One of LUCHA’s recent hires, Rachael Wilson, has brought an impassioned energy and enthusiasm in her new role as the Health and Wellness Fellow. Part of Rachael’s work relates a grant LUCHA has received, the Climate and Culture Resilience Grant, and significant progress has been made in just the last few weeks. After meetings with youth leaders from the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and stakeholders at the Dill Pickle Co-Op, this community-led project has crafted the idea of creating a mural to memorialize the ‘Faces of Logan Square’ and input a Splash Boxx – a portable rain garden – onto the site. The coalition is currently evaluating several project sites, including the Blue Line stop at the corner of Milwaukee and Spaulding.

The greatest success thus far, according to Rachael, is the ownership that the LSNA youth leaders have taken in cultivating a project that is entirely their own, and belongs to Logan Square. “I’m proud that none of those ideas are our own. I’m proud that they came from the youth engagement process,” she remarked. The next step is to select an artist who will create design samples to present to the youth leaders during the selection process, followed by a meeting with 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa to secure support and possible funding.

Want to see more of our organizing and site visits? Check out our photo album!