Jennifer Arwade ’00 Is Hooked on Community Organizing in Chicagoland

Jennifer Arwade ’00 has been sitting at kitchen tables around Chicago for decades, listening to residents’ concerns and helping them through her work as co-executive director of Communities United, an organization she’s been with since 2001. She first went to Chicago years ago, while interning at a different nonprofit, where she caught the bug for community organizing.

“When I came to Chicago and community organizing, it was the first time I really had this feeling that you could really create change, and that you could work with other community members who are traditionally left out of power structures, to actually have power together,” she says.

Two decades later, Arwade is creating an impact all over Chicagoland.

Her work at Communities United ranges from supporting immigrants to struggling teens. For example, the organization compiled resources with critical Know Your Rights information for immigrants along with a list of legal resources. Its organizers routinely travel to the state capital, Springfield, to advocate for ending fines, tickets, and law enforcement penalties given to truant students. Communities United also creates national reports that highlight various topics, like alternatives to policing, and suggests solutions, like training professionals who can work alongside police to create violence intervention proposals.

Recently, Communities United was one of five global recipients of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Racial Equity 2030 award. This provides a $10 million grant over eight years to scale an innovative strategy for youth leadership and mental health support the group created in partnership with the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

All of Communities United’s initiatives come from constant conversations with community members.

“The first time I knocked on a door and somebody invited me inside to have coffee at their kitchen table to talk to me about what was going on and what their dreams were, that was really when I was hooked,” she says.

From an early age, Arwade noticed injustices and wanted to change them. “I just remember as a child always questioning why things were the way they were,” she says.

A New York City native, Awarde says she saw her immigrant father, who was a taxi driver and fruit vendor, get harassed by police. She lived in a rent-controlled apartment on the Upper East Side and attended a private school on the Upper West Side. These vastly different experiences called attention to “the disparities in education and access to resources faced by many,” she says.

“That is part of what motivated me during my years at Princeton to study politics and public policy,” she says, “as I was searching for ways to make a difference.”

At Princeton, that dream began to take shape. She heard about Princeton Project 55’s Public Interest Program, which matches recent graduates with social impact organizations for a year-long fellowship, and met John Fish ’55, who ran the program at the time.

“He showed such an interest in all of us who were part of the program and was really invested in opening opportunities for us to identify ways we could contribute to society through nonprofit work after graduation,” she says. “To have someone who takes such a genuine interest in supporting your growth and development is just a game changer.”

She also cites studying abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa her junior year for giving her a global perspective.

After graduation, Arwade received a fellowship in Chicago, through Project 55, where she had the opportunity to work in community organizing. All these years later, community service remains at the heart of the work she does, and she hopes to pass on that same passion.

“When we can see a young person at age 15 realizing their power and helping to change laws and systems to better serve youth and families, and that they can see, ‘Wow, I was part of creating that change,’ there’s no better feeling than that,” she says.

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