Our History

Founded in 2015, Harris Community Action was created to build connections between Harris students and the South Side community. Although there was tremendous passion for and interest in the advocacy and services provided by organizations across Chicago’s South Side, there was not a clear conduit for Harris students to engage beyond one-time service commitments prior to the advent of HCA. Under the guidance of UChicago’s Office of Civic Engagement (OCE), HCA began to match Harris students with organizations who applied for support through the Community Program’s Accelerator. Over the course of a few years, both student and organizational interest grew tremendously and HCA began to pursue partnerships beyond OCE introduction. Student applications expanded from around 25 per year to close to over 100 and the program began to selectively admit students to the fellowship; we currently work with around 60 students each year. At the same time, the number of sponsored projects expanded from 5 projects to 17. Now in it’s 7th year, Harris Community Action c