Executive Director Mattie C. Butler
If there is a "face" representing community empowerment in Woodlawn, Mattie C. Butler owns it. She is the founding Executive Director of Woodlawn East Community And Neighbors Inc., better known to thousands of Woodlawn residents as W.E.C.A.N. Through her pioneering efforts in affordable housing preservation and community empowerment, thousands of housing units have been rescued from destruction and thousands of residents each year receive supportive services, resource referrals, housing information, and affordable housing. Butler owns a Master's Degree from South New Hampshire College's nationally-recognized Community Development Program.
Not surprisingly, Butler has received numerous honors for her work, including the Petra Foundation Award (click here to see it), the 2008 Community Advocate of the Year Award from the Woodlawn Community Services Corporation (see here to view pictures of her receiving the award), and many awards from community organizations, civic leaders and government officials.
Supportive Services Director Venus Scott
Venus Scott's history with WECAN and the concept of WECAN is longer than anyone else's for one reason - she has grown up as a WECAN child. Ms. Scott owns bachelor and master's degrees in human resource development and worked for a community development corporation in St. Louis before coming back to Chicago to work with WECAN.
Property Manager Margaret Thomas
Margaret Thomas answered a call she couldn't refuse - from Mattie Butler, who asked her to leave her position in corporate America to manage WECAN's first multi-unit development, the 64-unit property at 6230 South Dorchester Avenue, which had sat vacant for years until WECAN rescued it and returned it to productive use as Affordable Housing. Thomas has been the Property Manager at "Dorchester", as the building is known, since it opened in 1995.