Mapping the cooperative and solidarity economies in Chicago

ChiCommons would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of the first people of present-day Illinois and Indiana: the Potawatomi, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Miami, Mascoutin, Mesquaki, Odawa, Piankashaw, Wea, Sauk, Kickapoo, Ojibwe, Delaware, Shawnee, and Chickasaw Nations. We share gratitude for the land itself and for the people of these Nations, past and present.

Chicago hosts a rich and diverse set of institutions and entities supporting the cooperative and solidarity economies. Over the past 7 years, we have mapped 35 different entity types to identify and connect ourselves.  Check your neighborhood out to see what’s happening around you. 

If you need to change some information about your organization, want to suggest a new addition to the map, please click on the button below. There you can add your unlisted organization or search for your organization and update it. Our curators will review your information, may contact you to clarify, and add it to the map.

Open our new cooperative map application IN A NEW TAB

Origins of Our Map

  • ~2010-2012: the Institute of Cultural Affairs sent 200 interns out to collect information about all sustainability entities in all of Chicago’s 77 Community Areas and published the results.
  • ~2012: Chicago Time Exchange members collaborated with Shareable to produce a map of shareable resources in Chicago for Shareable’s Sharing Cities project
  • 2016: a group at Chi Hack Night, facilitated by one of ChiCommons’ founders, collaborated with Shareable to integrate data from the Accelerate77 list, the original Shareable Cities data and other lists of farms/farmers markets, housing cooperatives, credit unions, food cooperatives and many others.
  • 2016-2019: the data has been maintained and updated
  • 2019: we integrated data from the 2018 Cooperative Economy Summit which added 50% more entries.
  • 2020: we integrated entries from ” dot coop” the home of the cooperative domains.
  • 2020: previously, our data came from Chicago, with few entries out outside the city. We have now begun the long process of filling in cooperatives and solidarity entities from the greater Chicago region.
  • 2020: moving towards letting you control your data, we’ve added a form to this page to let you request additions and changes.