COMMUNITY ACTION
2017 – Present
Community Action aims to engage students in environmental activism and service initiatives across campus and the Hyde Park community. Students will partake in hands-on projects in order to promote systemic environmental change and advocate for a sustainable relationship between students, community members, and natural spaces.
Service Actions
Volunteers pose with bags of trash removed from the park in November 2022.
PSI members collected over 220 nurdles from 57th Street Beach.
Visit to Chicago Creative Reuse Exchange to create notebooks.
Volunteers pose with bags of trash removed from the park in November 2022.
We work with local parks and gardens to organize service events around Hyde Park. Some of our previous volunteer opportunities include:
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Weeding and planting with MPAC, the Vernon Park Garden Project, the Logan Park Garden, Nichols Park, and the Brickyard Garden
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Park cleanups in Nichols Park, Midway Plaisance Park, and 57th St. Beach
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PSI x Hillel Zooniverse Chicago Wildlife Watch
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Zooniverse Penguin Watch
120 lbs
We removed 120 lbs of trash from the Midway Plaisance with local South Side students in Fall 2023
299 lbs
We removed 299 lbs of trash from the Midway Plaisance on Earth Day 2023.
Events throughout the 2025 - 2026 season
1.
Midway and Community Cleanups
Throughout the year, we hosted three community cleanups in areas including Jackson Park, the Midway, and 57th Street Beach. The Midway Cleanups, organized in collaboration with Environmental Education (EE) and the Environmental Research Group (ERG), brought together students to pickup trash from the area spanning from the Midway Fieldhouse to just beyond the intersection of 59th Street and Ellis Avenue.
2.
Nurdle Cleanup
The group worked with Environment America to collect data on Nurdle abundance. Nurdles are small plastic pellets that are a byproduct of plastic production. The group collected over 220 nurdles from 57th Street Beach during a spring quarter cleanup and data-collection day.
3.
CCRx with SAS
We visited Chicago Creative Reuse Exchange with Science, Art, and Sustainability. We assisted with creating notebooks using reused materials for a local writing workshop. Additionally, we collected fabric and other materials for a project SAS is working on.
4.
UCSC MLK + Earth Day Volunteering
We partnered with the University Community Service Center on the MLK day volunteering event and their Earth day event. At their Earth Day event, we also had a table where we educated volunteers on PSI and the work we do. At the MLK day event we helped create tie blankets with elementary school students that were donated to local shelters. During the Earth Day event, volunteers worked on a variety of projects across Hyde Park, including flower planting and trash cleanups.
5.
Just Roots
During Spring Quarter, we volunteered at Just Root’s Bronzeville urban farm location. We helped prep the farm for the summer growing season, applying soil to empty beds and preparing pots to grow squash. We also received a tour of the farm and learned about its history.
Organization and Support
PIRG Rally
This year Community Action worked with the Peoples Interest Research Group (PIRG) on their Safer Cleaner Energy Campaign, opposing a proposed Rate Hike by Peoples Gas used to guarantee continued gas use until the end of the century. The campaign requested targeted repairs, research into methods other than replacement to extend the life of pipes, a reduced rate hike to ensure Chicago residents could afford service, and investment in clean energy sources. The group tabled on Campus gaining over 300 signatures opposing the rate hike, co-organized a discussion on the history of natural gas use and its prospective future use in Chicago, and attended a rally organized by PIRG.
Education and Awareness
Education
Our project group first worked with the Neighborhood Schools Program (NSP) to bring environmental knowledge into the classroom. Our work with NSP led to an established partnership teaching students about sustainability and a new PSI project group focused on this initiative—Environmental Education.
In Winter 2022, we taught a lesson on sustainable agriculture for Splash! Chicago, a program that brings middle and high school students to UChicago to learn about key topics and ideas. Our lesson introduced Chicago high schoolers to the history of industrial agriculture and methods to improve and enhance the sustainability of modern agricultural systems.
Student Awareness
The Community Action project group also hosts competitions and trivia to engage the student body in sustainability events. During COVID, we ran an iguana counting competition through Zooniverse, for conservation research on marine iguanas in the Galapagos.
We also ran a sustainability-themed mask design competition, where students submitted and then voted on designs. The winner received 5 masks printed with their design.
The winning design from Community Action's sustainability-themed mask design competition (2021).
Autumn 2022 Focus:
Midway Plaisance Park
and the Midway Plaisance Advisory Council (MPAC)
This quarter, we focused our projects around the Midway Plaisance Park, in close collaboration with the Midway Park Advisory Council (MPAC). The City of Chicago has plans to drain the wetland on the Midway’s east end in order to build a playground over the wetland, a grave environmental injustice. Building upon PSI’s efforts to protect the Midway beginning during the 2021-2022 school year, this quarter, Community Action has sought to preserve the Midway both in its service events that clean and beautify the Midway’s natural environment and in its efforts to advocate for the continued political maintenance of the park.
