Our History

In August 2022, the first bus of immigrants arrived in Chicago. That year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott began sending groups of immigrants and asylum seekers to sanctuary cities across the U.S. Since then, over 51,000 immigrants have arrived in Chicago.

Abbott and other red state governors meant to erode our city’s commitment to welcoming immigrants by overwhelming us with thousands of new arrivals. But it didn’t work. Instead, our community mobilized to provide our new neighbors with shelter, food, warm clothes, and legal assistance.

Neighbors Helping New Neighbors South Side started as a Facebook group for South Side residents to work together to welcome new arrivals. Most new arrivals came from Venezuela, Haiti and Latin American countries; they often fled economic instability, political persecution, and threats of violence.

We had to adapt quickly to respond to their needs. We connected immigrants with local shelters; helped parents enroll their children in Chicago Public Schools; stocked food pantries and free stores; and taught ourselves immigration law to assist new arrivals as they applied for TPS and asylum.

Our free store, La Tiendita, began with volunteers going from house to house to collect donations and delivering them to makeshift migrant shelters in Chicago police stations. We eventually opened a physical location in Washington Park, and in April 2024, we moved to our new home inside the Coppin Community Center, a social service nonprofit that has long served South Side residents. In doing so, we committed ourselves to serving all Chicagoans, not just new arrivals.

Over the last three years, local services have been strained, and there’s been anger at the amount of resources being dedicated to people new to the city. Long-time residents have rightly critiqued the city for not doing enough to support Chicagoans who have lived here for generations.

But what Chicago’s rapid expansion of its shelter system also showed was that we are capable of rethinking how we address the most persistent issues facing our city. We created the Manos Entrelazadas South Side Alliance (MESA) in order to use the lessons we’ve learned in the last few years to build a better Chicago. Our mission is to support immigrants on the South Side, but we are committed to creating a city where, rather than competing over limited resources, every person has the support they need to build a better life for themselves.