Our Mission
To partner with Black and Brown working-class residents in Chicago to make it easier for them to build community power and self-determination through collective ownership.
Our Vision
Our vision is an equitable and just economy where people thrive without extracting from one another or from the environment; where communities collectively own and democratically govern the assets in their neighborhood (land, labor, housing, and enterprises) to build community wealth, health, and safety.
Our Staff & Board of Directors
Nneka Onwuzurike
Executive Director Read BioNneka Onwuzurike
Executive Director
Nneka Onwuzurikeis the Founder & Executive Director of The Community WEB. Previously, Nneka spent nearly five years in the City of Chicago Mayor’s Office, serving under both Mayor Brandon Johnson and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. As First Deputy for Business and Neighborhood Development, her portfolio spanned housing, business development, real estate development, arts and culture, and more. She played a key role in passing a historic $1.25 billion housing and economic development bond ordinance, led the Cut the Tape initiative to streamline and accelerate development approvals, and designed the City’s $15 million Community Wealth Building pilot program.
Nneka holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently serves on the boards of Greenwood Archer Capital and The Fields at Rootsprings. She is also a recipient of fellowships from the Center for Community Investment, Communities First & Government Alliance for Race & Equity, Chicago United for Equity, and New Leaders Council.
Camille Kerr
Board TreasurerUpside Down Consulting
Stacey Sutton
Board SecretaryUniversity of Illinois Chicago, Center for Urban Economic Development
Our Coaching Team
Linda Lutton
Independent Housing Coop Developer
Rani Langer-Croager
Uptima Business Cooperative
Jeff Washburne
Burlington AssociatesOur History
The Community WEB stands on the shoulders of many – both known and unknown, named and unnamed.
Chicago has a long, though often underrecognized, tradition of community ownership. Housing cooperatives emerged as early as the 1920s, laying the groundwork for future experiments in resident control, democratic governance, and long-term affordability. By the early 2000s, the Voorhees Center and the Chicago Mutual Housing Network undertook the first major mapping of the city’s cooperative landscape, paving the way for the Chicago Rehab Network to later emerge and assist both emerging and legacy co-ops.
In 2008, two parallel movements marked a turning point. Grassroots organizations, including the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, began organizing community land trusts in response to the foreclosure crisis. At the same time, Humboldt Park residents and community leaders work to create the First CLT of Chicago. That same year, after decades of operation, Republic Windows and Doors shut down. Years later, its workers purchased the factory themselves and formed New Era Windows, demonstrating the power of worker ownership and cooperative conversions as a pathway to dignity, stability, and economic justice.
A new wave of momentum followed between 2018 and 2020. The first Cooperative Economy Summit united worker-owners and advocates across sectors, while passage of the Illinois Limited Worker Cooperative Association Act created a statewide legal framework for worker co-ops. That same period saw the launch of the Co-op Education Center, that provided coop training and education, and UIC Law Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic, providing the legal and educational infrastructure needed for growth. At the same time, a consortium of organizations in Logan Square and Hermosa created Here to Stay Community Land Trust, prioritizing permanently affordable housing to respond to gentrification and cultural displacement.
In 2020, at the height of COVID-19 and the uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and countless others, the City of Chicago Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice embraced community wealth building as a core strategy. Leveraging American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, the City invested $15 million in technical assistance, predevelopment, and development grants for worker cooperatives, limited equity housing cooperatives, community land trust, and community investment vehicles. This historic pilot program provided grants to more than 15 technical assistance providers, predevelopment grants to 25 community-led organizations, and led to the creation of two CWB funds.
Through this pilot program, The City of Chicago seeded a new organization: Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem (CCWBE), incubated at Center for Urban and Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago, was responsible for coordination and convening; development of a technology platform for resource aggregation, dissemination, and referrals; facilitating peer learning among projects; convening ecosystem partners; grantee monthly reporting; and research and process documentation for the first 18-months of the pilot initiative.
After the sunsetting of CCWBE and in response to community requests for continued community wealth building ecosystem support, The Community WEB was founded in 2025.