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‘It’s less about you’: Community relations is at the heart of the Obama Presidential Center

June 12, 2024

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Listening and responding changed how the presidential library will take shape.

Most presidential libraries are staid, placid affairs, built to enshrine paperwork and artifacts from America’s top executives.

Former President Barack Obama wanted something different for his own library. It will include the usual scholarly amenities and museum exhibits, but the 19-acre Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago will also serve as a community gathering space that includes an athletic center, garden and splashpad.  The Foundation envisions the space as an economic driver for the economically disadvantaged neighborhood in which it sits.

But even with those lofty goals and benefits to the community, the neighborhood wasn’t immediately excited by the prospect of the center coming to their backyard.

“The neighborhood has been underinvested in, disinvested in,  primarily Black and brown residents,” said Courtney D. Williams former communications director for The Obama Foundation at PR Daily’s recent Media Relations Conference. “And people are afraid of gentrification, afraid to be pushed out.”

It took a concerted community relations effort to build excitement and buy-in for this ambitious project.

Here are a few of the successful tactics the foundation employed:

  • Community meetings. Lots of community meetings. This listening and responding feedback loop included everything from where parking lots would go to programming at the center. “We would sit back and say, ‘how can we best serve the community?’” Williams said.
  • Creating a training center. To allay community concerns about outsiders coming in and changing the neighborhood, the foundation worked to create a training center on the South Side of Chicago that would help teach skilled trades like carpentry and plumbing. Not only would these tradespeople then be involved in building the center, they also could lift up the community for years to come. Today, more than half of the workforce are Black and brown people from the South and West sides of Chicago.
  • Focusing on legacy. The center downplayed the storytelling of Obama the man,instead focusing on his legacy and inspiring a new generation of leaders from around the world. They became the primary story drivers for the center. “It’s talking about young women in Africa who are working on reproductive rights, telling their stories, getting that information out there. And then helping community members and other businesses invest in those folks. It’s less about you and the brand that you represent and more about the mission, what you’re trying to accomplish.”
  • Relationship building with local and hyperlocal media in Chicago, right down to online portals for individual neighborhoods or TikTokers with a handful of followers. “The videos on TikTok, maybe they only have 50 people that are watching them. But those 50 people have aunts and uncles and grandparents and grandkids and the message is going there.”

Williams’ full presentation will be coming to Ragan Training soon – stay tuned.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on or LinkedIn.


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