The Evanston/North Shore Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in Evanston in 1918, just nine years after the organization began at Niagara Falls. The branch is dedicated in representing residents in the Evanston/North Shore area who believe their civil rights have been violated. The branch works with standing committees that includes; Legal Redress, Education, Health and Wellness, Housing, Youth, Political and Civil Engagement. In addition, the branch works with other organizations, nonprofits and houses of worship to increase awareness of social justice issues, local, national and throughout the world.

Our website offers a full description of the array of services provided and how our members and community volunteers can work in our various programs. We especially encourage interested residents to join one of our standing committees, listed above. People are always invited to join our membership. But they can also attend rallies that we sponsor, support press conferences, and support specific concerns through letter-writing, phone calls and if necessary, protests and demonstrations.

Renaissance Social Services is changing the lives of individuals and families in Chicago, giving them hope and vision for a new life. By supporting communities and the people who live within them with quality affordable housing, behavioral healthcare, outreach, homeless prevention, compassionate support services, and a purposeful focus on racial equity, we provide opportunities for long-term stability and wellness.

As for volunteer opportunities, unfortunately, due to COVID, we really do not have many volunteer opportunities except for the Board of Directors and Associate Board. Those are virtual right now.  For more information, please contact Sandra Robinson at 773-645-8900 x107 or srobinson@rssichicago.org. We are always seeking drives for household items, personal hygiene items. This does cost money so it is completely understandable if this cannot be done.

The Community Renewal Society is an organization of over 70 member churches in the Chicago area who have been working together for social justice for over 130 years. For the past 14 years UCE has been a member congregation of CRS and has built a strong relationship with CRS staff, our state legislators, and social justice leaders in other churches. Each year CRS member churches meet and select specific policy goals for the coming year. These goals promote overall CRS policy aims to reduce and eliminate race and class barriers, and to provide better education, housing, jobs and justice for minorities and the poor.

Individual members of the UCE congregation participate in various CRS activities throughout the year. These include attending CRS membership assemblies where we work with members of other CRS churches to develop CRS policy goals. Also attending workshops on policy issues or lobbying, participating in public demonstrations, and joining the MLK Day celebration that CRS hosts each January.

This year CRS is fighting for independent oversight of Chicago policing activities. It is supporting passage of the Restorative Sentencing Act, under which prisoners who complete education and training courses get time off from their sentences and are better able to get and keep jobs when they are released. And CRS is arguing for an end in 2022 to the cash money bail system which keeps people in jail solely because they do not have enough money to pay for a bail bond. If you support these issues, please contact the UCE Legislative Action Team, or one of its leaders, Margaret Shaklee, Jane Bannor or Dennis Wilson. 

Assata’s Daughters (AD) is a Black gender non-confirming and Black women-led, young people-focused abolitionist organization rooted in the Black Radical Tradition. They use a Black Queer Feminist lens and relationship-based tactics to organize young Black people in Chicago for the purposes of (1) disrupting the status quo and (2) deepening, Escalating, and Sustaining the Black Liberation Movement. AD provides young people, primarily on Chicago’s south side, with a political home to engage in political education, organizing training, leadership development, and the co-creation of community space to develop and practice sustainable skills such as conflict resolution, collective decision-making, and organizational development. AD assists young people and community with survival needs through mutual aid and have increased these efforts throughout the pandemic.

Please contact Aisha at ourduty2@assatasdaughters.org if you can help with any of the following:

UUANI strives first and foremost to link UUs with opportunities to affect legislation in Springfield and nationally and to offer training to be influential advocates. UUANI devises programs to build power among UU congregations in Illinois in order to achieve meaningful, concrete, far-reaching results which put UU values and principles into action.  Part of building that power is honing skills to be effective “woke” partners with organizations representing a wide diversity of cultures, as we work together for systemic change toward a more just and equitable society. 

One of the most important ways UUANI serves the UU congregations of Illinois is in supporting folks who yearn for social justice with training in advocacy and discernment – learning how to ally effectively with partner organizations to widen the reach of our voices.  Directors Rev Scott Aaseng and Rev Karen Mooney and their teams will work with you and/or your social justice team to hone your skills to advocate powerfully for those social justice issues dear to you, to develop skills to organize support among your fellow UUs, and to discern how unconscious bias might interfere with your work with organizations led by people of other cultures, allowing you to bravely cross cultural barriers toward a more just society. 

Contact UUANI to get involved.

Founded as the Evanston Defender Project in 1971, fully incorporating as the Evanston Community Defender Office in 1981, and renamed the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy in 2010, the Center serves as a zealous advocate for thousands of Evanston’s marginalized youth and their families in need of integrated legal and social work services. Championing justice and restoring hope, the Moran Center’s mission is to provide free, integrated legal, social, and restorative services to disinvested youth and their families to improve their quality of life at home, at school, and within the community. Central to the mission is the belief that all youth deserve justice in the courtroom, access to the classroom, and restoration in the community to thrive. The Moran Center’s six attorneys provide legal representation and advocacy in juvenile delinquency, adult criminal, civil, and educational proceedings. Criminal record remediation is provided through our Expungement & Sealing Help Desk and Certificate of Rehabilitation Initiative. In 2018, the Moran Center launched our innovative School-Based Civil Legal Clinic to help stabilize families and keep children on track in school. With a total of 15 staff and more than 50 volunteers, the Moran Center strives to create a more equitable, just, and restorative community.

Pro bono attorney opportunities: Contact Megan McClung (mmcclung@moran-center.org) to volunteer with the School-Based Civil Legal Clinic (providing civil legal advice, counsel, and/or representation to Evanston residents) OR Tom Verdun (tverdun@moran-center.org) to volunteer at the Expungement & Sealing Help Desk (looking up pro se petitioners’ criminal records and then assisting with filling out court forms).

To become involved in the Moran Center’s restorative justice work, please contact Pam Cytrynbaum (pjc@moran-center.org). For other volunteer opportunities, please contact Moran Center’s Director of Operations, Shirley Sierra (ssierra@moran-center.org).

Did you know that people of color are disproportionately impacted by /HIV? Did you know that 25% of all persons diagnosed with HIV identify as women? Also, the majority of testing on women is done during pregnancy where it is recommended during prenatal care and required at delivery on the newborn if mom’s status has not been established during pregnancy or at delivery.  I bet you DO know that very few services are equipped to help those who are pregnant and parenting persons living with HIV.

Mother and Child Alliance (MACA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization strengthening disparate systems of care for pregnant and parenting persons living with HIV. With MACA’s 20 years of experience and your contribution, we can continue to specialize in wrapping moms and their babies in support. From linking moms to medical assistance, essential services or providing family education, MACA is doing the work – in the field, in the home and meeting people where they are at without judgment or bias. Sadly, the research still shows that people of color living with HIV have poorer outcomes, get less support and have shorter life expectancy than white people living with HIV.  An HIV diagnosis is also quite stigmatizing and many women find it hard to cope with their diagnosis as there yet very few figures on the national stage that have come out as living with HIV as a woman of color. We challenge you to name even one nationally-recognized woman.

A gift of $50 can pay an emergency utility bill or $25 can get a can of formula and diapers and $20 can provide a gas card to help mom get to her appointments.  We want our moms to focus on delivering a healthy infant, so your support can help ease her mind. If you don’t have the money, but have the gift of time we are also in need of volunteers to help with our community events, where we continue to raise awareness! Please visit MACA Website – Mother and Child Alliance to make a donation or for more information. Thank you for being here for us – we are so very grateful for your support!