Our Story

How People Matter Came to be

When Consuela and Angela first met in August 2017, Angela was just a week into her new job as a community organizer in Chinatown. Angela’s then organization was in a historic and racially tense fight for a neighborhood high school, while Consuela had her own unique experience with race relations in the community, having volunteered in Chinatown for five years at that time. Although Angela and Consuela had never met people like each other before, they came together to discuss issues in Chinatown, and started working together to develop leadership programs for Chinatown high schoolers. 

The more work they did together, the more Angela and Consuela noticed the “invisible” people of Chinatown- people who fell between the cracks; people who didn’t receive attention or support from nonprofits, government agencies, and social services. So in the cold winter of Chicago in 2019, the two decided to start People Matter, for all people who are treated like they don’t matter. 

With People Matter’s “coming out” event celebrating the Black Heroes of Chinatown in January 2020, we touched the hearts of hundreds of community members and inspired a series of celebrations in our Black Heroes’ workplaces. We created subcommittees for education, housing, census, and more. We added an additional neighborhood for a total of 7 neighborhoods, and growing! Our journey is uncertain, but it is surely a path of solidarity and love… to uplift, unearth, and untether people everywhere.