Redesigning Opportunities And Bridging Gaps: Janeicia Willia

Born and raised in Chicago’s Westside, Janeicia Williams works to design programs and experiences that bring new opportunities to her community. 

Through years of being involved, motivated by her mother’s example and finding meaningful ways to apply her skillset, Janeicia has grown to be an agent of change for Westside youth. 

As the community liaison for Project Exploration, a STEM program bringing young people closer to science, Jainecia works to expand access to programs serving young people. She also leads the Austin My CHI My Future program, expanding access to after school programs. 

Janeicia’s experience as a community leader and user experience designer has led her to understand what young people need and what an organization can do to serve them. 

She graduated from Howard University with a Bachelors in Legal Communications and has a masters degree in Experience Design from DePaul University. 

When we talk about gaps, there are gaps in student interest and gaps in access, she said. 

Existing programs may not be tailored to what students are interested in or may not be designed to achieve the program’s goals. Likewise, students may be interested in programs that do not exist in their community or have barriers to access them, she said. 

For Janeicia, her community work is also a way of reshaping the narrative about her community and showing what the Westside really has to offer.

“The Westside, despite what people say, is not an under-resourced community,” she said. 

“It’s a community with a lot of untapped potential.” 

Determined to change how wrong the story has been painted about what the Westside has to offer, Janeicia has been involved in multiple projects from a young age. 

Since her high school years, Janeicia has collaborated with the Chicago Westside Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where she grew as a leader by hosting Know Your Rights in police interactions workshops and helping young people become civically engaged. 

When she was 16 years old, she participated in community conversations to shape the Chicago Police Department’s consent decree and discuss how police interactions could be improved, she said. 

For a few years, she has chaired the annual Westside Youth Empowerment Conference, an event that provides 100 high school students the opportunity to participate in personal development, leadership, and mental health workshops at a downtown Chicago hotel. 

Beyond the learning that takes place at the conference, it offers an opportunity for young people to expand their horizons, she said. 

Janeicia also founded Nvision Urban Solutions, where she works as a consultant in user experience for community nonprofits and government agencies, so that they design programs that serve people first, she said. 

One of her goals is to bridge the gap in digital equity, expanding access into the technology field for Westsiders and bringing her community closer to technologies that will redefine business and development like artificial intelligence, she said. 

“So that we’re creating things of the future and not things as we see them now,” she said. 

As she looks to the future, her goal is to grow her consultancy agency, continue to collaborate and improve how leaders and neighbors work with one another to access resources and help Westsiders become their best selves, she said. 

“There are lots of creative people, entrepreneurs, leaders with a giant passion and talent,” she said. 

Wearing multiple hats, as a teacher, consultant and policy implementer, Janeicia is working to create a village that supports others, just like the one she had growing up, she said.  

“I make it my life’s work,” she said.