Open Communities, founded by religious and civic organizations in 1972, is a private, not-for-profit, Chicago-area agency dedicated to promoting inclusive and diverse northern suburbs. Open Communities is rooted in the civil rights movement of the 1960s when a group of local women organized the North Shore Summer Project to protest housing discrimination. Open Communities provides direct service to persons with housing needs through fair housing discrimination investigation, foreclosure prevention and anti-predatory lending counseling, landlord/tenant advice, and the facilitation of Homesharing matches; and acts as the primary north suburban organizer and advocate for the preservation and expansion of fair and affordable housing. Open Communities (until 2012, Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs) has provided foreclosure and predatory lending housing counseling to more than 1,000 households since receiving HUD housing counseling certification in 2008, assisting approximately one-third to preserve their homes. Counseling staff are fully bilingual in Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Open Communities’ service area comprises the northern Cook and southern Lake County municipalities of Deerfield, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northbrook, Northfield, Park Ridge, Skokie, Wilmette, and Winnetka.