Chicagoans Engaging Fellow Residents to Help Promote City Neighborhoods

Chelsea Harvey loves exploring new places to hang out, and she loves sharing her experiences with others.

“Different things that happen in and around Chicago that people don’t know about,” she explained.

A few years ago, Harvey started posting on social media. But now, as one of Choose Chicago’s Neighborhood Content Creators, she primarily focuses her posts on the city’s South Side, and gets paid to do so.

“It’s been rewarding, to learn about places in my own neighborhood, in my backyard to share,” said Harvey.

On the day we met up with her, she was checking out Kusanya Café,  a not-for-profit community coffee house in Englewood.  

“I love that it’s a neighborhood gem," she said. "They have like a private room where they host events. They do training to help bring the neighborhood residents together.”

Harvey is one of 30 neighborhood content creators for Choose Chicago. Since 2021, these creators have generated nearly 500 pieces of content featuring restaurants, community spaces and other small businesses.

“We really wanted to have an authentic approach that represented the communities the way the community wanted to be represented,” says Rob Fojtik, Choose Chicago’s vice president of neighborhood strategy.

The idea is to have the people living in these communities promoting them. And the promotion appears to be working. 

“We’ve seen instances of businesses that have lines out the door after content gets posted, and, on a broader data level, we do see the clicks increasing over time as well, and people going to spend their money at these businesses for sure,”says Fojtik.   

Phillip Sipka, executive director of Kusanya Café,  thinks it’s a great way to market Chicago.

“You want to live a life that’s exciting, go try something new, go to a new place, explore a new thing," he said.

Later this year, Choose Chicago will be looking to hire more Neighborhood Content Creators to help show off even more of the city.