other shared social services initiatives.
You can participate in this collaborative work by following the page yourself and sharing it with your friends (click here to go to the site)
As the research continued, it was discovered that there are people trapped all around us in human-trafficking and that there are no organized, consistent anti-trafficking efforts in Kane county. Our friends at Naomi’s House agreed to expand their efforts to care for victims of trafficking to Elgin. People came together to help them find space to run programming and organized their first fundraiser this past September. A coalition of people who want to fight against trafficking on both the victim and “demand” sides are beginning to form.
So — where is One Collective Elgin now? Over the past two months, a decision-making council made up of business owners, pastors, politicians, and social activists have been assembled to help us develop a long-term strategy. At the beginning of 2021, we will take our list of resources and community strengths and begin to confront the issues that have been discovered. Check out the video below to see what we’re actually going to be doing.
Across Elgin:
100+ Volunteers helped Year of Learning and the COVID-19 response
25 Judson Students
5 Interns
2 Data Specialists
1 New Staff Member
60+ organizations
City of Elgin, Elgin Police, U-46 School District, Daily Herald
Naomi’s House, an anti-trafficking organization recruited to Elgin
6 members joined our decision-making council
Where One Collective Elgin is Headed
Current Projects
