National Coalition for Dialog & Deliberation

Leadership Greater Chicago

TIF Illumination Project At One Year

The Artist As Leader

America Needs You! Why You Should Become a Creativity Champion

Revealing the Impacts of TIF Districts on a Ward-by-Ward Basis

The TIF Illumination Project

Civic Engagment

Creativity & Business

Introduction to Nonprofit Management

Tom Tresser is an educator, organizer, creativity champion, public defender and fighter of privatization. He has doing civic engagement and grassroots democracy efforts for over 40 years. His first voter registration campaign was in 1972.

Tom has acted in some 40 shows and produced over 100 plays, special events, festivals and community programs. He was director of cultural development at Peoples Housing, in north Rogers Park, Chicago, where he created a community arts program that blended the arts, education and micro-enterprise.  Tom was elected to the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School’s Local School Council and served from 2004 to 2006.

He was a co-founder of Protect Our Parks, a neighborhood effort to stop the privatization of public space in Chicago. He was a lead organizer for No Games Chicago, an all-volunteer grassroots effort that opposed Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid. He has taught workshops on “The Politics of Creativity – A Call To Service”for arts service organizations in six states. He teaches a number of classes on creativity, public policy and civic engagement for Loyola University, School of the Art Institute, the Illinois Institute of Technology,  DePaul University and for i c stars. Tom has published a web-based project, “America Needs You!” – about the need for creatives to lead in the public sector.

Tom was the  Green Party candidate for the position of President of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County in November 2010 election. Tom is extremely proud to announce the launch of a new civic project, The CivicLab, a  co-working space where activists, educators, coders and designers come to work, collaborate, teach, and build tools for civic engagement.  The space is located in Chicago’s West Loop at 114 N. Aberdeen. 

He is the lead organizer for the TIF Illumination Project that is investigating and explaining the impacts of Tax Increment Financing districts on a ward-by-ward basis.  Tom and the TIF Illumination Project are profiled in the cover story of the July 22, 2013 issue of The Nation entitled “Chicago Rising!” He has presented on how TIFs impact neighborhoods all over the city.

Listen to this 47 minute podcast where Tom is interviewed about his background, civic work and the connections between creativity and democracy - http://tinyurl.com/Podcast-ADMCi. 

 

 

Planned Serindipity

Tax Increment Financing

Non-Profits

Research

Public Speaking

Social Change

Creativity

Innovation

Community Organizing

Fighting Privatization

Co-Working

Civic Engagement

Training

Crowd Sourcing

Investigation

Citizen Science

Personal Website

Tom launched crowdfunding campaign to produce TIF training videos

Inroduction to the CivicLab (1 minute)

Company Website

Tom Part of Chicago Public Radio's "Curious City" Segment of TIFs

"In The Loop"

"NewsViews" Interview

Tom Interviewed before 2016 Games Decision

"The Gift Economy" Presentation

"The Creativity Imperative" Presentation

"The Future of Arts & Business Collaboration" Presentation

27th Ward TIF Illumination

Civic Innovation Workshop

TIF 101

All about Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts work in Chicago. This is a 50 minute talk that details the history of TIFs in Cook County and describes the citizen-powered TIF Illumination Project (http://www.tifreports.com) that combines data mining, investigatory journalism, map making, graphic design and community organizing to reveal the details of Chicago's half-billion dollar annual TIF program.

"TIF 101"

Co-Founder

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