JASC Housing Corporation
Chicago, IL
Challenge
JASC Housing Corporation is a well-established and respected provider of affordable senior housing in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, through its Heiwa Terrace building. Originally constructed to serve an aging Japanese American population, the building needed major renovations. This would require the board to either partner with an outside developer and apply for complex tax credits or sell the building and use the funds generated for other mission-aligned purposes. With the neighborhood’s changing demographic (Heiwa’s population was no longer majority Japanese-American) and longstanding board members poised to step down, the organization faced critical questions about its mission and future path. They hired Community Allies to lead a process of board unification, with a month of preparation and a full-day retreat.
Approach
JASC Housing Corporation’s board included members that had been serving for decades and held the organization’s historic mission close at heart and new members eager to professionalize operations and forge a sustainable path for the future. Community Allies took a highly relational approach to rebuilding trust between the two factions on the board. We met individually with leaders from each side in order to ensure that each was heard and to tease out the important perspective that each held.
At the retreat, Community Allies invited each board member to express why they were involved in JASC. The answers revealed a shared commitment to Heiwa Terrace that began to rebuild a sense of unity. We then facilitated a carefully structured session that allowed the board to air their excitement and fears about the potential changes at hand. This brought past gaps in communication to the surface and allowed members to address them directly and from the heart. After spending the morning on relationship repair, the board was able to effectively address strategy in the afternoon, working together to sort through their complex options. By the end of the session, they had come to agreement on next steps.
Results
Based on their new sense of shared purpose and understanding of the options, the board decided to move forward with partnering with an outside developer. Renovations to Heiwa Terrace proceeded, saving the building as a critical source of affordable senior housing in the neighborhood.
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