Sims, who is familiar with the Leadership Academy for the Chicago Latino Caucus Foundation, a program that grows Latino leadership in Chicago, said she’d often hear Black people talk about “needing one of our own” such programs.

So Sims, Mosley and Hyde Park Summer Fest organizer Jonathan Swain founded Black Bench Chicago in 2021 to educate millennial and Generation Z Black Chicagoans over the course of six months on legislative processes, special interests, the history of Black organizing in Chicago, and campaigns and budgets, among other topics. Experts lead discussions with participants in a collaborative, in-person format one day a month. Funded by Black donors, the new session of Black Bench Chicago will start Aug. 26.