If you drive south along Austin Boulevard, past the Eisenhower Expressway, you’ll find The Island, a quiet residential pocket tucked into the far southwest corner of Chicago’s West Side. Separated from much of Austin by the highway and industrial sites, the neighborhood is home to brick bungalows and quiet streets where residents work to build community connections through small, social gatherings.
Through a national pilot initiative called “With Neighbors,” the Island Civic Association (ICA) spent the summer and fall awarding $100 microgrants to residents to host gatherings on their blocks. Dubbed “Food With Neighbors,” the program supported events ranging from courtyard pizza nights to a community garden fish fry for the simple purpose of helping neighbors build stronger connections through shared meals.
Nate Tubbs, a former ICA president and current organizer who helped revive the association in 2021, helped bring the national microgrant initiative to the Island after participating in an earlier version of the program.
“The vision of it was just like what was already our vision: to grow connection and relationships, because when we know each other, we care about each other,” Tubbs said. “This opportunity helps give someone permission to do it… and it removes a practical barrier of money.”
Since launching late this spring, the ICA has distributed $1,500 of its $1,600 pilot allotment across resident-led gatherings. The events have spanned a wide spectrum of ideas, ranging from birthday celebrations to morning coffee and donuts.
For longtime residents, the microgrants also provided an incentive to bring neighbors together in shared spaces such as The Island Oasis Nature Play Garden, a community-managed green space at 1114 S. Mason Ave. Developed in collaboration with the 1100 S. Mason Block Club and NeighborSpace, an urban land trust, the garden features custom nature-based play structures and serves as a gathering place for neighborhood families.
Judi Wilson, the ICA’s treasurer and garden steward, has lived on the Island for more than 20 years. She and her neighbor, Sharon, combined their microgrants to host a block-wide fish fry at the garden.
”We were inviting from the 1000 block to the 1100 block and the 900 block, and quite a few showed up,” Wilson recalled.
Not every gathering is a hit. According to Tubbs, one resident organized a food gathering in her courtyard that no one attended, but the food was still shared with other neighbors.
The initiative has also reached Spanish-speaking residents. Application materials are available in English and Spanish, making the initiative accessible across the neighborhood’s diverse demographic makeup.
Beyond sharing meals, organizers emphasize that these small gatherings build a crucial safety net and social infrastructure for the area, something Tubbs views as essential preventive care for urban communities.
“There’s a lot of studies out there right now about social isolation [and] the need for connection,” said Tubbs. “We are actually safer when we know each other. … We have to have the infrastructure of relationships before the tragedy hits.”
Tubbs hopes to revive the program next year, pending funding, while expanding participation among first-time hosts and exploring ways to bring the model to other Chicago neighborhoods.
“Everyone wants to live in a village, but doesn’t always want to be a villager,” Tubbs said. “And you have to be a villager.”
Wilson said she would also like to see more places where residents can gather outside their homes, including libraries, senior centers and other spaces for children and older adults. The microgrants offered one way to create opportunities for connection within the neighborhood.
For residents interested in getting involved or supporting future microgrants, the ICA holds its monthly meetings every third Thursday at 6 p.m. at New Jehovah Baptist Church, 1101 S. Austin Blvd. Community members can learn more or donate to support future grant rounds at islandchicago.org. Neighborhood associations or local organizers looking to launch a similar program in their own communities are also encouraged to connect with the ICA.