Client: Illinois Humanities
Illinois Humanities partnered with 123Flor LLC to design and facilitate a cross-sector convening focused on healing, dialogue, and systems transformation during a time of social uncertainty and division.

Consultant: 123Flor LLC (Flor Esquivel, Lead Consultant & Moderator)
Through 123Flor LLC, Flor Esquivel led the strategic design and facilitation of the convening, serving as both moderator and connector across philanthropic, community, academic, and civic sectors.

Date & Location: February 26, 2026 | Chicago, IL
The evening convening brought together diverse stakeholders in Chicago for an in-person experience centered on reflection, dialogue, and collective engagement.

Project Overview:
Healing and Transformation Through Times of Change was designed to create a space for bridge-building and shared understanding across sectors and lived experiences. Grounded in the arts and humanities, the convening centered dialogue as a pathway toward unity, healing, and collective transformation.

Scope of Work:
123Flor LLC led the end-to-end experience, including convening foundation and cross-sector leaders as speakers, co-designing the program structure, and moderating a panel that explored systemic inequities, particularly the intersections of mass incarceration and crimmigration, while centering lived experience.

Event Experience:
The program was intentionally curated to move participants from connection to action, beginning with a shared meal and icebreakers, followed by a moderated panel and audience dialogue, a healing-centered arts activity, and a closing call to action that invited continued collaboration.

Key Themes:
The convening emphasized bridge-building across sectors, cross-sector collaboration, and the role of arts and humanities in fostering dialogue and healing. It also highlighted the interconnected impacts of mass incarceration and crimmigration while centering system-impacted voices.

Outcomes & Impact:
The event strengthened relationships across philanthropic, academic, and community sectors, elevated critical dialogue on systemic inequities and their generational effects, and created a space for collective reflection, storytelling, and forward-looking collaboration.

Approach:
Through 123Flor LLC, Flor grounded the convening in human connection and dialogue as transformative tools, leveraging storytelling, lived experience, and creative expression to foster deeper understanding and inspire actionable pathways toward more humane and equitable systems.