FORA Celebrates Seven Years of Growth, Community and Success

By Ari Schutter, FORA Communications Assistant

This January, FORA celebrates our seventh anniversary. Seven years of learning, growing and serving Chicago’s West Ridge community.

But FORA’s story goes back even further than seven years. In the mid 2010’s, FORA co-founders Michael and Kathleen O’Connor began participating in efforts to support refugees and asylum seekers impacted by the ongoing Rohingya genocide. The O’Connors welcomed newcomers with open arms, greeting families at O’Hare airport and helping them find housing, quickly becoming trusted supporters of the community. 

The realities of relocating to a new country soon set in. While asylum seekers seemed to flourish, refugees faced steep challenges. These challenges were especially prevalent in schools, where a lack of formal education meant students struggled to keep up with an unfamiliar education system. 

The O’Connors saw these issues, and decided a change needed to be made. In January of 2019, FORA was officially established with a mission to support refugee students on their educational journeys and futures in America. 

But before any tutoring could start, FORA’s original building needed an overhaul, repurposing a once-jewelry store into a comfortable classroom. 

FORA's first building, located on West Devon Avenue.

“The fathers of FORA’s first students were determined to get the place up and running and ready for learning,” Michael O’Connor said. “I remember us removing large mirrors and setting up the first tables, so tutoring could take place.”

Everyone was determined to see FORA succeed. By Jan. 2019, FORA opened the doors of its first official building. Located in West Ridge on Devon Ave, the building was located at the heart of the community it aimed to serve. 

Over the last seven years FORA grew from providing High Impact Tutoring to twelve students to now serving over 120 students, aged K-12, from more than ten countries. 

In addition to individualized tutoring sessions, FORA now facilitates additional programs to supplement students' curiosity. Vex Robotics and FORA’s volunteer-run public speaking program, Finding Your Voice, allow students to explore different subjects while building community with their peers. 

In 2025, FORA became a center for Math Circles of Chicago, a nonprofit that inspires young minds with collaborative math experiences, and helped establish a Girl Scouts troop for the West Ridge Neighborhood. 

Within two years after FORA opened, students and volunteers were flooding into FORA each day and crowding into any space they could find to learn. 

FORA’s Chief Public Relations Officer, Giulianna Larson, said each day it became more clear the organization needed a bigger space. 

“The former Chicago Public Library branch adjacent to FORA’s former building seemed like it was meant for us,” Larson said. “It was four times the size of our current classrooms, just next door and carried such a strong history of serving as a literacy hub to newcomers and refugee youth. Literally and symbolically, it was perfect.”

After nearly two years of negotiations and construction, FORA moved into the old Northtown Library building in June 2024, an expansion which broadened the horizons of what was possible for students and the organization. 

Moving gave FORA the opportunity not only to begin accepting students off the ever-growing waitlist but also allowed the team to grow from about fifteen staff members to now twenty-three team members across administrative, advancement and programmatic departments. 

Across the years, the heart of FORA’s roots remained. In addition to restoring refugees’ educational rights, FORA served as a space where a child could belong no matter their experiences, no matter their dreams. 

“FORA exists not only as a literacy center, but as a place where you are accepted and welcomed when others have pushed you to not even accept yourself,” Larson said.

Although staff members no longer need to sit on the floor or host meetings in the storage closet, the sense of community remains stronger than ever. FORA will make space for anyone, no matter their needs, no matter their experiences. 

“It was always clear that we will continue to make space for our community even when there seems like no space is left– this feeling is why I am proud to have been a part of FORA for nearly five years,” Larson said.

As we look towards the future, FORA’s mission remains the same: to provide refugee students with the tools they need to excel in America through education. FORA persists as a sanctuary for our students, ensuring refugee youth receive the education entitled to them. 

“I am honored to have dedicated the last four years of my life to FORA’s students and am so excited to continue expanding FORA’s mission,” Larson said.