Our Partners
Our organization works to pair 3 – 4 current Harris graduate students with local community organizations where students volunteer their time and expertise (for free) to work on specific project deliverables based on the organization’s needs during a 10-week fellowship experience running from the beginning to January to the end of March (during the University of Chicago’s winter quarter). Organizations are invited to submit project proposals and our board is available to help define specific fellow projects.
We have helped scores of organizations build capacity by applying rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Let's work together
To be added to our contact list and be notified of the project application timeline each fall, please fill out this form:
Organizations are invited to submit project proposals and our board is available to help define specific fellow projects. Some examples of previous projects include:
Analyzing program data and developing reports
Survey design
Logic Modeling & Theories of Change
Process improvement of internal organization workflows
Cataloging affordable housing properties
HCA focuses on projects aligned with the toolkit of the Harris School of Public Policy. Our fellows have specific competencies related to:
- Impact measurement
- Program evaluation
- Survey design
- Issue advocacy
- Policy research
- Spatial modeling
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Strategic planning
To learn more, take a look at past partner organizations’ testimonials and project descriptions:
“The HCA report was informative in a number of ways and will impact UWF work in assessing the effectiveness of our past programs to benefit our future programs. It was very interesting to see how people from outside of the community and political organizing world view our metrics and make assumptions. We learned a lot about how to organize our data and how we can better use the voter file to build stronger campaigns in the future.”
-Sara Mathers, Organizer, United Working Families
“This collaboration and project could not have come at a better time. Blackstone Bicycle Works was looking to create a robust evaluation system for our youth program and community outreach but lacked resources to bring it to fruition. Emily, Jessica, Nicole and Maria tailored our project to our specific needs that will enhance our programming, relationships, and partnerships to better work with young people on the South Side. It also has solidified the focus of our work and helps us more concisely communicate this to our stakeholders.”
-Rebecca Connie, Program Manager, Blackstone Bicycle Works
Access Living wishes to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of Harris Community Action (HCA) fellows, Charlie Sheils, Emma Sperry, and Yuwen Xiong, for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) School Accessibility Project. They worked relentlessly on school accessibility and quality data and made several critical findings on school accessibility in various regions of Chicago. I believe their report and maps will be tremendously helpful to students with mobility disabilities and their families for their school choices by providing accessibility information of the regional schools, which is currently not offered on the CPS website. Moreover, the final report and maps will contribute to Access Living’s further education advocacy work to improve school accessibility in Chicago.”
-Chris Yun, Education Policy Analyst, Access Living Chicago