$25,000 / 2018
https://communitiesunited.org/
Communities United (CU) is a multi-issue, intergenerational community organization located on the northwest side of Chicago, one of the most diverse communities in the country. This renewal grant will support Communities United’s organizing to protect immigrant rights, to preserve affordable and quality housing, to dismantle systems of youth criminalization and to improve the quality of public education for low-income students of color in Chicago, all through a reinvestment framework. Last year, CU launched the Good Kids Mad City movement to center the experiences of youth of color and to address root causes of gun violence and a youth vision for school safety; secured support from the City to include CU’s rental preservation strategy as a centerpiece of its long-term affordable housing strategy; and developed a proposal for a community oversight body for the Chicago Police (CPD). Over the next year, Communities United will continue to ensure effective implementation of SB100 (which reduces the usage of suspensions and expulsions), organize to ensure effective implementation of the direct access healthcare program in Cook County, to prevent citywide displacement of youth and families by preserving affordable housing threatened by foreclosure, securing support for a Community Oversight Board for the CPD and to push for immigration reform through a multi-racial approach addressing criminalization of communities of color.