It Takes A Village was founded in Chicago’s Western Humboldt Park community and began servicing forty-seven at-risk children and their families. In just a short period of time, the staff of ITAV developed a reputation for delivering a high quality program for parents and families that included relationships with community partners that allowed them to meet the physical & mental health, educational, employment, housing, and nutritional needs all families served.

ITAV’s founders include former Chicago Public Schools educator, Gwendolyn Harris, her daughter, Nakisha Hobbs, and their friend, Anita Andrews-Hutchinson. All three women had become disheartened by the failure of children in the local public education system and made it their personal mission to improve it by providing at-risk children with quality early childhood education to ensure their long term social and academic success.