Albany Park Autonomous Center

We're trying to increase and upgrade our community computer lab!

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We are currently running popular education-based computer classes twice a week. We would like to offer seats to more students in addition to offering more advanced classes, but with our current machines we can only admite 10 students per class. Our lab consists of 8 Linux/Ubuntu and 2 Windows machines.

Additionally we accept most types of computer peripherals and hardware. This includes USB mice, RAM, hard disks, web cams, USB keyboards and monitors (flat screen monitors preferred). Please do not send us printers or scanners.
 
If you are interested in donating a computer or parts please contact Centro [at] mexicosolidarity [dot] org or call us at 773.583.7728.


The Albany Park Autonomous Center (APAC), or Centro Autónomo:

is located in Albany Park, Chicago, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country.  APAC opened its doors in September of 2006 in hopes of creating a space that constructs horizontal relationships, political consciousness, and unites people in and around the Latino immigrant struggle.

The Centro Autonomo is a community center in every sense of the word.  It is not a place where one comes to receive services, but a place where one can meet their neighbors, share stories and dreams and create community-driven projects for empowerment.  In this time of free trade regimes that demolish economies and extreme anti-immigrant sentiment, this space serves as a place to reconstruct the collectivity which the current economic system is very efficient at destroying. 

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The foundation of this practice of community-building is rooted in monthly asambleas and weekly meetings with different committees established by community members.  When the center opened, English classes were set by the community as a main priority, and they began with 5 students taking classes three days a week. With these five students word of mouth spread through Albany Park and classes slowly filled.  Now fifty to eighty people participate in popular education-based ESL classes at the Centro.

Through decisions made in asambleas the Centro Autónomo has initiated many other programs.  In addition to ESL, there are dance, computer, and yoga classes as well as an alternative medicine clinic.  A diploma-granting bilingual adult high school began in September of 2010. 

If you would like more information, please call our office number at 773-583-7728, or direct yourself to the specified tabs.

Ideological Statement

En el Centro Autónomo unimos nuestra fuerza con mujeres, hombres, jóvenes, nin@s y vecin@s con los cuales compartimos esperanzas, sueños, ideas, donde en forma de Caracol dialogamos, desaprendemos y nos reconocemos con gente que viene desde abajo. Caminando de forma circular seguimos buscando espacios donde nuestras voces sean escuchadas. Queda entonces este espacio como un referente para dialogar, comunicarnos, respetarnos, solidarízanos y enlazar resistencias.

At the Autonomous Center we unite our strength with women, men, young people, children and neighbors, with whom we share hopes, dreams, and ideas.  Using the conch as a model we dialogue, learn and relearn as we identify ourselves with people who come 'from below'. Proceeding in circular form we continue to explore spaces where our voices can be heard.  Using this space as a springboard for dialogue, communication, and to respect amongst one another we support and link popular resistance.


Volunteers:

MSN is looking for volunteers to provide an 8 week commitment to facilitate popular education based ESL classes for adults in the Autonomous Center.

ESL tutor training will be provided.

ESL class sessions run for 8 weeks. 

The more volunteers we get, the smaller the class size, making the students' limited time more productive.

Please email us at centro [at] mexicosolidarity [dot] org if you're interested.


Centro Autónomo de Albany Park
Mexico-US Solidarity Network
3460 W. Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
Phone: 773.583.7728
Email: centro [at] mexicosolidarity [dot] org

Alternative Health

Alternative Medicine Clinic hosted by Sage Community Health Collective

For more infomation on Sage Community Health Collective please refer to this page.

Here at the Centro Autónomo we see the need to put a monetary value on every thing, person and relationship as counter to community building. Alternatives to this capitalist mind-set are possible- our free Alternative Medicine Clinic is a perfect example. This clinic is administered by a local women’s cooperative made up of licensed health professionals. Their principle and ours is that health is a basic human right that need not be contingent on a person’s salary or family means. The holistic focus of the cooperative's Eastern medicine-based care is consistent with our perspective, as it sees a person integrally and also as a node within a larger web of social connections, thereby seeking to solve health issues from their root cause.sites/default/files/Ah.JPGsites/default/files/Ahealth1.JPG

Cooperatives

Cooperatives 

There are currently two cooperatives at the Centro Autónomo. The cleaning cooperative, Cleaning Power, has been working for almost two years, and the cooking cooperative is relatively new. Both are run by their members on the basic tenets of fair wages and no bosses.  For more information on Cleaning power, the cleaning cooperative, click here.

Especially during this economic crisis, and especially in a society that renders women susceptible to financial dependency, the cooperative model of business is important and empowering. Through collective job creation and decision-making the members of these cooperatives are presenting to their families and communities alternatives to the rampant profits-over-people mentality. We see the monetary valuing of traditionally unpaid “women’s work” (cooking and cleaning) as a step in the right direction as we continue to work towards a world where work is dignified and people are able to develop their interests to their fullest potential.

The members of Cleaning Power have decided upon prices that allow them fair wages for their time and quality of work. They have also decided to use only environmentally sensitive cleaning products that are safer for clients, themselves and the environment in general.

The members of the cooking cooperative started out volunteering to cook and sell snacks to the students who come for English as a Second Language classes in order to support the Centro Autónomo. Now, they have expanded and as well as volunteering, they support themselves by cooking and selling gourmet-style Mexican dishes at lunchtime.

 

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