Our coalition’s mission is to unite community, labor and grassroots organizations in the shared work of:

Our coalition’s vision is for all people to achieve the fullest possibility of life and liberation.

We believe everyone should have what they need to thrive, to be free from any form of oppression and to determine their own futures.

We seek a world where everyone has resources and rights to the health, housing, education, work, and communities they want and deserve.

Grassroots Collaborative (GC) was formed in 2000 by Chicago labor and community organizations to solve a shared problem; each of us was fighting to win resources for poor and working class communities across different issue areas and neighborhoods, but all of us hit up against the same entrenched interests backed by billionaires and bad actors. We all wanted fully funded public schools, truly affordable housing, safe neighborhoods that invest in youth, living wages and good union jobs. We all knew that the same greedy landlords, real estate developers, bankers, and bought-and-paid-for politicians would show up to fight us at every turn. We knew that in isolation our organizations did not have the power needed to face these challenges and win all we wanted. It would take a unified, permanent coalition of labor unions and community organizations to make that a reality.

GC connects fights that add up to a bigger, bolder vision for change. We’ve led bold campaigns like the Big Box Living Wage Ordinance to show mega-corporations that Chicago and its workers are not for sale. We fought for and won the return of over $100 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to schools, parks, and libraries in both Chicago and Peoria, and in 2019 we fought in the courts against Lincoln Yards, a mega-development awarded over one billion in taxpayer dollars. We win by convening powerful coalitions, growing grassroots leaders, and demanding transformative public policy.