Community Organizations Learning Lifting and Building
Program Overview
Community Organizations Learning, Lifting and Building (COLLAB) is the most recent pilot program launched by West Side United. This initiative reflects West Side United’s unique role as a nimble, collaborative convener focused on piloting and scaling high-impact projects. The core aim of this program is to support capacity building among community-based organizations (CBOs) working in the areas of nutrition and food access across Chicago's West Side.
Through this program, participating CBOs receive training in critical areas such as program design, implementation, and especially program evaluation—a field in which West Side United offers particular expertise. By teaching organizations how to measure impact, identify challenges, and implement improvements, the program enables smaller or under-resourced CBOs to make their work more strategic and sustainable.
Key Partners and Impacts
Each participating organization receives a $40,000 grant to use flexibly—for example, to fund staff time, improve their programs, or invest in evaluation tools. This open-ended support is a key aspect of the program’s philosophy, designed to let each CBO apply the funding to its most pressing needs.
In addition to individualized support, the program also creates a collaborative network among CBOs focused on food and nutrition. This network not only enables peer learning and sharing of best practices but also creates opportunities for future collaborations, including joint grant applications.
West Side United serves as both a facilitator and technical assistance provider, helping organizations build a shared language and framework around impact measurement. The organization’s expertise in data and evaluation plays a central role, helping ensure that even CBOs with minimal resources can track success and continuously improve.
Long-Term Vision
The long-term goal of COLLAB is to strengthen the overall ecosystem of food and nutrition programs across the West Side. By enhancing individual organizations’ capacity and encouraging cross-organizational collaboration, the initiative aims to create a more resilient and interconnected community infrastructure.
While the current iteration is a pilot, the program reflects West Side United’s broader strategy: to test promising models and, if successful, transfer them to established organizations for continued leadership and scale-up. This approach ensures that high-impact programs have a life beyond the pilot phase and can be embedded into the fabric of the community for sustained impact.
