Change Agents

I had a mindset shift. My initial mind was this community is horrible. Then I'm meeting phenomenal people and hearing phenomenal narratives. I'm like, wait, these stories are not told.
Asiaha Butler, Englewood: Reframing the Narrative

Our Stories

Season 3

COVID19 rocked the world in 2020.

Life, work, school and activity came to a screeching halt for most as stay-at-home orders and other restrictions dramatically changed how we interacted and lived. Despite these restrictions, the lack of information and a vaccine, community organizations, organizers and activists stepped up and in to fill the void. They provided food and other basics while keeping to their charge to improve the conditions of their communities and lives of their citizens.

Season Three Episodes

Justice that Heals

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How to Tackle Antiblackness

Building Equality in Construction

{"id":18,"season":3,"episode_number":7,"name":"Building Equality in Construction","subtitle":null,"description":"History shows that Chicago\u2019s building trades have excluded construction workers of color. But the attention on George Floyd\u2019s death three years ago inspired a movement toward racial justice everywhere, from schools to jobs. While some construction companies have made commitments to stopping racism and discrimination in the workplace, industry experts say more work needs to be done to build equity in construction. A nonprofit called Revolution Workshop is training emerging carpenters of color to repair the division and harm caused by the industry, but it will take more than training individuals to enter the workforce: it requires a continued fight with Chicago leaders to pass a construction ordinance focused on equity and inclusion. In this episode, we hear from Revolution Workshop alum Brittany Taylor and Parish Sloan share their experiences on facing racial discrimination and unjust working conditions in the industry.","when":"2023-01-17T00:00:00.000000Z","embed_code":"<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-11994717\"><\/div><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1600336\/11994717-building-equality-in-construction.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-11994717&player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","avatar_url":"https:\/\/cdn.changeagentsthepodcast.com\/images\/originals\/Nop0yXSCUfbDeca8jVsxpoAhqbEyaNX5vHMxjMN3.jpg"}

On the Way Home

{"id":19,"season":3,"episode_number":8,"name":"On the Way Home","subtitle":null,"description":"Youth who are experiencing homelessness in Chicago are undercounted and frequently clumsily represented. This story\u2019s intent is to counteract public bias around what someone experiencing homelessness looks like. The story of Shawne Hinkle winds us through a personal account of housing difficulties. Her story is one that is incredibly specific to her situation, but also speaks to broader experiences of homeless youth. Shawne is now an employee at the drop-in center for the Lyte Collective in South Side Chicago.\r\n\r\nThis story explores the Lyte Collective to gain a better grasp of alternative aid provided to homeless youth in Chicago. This organization implements unique solutions to some of the modern problems in the youth homeless service sector. This episode elaborates upon these problems and potential solutions.","when":"2023-01-17T00:00:00.000000Z","embed_code":"<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-11994449\"><\/div><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1600336\/11994449-on-the-way-home.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-11994449&player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","avatar_url":"https:\/\/cdn.changeagentsthepodcast.com\/images\/originals\/yjDYsWBlQs9OvaOxwZVLOSQvUsl5ROjPnTUKTaBr.jpg"}

Restoring La Maceta (Spanish version)

{"id":20,"season":3,"episode_number":9,"name":"Restoring La Maceta (Spanish version)","subtitle":null,"description":"Hay un refr\u00e1n que dice que la aflicci\u00f3n es como una maceta rota. La maceta nunca se va ver igual o funcionar igual a lo que era antes que se rompi\u00f3\u2014 igual a que una familia no se va ver igual o funcionar igual antes de la muerte de una persona querida.\r\n\r\nEl Centro Sanar pelea contra la cultura tradicional y medicinal para el cuidado de salud y trauma. \r\n\r\nLos cl\u00ednicos de la organizaci\u00f3n acompa\u00f1an a los miembros de la comunidad en su camino para recuperarse de sus traumas con servicios mentales consistentes y gratuitos, cuidado de trauma y el manejo de casos, y todo bajo pr\u00e1cticas colectivas y restaurativas.\r\n\r\nEn este episodio de Change Agents, productora Grace Del Vecchio examina el papel importante de la organizaci\u00f3n en el proceso de curaci\u00f3n largo y complicado para una familia despues de la muerte de su hijo y hermano de homicidio en 2017. \r\n\r\n\r\nProducido por Grace Del Vecchio\r\nTraducci\u00f3n al espa\u00f1ol por Richie Requena \r\nLas voces en off por Richie Requena, Emily Soto, Daniela Tovar-Miranda y Marilyn Carteno","when":"2023-01-17T00:00:00.000000Z","embed_code":"<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-11925037\"><\/div><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1600336\/11925037-restoring-la-maceta-spanish-version.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-11925037&player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","avatar_url":"https:\/\/cdn.changeagentsthepodcast.com\/images\/originals\/pO8TA9cD1EirVPHlzBx085y0OdloDAjceHqKq6xW.jpg"}

Restoring La Maceta

{"id":21,"season":3,"episode_number":10,"name":"Restoring La Maceta","subtitle":null,"description":"There\u2019s a metaphor for grief that describes the healing process as gluing a broken flower pot or in Spanish \u2013 una maceta \u2013 back together after it breaks. The pot will never look or function the same as it did before it was broken \u2013 just as a family will never look or function the same as it did before the death of a loved one. \r\n\r\nCentro Sanar seeks to challenge the traditional medicalized culture of mental health and trauma care. The organization\u2019s clinicians\u2019 accompany community members in their journeys to heal and thrive by providing consistent and continual free mental health services, trauma care and case management, all rooted in restorative and collective practices of care. \r\n\r\nIn this episode of Change Agents, producer Grace Del Vecchio unpacks the instrumental role the organization played in one family\u2019s long and complicated healing journey after the death of their son and brother to homicide in 2017. \r\n\r\nProduced by Grace Del Vecchio\r\nVoiceovers by Richie Requena and Gk Kay","when":"2023-01-17T00:00:00.000000Z","embed_code":"<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-11909070\"><\/div><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1600336\/11909070-restoring-la-maceta.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-11909070&player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","avatar_url":"https:\/\/cdn.changeagentsthepodcast.com\/images\/originals\/NikMMjnbHpA02qdWYSyX8z0nLCsvYwo66FZ2icew.jpg"}

Our Voices

Jeb Backe

Jeb is a journalist and audio producer from Pennsylvania. They got their start in college radio at WKCO while attending Kenyon College. Jeb has since gone on to work for the likes of WXPN, WBEZ, local Chicago news publications, and more. They are also an alum of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Jeb’s journalistic work is informed by their creative practices and background in Anthropology.

Leslie Hurtado

Leslie is a proud Communications graduate from Northeastern Illinois University. In 2022, her work was recognized for her reporting with WBEZ's Curious City on Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, which won her a regional Edward Murrow award and made her a finalist for a Peter Lisagor award.

Recently, she finished her reporting fellowship exploring Chicago's guaranteed income pilot programs with City Bureau, a civic journalism lab based in Bronzeville. Hurtado has worked at several newsrooms, including Cicero Independiente, Borderless Magazine, Telemundo Chicago, WGN-TV, Spanish Public Radio, WBEZ Chicago and WTTW Chicago.

Wendy Wei

Wendy is an independent journalist in Chicago, where she focuses on international migration, diaspora, and social movements. By day she is a production coordinator for a VFX/VR studio. In a past life, she was a comparative politics PhD student and evaluation specialist working with forcibly displaced populations in the North and the Horn of Africa.

Jocelyn Martinez

Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales is a journalism graduate student at DePaul University. Martinez-Rosales is an associate producer at TEDxWrigleyville and a content creator for MyBlockMyHoodMyCity. She previously worked as a multimedia journalist at WIFR-TV in Rockford, Illinois. Martinez-Rosales strives to tell the stories of marginalized communities who are often underrepresented.

Grace Del Vecchio

Grace Del Vecchio is an award-winning journalist originally from Philadelphia, based in Chicago. With a background in organizing and grassroots campaigns, they are currently a freelance reporter, producer and fact-checker known for creating stories that center community voices, with a focus on mental health, housing, policing and movements.

Along with producing the third season of Change Agents, she is a civic reporting fellow at City Bureau and a fact-checker for South Side Weekly. She is also the former editor-in-chief of DePaul University's student-led online publication, 14 East Magazine — which was named one of the top online collegiate news/magazine sites in the country by the Associated College Press Pacemaker competition.

In 2022, they graduated from DePaul University with Bachelor's degrees in journalism and geography (with a concentration in urban planning and development) with a minor in Spanish.

Our Community

The following grassroots organizations serving communities of color across Chicago land partnered with the Change Agents journalists, generating authenticity, insight and trusted connections for our stories.

Auburn Gresham

Lyte Collective

Austin

Institute for Nonviolence Chicago Westside Health Authority Amplify Chicago BUILD

Brighton Park

Centro Sanar

Chinatown

People Matter

Garfield Park and Pullman

Revolution Workshop

Behind the Scenes

Nicole Murayama Nir - Operations and Digital Manager

Nicole Murayama Nir (she/her) is passionate about collective healing and liberation, permaculture ethics, and healing arts. Nicole is a tarot and psychic reader on the Sanctuary app. She has written about outer space as contested space, space exploration as an opportunity for healing, and ecological justice as social justice, as well as co-curated the Space Ethics Library (https://spaceethicslibrary.wordpress.com/).

Nicole holds a MA in Critical Ethnic Studies from DePaul University and was a Steans Graduate fellow and graduate assistant on a pilot program for Professional Development in Identity, Intersectionality, and Social Justice. She graduated from Loyola University in Chicago with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus on Human Services, and minors in Women and Gender Studies and Music.

Lee Edwards - Program Coordinator

Lee Edwards is a multimedia/digital journalist, prior to joining Change Agents he was program manager of The Real Chi, an experimental “learning newsroom” based in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. Lee has covered a wide spectrum of news beats across the Chicagoland region as a former reporter with Block Club Chicago, The Chicago Defender, Austin Weekly News, and Times Republic.

Lee’s passion for storytelling and mentoring the next generation of journalists to reach their full potential have been central themes throughout his career, dating all the way to his time as a student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he earned a bachelor’s in Journalism/Electronic Media.

Funding provided by the Field Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. City Bureau is our fiscal sponsor.

Other Seasons

Season Six

Season Five

Season Four

Season Three

Season Two

Season One

Blog Posts

June 18 2026 El largo camino a casa El largo camino a casa El viaje de un refugiado a través de la incertidumbre, la burocracia y la búsqueda de seguridad... Por... May 7 2026 Distinctions That Make a Difference Distinctions That Make a Difference How immigration labels and attitudes shape U.S. lives, opportunities, and legal outcomes By Grace... May 6 2026 Nonprofit Provides In-Person Interpreters to Help Haitian Immigrants Navigate U.S. Immigration System in Chicago How a Chicago Nonprofit Is Helping Haitian Immigrants Overcome Language Barriers A Chicago nonprofit offers in-person interpreters to help... April 10 2026 Haitian immigrants still need a national ID to access key services. Here’s how to get it. Haitian immigrants in the United States must obtain a national ID, the Carte d’Identification Nationale Unique (CINU), to access... March 26 2026 Finding Help Shouldn't Be Another Barrier: A Resource Guide for Haitian & African Immigrants in Chicago Navigating the U.S. immigration system is hard enough. Finding the organizations that can actually help — ones that speak your... February 26 2026 The Long Road Home The Long Road Home A refugee’s journey through uncertainty, bureaucracy, and the search for safety By Grace Asiegbu Emma Yaaka...

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Contact

If you have a story idea or know of activists organizations working to bring solutions to the needs of a Chicago-land community of color, please send us a message.