$30,000 / 2014
Chicago, IL
Jennifer Arwade, Executive Director
Website: www.communitiesunited.org
This $30,000 renewal grant will allow Albany Park Neighborhood Council (APNC) to organize to protect immigrant rights, to preserve affordable and quality housing, to dismantle the system of youth criminalization and to improve the quality of public education for low-income students of color in Chicago. APNC’s proposed scope of work builds on previous years’ efforts to advance racial equity and a powerful racial justice framework in the above areas. Over the last year, APNC and its partners in Voices Of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) won a major victory with the Noble Network of Charter Schools announcing the elimination of disciplinary fines and spearheaded the formation of the Safe Schools Consortium, through which it is also working with VOYCE and other allies to shift teacher practice at targeted schools to promote restorative alternatives to exclusionary discipline, and continue to advance broader systemic reforms around school discipline. During the next year, APNC will work with young leaders to eliminate the roots of student push-out including the use of harsh discipline at both neighborhood and charter schools; Increase Investment in youth employment Opportunities, particularly for Low-Income Youth of Color; Prevent displacement of families, preserve affordable housing impacted by foreclosure; and ensure a path to citizenship for the undocumented within multi-racial framework of ending criminalization of communities of color.