Asiaha Butler

Co-founder and President - Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E)

Asiaha Butler is a community leader and president of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.), which uses education, youth development, economic development, and civic empowerment to uplift, inspire, and change perceptions of the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.

As a key community strategist and through her use of social media, blogging, and other communication mediums, she has become one of the most recognized and powerful voices in the Englewood community. Her work in Englewood is a way to, in the words of many community members, “reclaim and rebrand” the neighborhood. She views community development as separate from real estate, empowering residents to recognize and uplift the positive things that already exist in the neighborhood and, subsequently, building the capacity of community members without sacrificing to gentrification. Her model is community development of the mind, which is an essential component to revitalization of a devastated community.

Asiaha galvanizes residents in the areas of civic engagement, education and youth development, economic development, arts activism and public safety, by hosting bi-monthly community village meetings where members and residents share information, discuss and debate current Englewood issues, and establish solution-based action plans to improve Greater Englewood. Through programs such as voter registration, anti-violence block parties on blocks grappling with high-crime violence, and engaged youth programming throughout Englewood. Butler has played a crucial role in Englewood’s 40 percent decline in shootings/homicides in 2019. Through R.A.G.E. she advocated, designed and implemented the Large Lot Program which allowed homeowners to purchase city owned lots for $1. She served as the Action Champion/Chair of the Englewood Quality of Life Housing and Public Spaces Task Force, leads the Buy the Block Home Ownership Campaign and R.A.G.E. served as the lead organization for the Englewood Public Safety Task Force for two years. Butler recently founded her own housing development company to ensure that housing development in Englewood happens from the bottom up to avoid gentrification or displacement of current residents. Asiaha’s authentic approach to community development sits on a foundation of grassroots, asset-based, change-making organizing driven by Englewood residents.