Community Connector
Welcome and thank you for visiting the Official Website for Community Connector and Speaker Michael Finney. Michael was raised & lives in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago and has been an advocate for better Safety, Education & Employment for all of the citizens of the City of Chicago. Michael attended Beasley Academic Center and went on to graduate from St. Joseph High School in the Back of the Yards Neighborhood. After earning a degree in Business Finance from Tuskegee University, Michael returned to Chicago to raise his son and exercise the skills, training & experience he received at one of the nations most historic and accomplished universities. Michael has dedicated his time serving the City of Chicago as a public servant in a variety of ways ranging from community outreach to education, safety and employment assistance. He participated as a member of the team of Chicago Fire Fighters and civilians commissioned by Mayor Richard Daley to deliver supplies to the victims of the 2010 Haiti Relief Efforts. This joint effort between The Cities of Miami and Chicago to assist victims led Michael to become a first responder as a member of the Chicago Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Aside from public service, Michael has served the Chicago Public School system as a Day -to - Day Substitute Teacher, Local School Council (LSC) Interim Chair, Local School Council (LSC) Vice Chair, Community Connector, Special Education Classroom Assistant (SECA), Community Schools Resource Coordinator & Service Learning Organizer. His dedication for access to quality public education for all public-school students is unquestioned. He recently concluded serving as Community Connector, Director of After School Programming & Resource Coordinator at Tilden Career Community Academy where he has established a number of initiatives such as the Summer Youth Employment Program, the first media program on campus in over a decade and creating the Tilden's current motto, 'Today the classroom. Tomorrow the world'. The success of the SYEP comes from assisting in employing thousands of young people with summer employment since 2013. Michael served as the Network 9 Coordinator for the Children and Family Benefits Unit for two years where the aim is to eliminate health barriers to learning in the classroom. In 2021, after two years of students learning virtually due to the pandemic, Michael became one of three educators in the Chicago Public School system to be awarded the 2021 CPS Googlepalooza 'Ones to Watch' Award and currently serves as an instructor at Martin Luther King College Prep. |
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' Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. '
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