Case Study: Chicag Chicago

We work with a wide range of organizations in and around Chicago. This year, and previous years, we have worked with organizations that primarily serve Spanish speakers in Chicago and organizations that focus on arts-based programming. However, just as we recruit AmeriCorps members for our program we also recruit organizations to host our AmeriCorps members. The specific organizations with whom we partner changes year-to-year. Therefore, we cannot promise that you'll be able to serve with an organization that works in either of those areas.

Every year there are a few Allies that choose live together. We also offer support with housing through a couple of our partner organizations (rent through these organizations is around $300-400 which is significantly lower than anything else you could find in the city on your own). Although we do offer some some recommendations for housing through certain partner organizations, securing and finalizing housing arrangements is your responsibility. Additionally, the help mentioned that we provide with housing is not part of our program.

However, it is less expensive when compared to other major cities in the US such as New York, San Francisco/Silicon Valley. Chicago is a big city of 2.5 million people. Therefore, average rent for the city isn't a useful metric in this context. A better metric is median rent by neighborhood (there are 77 community areas in Chicago). Different neighborhoods have different median rents and our AmeriCorps members live all over city. Visit this site for a breakdown by neighborhood. Given rent is likely to be your largest recurring expense, you'd have to talk to one of our current AmeriCorps members about living in Chicago on the stipend (I can arrange this if you