Happy Holidays from the Englewood Portal!
Published: September 27, 2010
We're here to talk about Our Englewood! Neighborhood organizations, residents, business owners and other local institutions are working together to create the Englewood Portal, a window into our community.
The portal is a work in progress, but we envision it as a place where residents and others can learn about our neighborhood, plug into local resources and share the Englewood experience. The content of this portal comes directly from the people who live and work in the community, reporting on the issues and happenings that matter to them most.
How Did It Happen?
The seeds for the Englewood Portal were sown in 2005, when representatives from more than three dozen local institutions served as planning commissioners and more 300 residents, community leaders, business owners and service providers who shared their stories and dreams with us and with each other. The resulting Quality-of-Life Plan outlined 10 key strategies as a framework for us to work together to improve our community.
Strategy #10 is to "Create a community network to spread information, resources and expertise within Englewood and beyond." This portal is a big part of that strategy.
In 2009, the New Communities Programs in Englewood, Chicago Lawn and Auburn Gresham began working together on a project, the Southwest Smart Communities Partners, that brought together more than 130 representatives from the three neighborhoods to talk about one aspect of the quality of life in our communities--information technology. The report that resulted from that brainstorming, 
"Connecting Our Communities: The Southwest Smart Communities Plan," helped us build the Southwest Smart Communities Initiative, which is working to increase the use of digital technology to improve our three neighborhoods.
Join Us!
As a member of the Southwest Smart Communities Initiative, Englewood is planning exciting things to help us use the web and other digital tools to support our families, businesses and institutions — to build a stronger community. This Portal is one of those tools.
Please join us! We welcome news, events, directory listings—anything that lets all of us in Englewood know more about our community and our neighbors.