Meet AIR’s Champions for Change

Our vision is for a sharing and circular economy in which creative reuse is integral to Chicagoland's infrastructure.

There are tremendous opportunity and wealth gaps in DC, which I experience daily as I move about the city. The sense of the 'us' and the 'them' is easy to slip into. Eating together and being with people consistently provides a way to bridge the gaps even though the gaps remain. It is important and meaningful for both neighbors who start in the kitchen, and those who come in through the front door.

Volunteering expands my understanding of the role of ‘places and spaces’ in the equity of our communities. This organization serves families with fewer financial resources than the families in bigger peer communities, and my experience has made clear how where a person lives can directly affect their access to resources.

As a first-generation, formerly undocumented Latina, I see myself reflected in the young people, families, and community members that Identity, Inc. serves. Much of my work at AIR focuses on youth and community development—being closely involved with an organization that does this well continues to inform my work.

Working with Boys Hope Girls Hope of Baltimore allows me to get to know the wonderful scholars who benefit from this program. Watching them grow up and generate a positive ripple effect in their families, workplaces, and communities is truly humbling and rewarding.

From serving as a judge at a youth science fair to providing workforce training and support for women survivors of domestic abuse, my volunteer experiences remind me to keep a positive outlook; there is always hope.

During a day of volunteering, a student working on a tangram activity asked me questions about who I was and if I liked math. She looked at me and said, 'If you can be a math person and do math as a job, then I can too!' The confidence and excitement she had exclaiming that she was a ‘math person’ stays with me.

I am fortunate to work for an organization like AIR whose mission aligns with my personal values and inclination to be involved in work and activities that contribute to improving people's lives.

It was important to us to give back in the community where AIR is headquartered, and to support this organization that provides direct assistance to families in need.

I switched my career to international development because of this experience, so I wouldn't be at AIR had I not stumbled into a shack in the middle of the jungle 19 years ago and offered my services.

Living in south Louisiana, we are used to dealing with major disasters on a regular basis. One of the main barriers to community-led disaster response is the lack of access to tools, something that my co-founder and I recognized in the wake of the hurricanes in 2020.

My volunteerism reminds me that in our work at AIR, we need to make the extra effort to bring in perspectives from families that we might not hear from as often. They use the public services that we support through state and federal grants, and we need to understand how to meet their needs successfully.

This experience reminds me to prioritize the voices of young people as much as we can in our work at AIR. Youth have a lot more to give to policy and decision-making in education than we give them credit and space for.

I started a ‘green group’ among AIR’s remote staff, and it’s now self-sustaining. I would like to bring an environmental aspect into more of my work at AIR and am working on some exciting initiatives intersecting climate change and health.

As chair of the AIR Pride employee resource group, my volunteerism makes me think more about how to advocate for our LGBTQ+ employees and how to empower them to advocate for themselves.

I am passionate about Tutoring Chicago because they provide free tutoring to students whose families have financial issues. I grew up in a reduced-price lunch family, so I am very supportive of services that help kids in that situation.

My work at AIR often focuses on the systematic issues at a larger scale. My volunteerism grounds me in the community and people. As a former middle-school teacher, I've seen the trauma my students experienced due to gun violence in their communities—I also have seen how connections to the community and safe spaces can help students grow and succeed.

My advice for someone looking to get involved in their community is to think back to something you loved when you were a child, and then look for organizations that offer related volunteering opportunities.

CalSAC’s board recruitment strategy and selection focused on ensuring that people with lived experience in out-of-school time programs would be considered. This made me think about ways we can be more intentional at AIR about involving people with direct experience in the systems we hope to change through our work.

Music is a great equalizer and connector across societies, culture, race, age, background, and socioeconomic status. Through music education, students learn how to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

Looking at our own bias and value of status is hard—but essential—to do our work successfully.