This is our official, real call to community, supportive allies and organizations across the board to help save The Honeycomb Network from being displaced due to developers in Humboldt Park that doubled the rent on our space during the pandemic and are set to raise once again.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT:

We acquired the Honeycomb Network in January of 2020, quickly after signing the lease the world was hit by a global pandemic and shut down. We pivoted to virtual programming and fundraising and were able to officially open our doors in late 2020. In the Spring of 2021 the landlords doubled our rent.

We took it on, even though we were not sure how we could possibly manage such a large overhead. We had already worked so hard to get it off of the ground, literally designing with our own hands, every aspect of the layout, style and structure, and did not want to give up.

But in all honesty, the rent increase so suddenly was very hard to maintain. We were still dealing with the effects of the pandemic and found that shutdowns throughout the year impacted our revenue, especially during our slower seasons in the beginning of each year. As the founder, I attempted to advocate for payment plans on rent and a possible barter system to be in place that could offset the cost. One of the investors was open to this, but the others were not. It has been a tremendous burden to maintain.

We are set to have a rent increase even more this year but honestly it is too costly to bear without support. At this point we need to pivot into a hybrid model non-profit structure and build a cushion of capital to relieve us of overhead costs and provide us with additional resources for our future success.

As a new business, just reaching a 3 year mark, we don't qualify for large capital loans from the bank, as LLC grants are limited and our time even more so. Though we have been able to get micro-grants from a couple of organizations since we started, it is really a drop in the bucket compared to what we need to sustain us at this point.

Below find out additional information on who we are, what we have accomplished and how the funding will be utilized.

WHO WE ARE + WHAT WE DO

The Honeycomb Network is a Puerto Rican queer woman founded, coworking, co-creating, and collective care sanctuary space in Humboldt Park, the neighborhood where we are from. It offers bilingual holistic wellness and creative services that support the care of our community. Our focus is on the intersections of accessible wellness, accessible knowledge, and sustainability of a space for creative commerce to incubate and flourish.

We intentionally curate projects that take a compassionate approach to doing business by exclusively centering and reflecting the wellness and the brilliance of our BIPOC, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, (BIPOC) + LGBTQIA communities.
We offer mental health counseling, life coaching, an LGBTQIA youth centered healing program titled “THE H.E.A.L. UN-ACADEMY” and cohorts with specialized themes from entrepreneurial support to healing arts focus, as well as nutritional and herbal consults by licensed and certified professionals.
We house a boutique apothecary and gift shop that features new and used books for all ages, including a book exchange program. We also offer art and artisanal goods made by local and global BIPOC.

We produce professional, educational and creative inter-generational programming, and host seasonal artist and herbalist residencies.
We have an ongoing partnership with El Coqui Community garden where we grow organic healing herbs and offer them to the community for free.

The Honeycomb Network creatively and holistically addresses the systemic structures and environments that disrupt, disenfranchise and inform our lived experiences and mental health. We curate every aspect of our space, programming, partnerships and business model to connect these dots and offer resources, practices, and a brave space to unpack and co-create solutions while offering pro-active wellness tools.

We not only work to push through the barriers of financial and wellness constraints, but gender constraints. These factors are only compounded with predatory development in our community that pushes us out of our homes and businesses on a whim by exploiting the cost to survive.

We house a boutique apothecary and gift shop that features new and used books for all ages, including a book exchange program. We also offer art and artisanal goods made by local and global BIPOC. We curate professional, educational and creative inter-generational programming, and host seasonal artist and herbalist residencies. We have an ongoing partnership with El Coqui Community garden where we grow organic healing herbs and offer them to the community for free.

The Honeycomb Network creatively and holistically addresses the systemic structures and environments that disrupt, disenfranchise and inform our lived experiences and mental health. We curate every aspect of our space, programming, partnerships and business model to connect these dots and offer resources, practices, and a brave space to unpack and co-create solutions while offering pro-active wellness tools.

We not only work to push through the barriers of financial and wellness constraints, but gender constraints. These factors are only compounded with predatory development in our community that pushes us out of our homes and businesses on a whim by exploiting the cost to survive.

Our services and space are vital in this ever-changing city + neighborhood landscape.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE IN (ALMOST) 3 YEARS:

Despite minimal resources for programming, The Honeycomb has been incredibly innovative and fresh in its approach while continuing to be community facing and accessible.

We have also expanded our reach beyond Chicago and have connected and collaborated in some capacity with several established cultural, educational, and/or entrepreneurial creatives + hubs from New York, Puerto Rico, California, and Mexico.

What your help will help us do:

Our fundraising goal is to not only assist us in sustaining through hard seasons with a cushion and support to keep us from being displaced. It will give us the room to work toward our long term strategy which includes the following:

Creating a hybrid non-profit model for the apothecary and wellness programs.
Give us the capital needed to ease overhead costs and expand our resources for sustainability

For more information on our future intentions, upcoming fundraising events and other ways to contribute to our goal, please check out our campaign page on our website here: Propolis Plan — The Honeycomb Network

The Honeycomb Network: Support Our Sustainability!

In nature, bees create a substance called propolis as a way to seal and strengthen their hive. In this same way, we are calling the community to assist us in creating our own rendition of propolis, to protect + sustain our space.

Team Members