Meet Juana

Prior to settling down in the Back of the Yards community, where she has been a resident since 2004, Juana lived in Mexico.

Juana has dedicated much of her time to support her children’s education. Her son Eduardo is currently in medical school and her daughter Alejadra is studying psychology. Juana’s dedication and hard work in helping her own children inspired her to want to support parents in her community.

Juana is working to create a worker-owned cooperative with other women from the Back of The Yards community to provide creative coordination, team management, and mentoring to local organizations, providing after school enrichment programs for children and youth.

Currently, Juana is coordinating an after school program called Casa Romero which is based at Holy Cross/Immaculate Heart of Mary parish. She hopes to provide working opportunities for other community parents to support the educational aspirations of children and youth from the community.

Mana Arts has been key in the startup phase of Juana’s worker-owned cooperative by serving as a fiscal agent and by connecting Juana to professional co-operative developers near her community. Mana Arts works in partnership with the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership to provide Juana with training in team building, community organizing, business development and cooperative values to help her achieve her goals of building a strong and sustainable community worker-owned cooperative rooted in Juana’s vision of economic justice.