2023-2024 Shared Offering Recipients
September 2023: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
October 2023: NAACP Evanston/North Shore Branch
November 2023: Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI)
December 2023: Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU)
January 2024: Community Renewal Society (CRS)
February 2024: Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
March 2024: Deborah’s Place
April 2024: Interfaith Action of Evanston
May 2024: The Night Ministry
June 2024: Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA)
July 2024: Restore Justice Foundation
August 2024: C&W Foundation
September 2024: Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIIR)
5th Sundays: Evanston Reparations Community Fund
We are going to adjust the Shared Offering cycle to be from October through September each year, so there was an extra organization picked this year for September 2024.
UUSC advances human rights and social justice around the world, partnering with those who confront unjust power structures and mobilizing to challenge oppressive policies. Our work is grounded in the belief that all people have inherent power and dignity.
Key actions include economic and legal support for Central American refugees, work with indigenous peoples facing climate disruption, and support for the Rohingya struggling with genocide in Burma.
After a 1908 race riot in Springfield IL, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was founded by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, and a group of white liberals in 1909, and its Evanston arm became active soon thereafter. The NAACP is the oldest grass roots civil rights organization in the U.S., and welcomes people of all colors, creeds and ethnicities. Its mission is to secure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons. The Recent activities of the Evanston/North Shore Branch have included partnering with Connection for the Homeless in developing data to support equitable zoning changes in Evanston; providing scholarships to students graduating from ETHS as well as students continuing their education at HBCUs; sponsoring an exhibit at the Evanston Art Center to introduce to the community excellent but lesser-known artists of color; sponsoring a well-attended Environmental Justice Awareness day at Fleetwood-Jourdain; sponsoring candidate forums and carrying out voter registration and GOTV activities; working to get bills passed in Illinois regarding African-American and Asian-American history education, including the Juneteenth holiday; gathering and transporting a truckload of supplies for the community of Rolling Fork, MS, which suffered terribly from a tornado last spring; and a variety of other initiatives that respond to ongoing or acute crises. For more information, visit its website, www.evanstonnaacp.org or email the Branch at naacpev@gmail.com.
Opportunities to support and volunteer with the NAACP Evanston/NS Branch include
- Taking out a membership ($30/year)
- Joining a committee (such as Political Action & Civic Engagement, Education, Environmental Justice, Health)
- Helping with voter registration, candidate forums and other GOTV activities sponsored by the Branch
- Reading stories by Black writers to students at Oakton Elementary School during the NAACP Black History Month Read-A-Thon
- Periodic opportunities to join rallies, ceremonies honoring community members and other gatherings where having a good showing is important
- Periodic projects that support the mission of the NAACP, such as those mentioned above
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.
To get involved: http://www.uuani.org/contact-us
And sign up for Actions of the Week HERE: https://uuani.salsalabs.org/actionoftheweek/index.html
BLUU
started as a small organizing collective that formed in 2015 in Cleveland during the Movement for Black Lives Convening. We are now a thriving spiritual community and justice-minded organization creating connection for Black people.
BLUU is committed to Unitarian Universalism that is liberatory and life-giving for Black people. We manifest this dream by creating spiritual community, spiritual resources, and political education opportunities for Black Unitarian Universalists and other Black folks who share our values.
BLUU harnesses love’s power to combat oppression and foster healing as a spiritual and political imperative. We know the power of love to be life changing, inclusive, relational, uncomfortable, unconditional and without end.
The Community Renewal Society is an organization of over 70 member churches in the Chicago area who have been working together for civil rights and social justice for over 130 years. CRS engineers social change by participating in public demonstrations and events, lobbying state legislators and other public officials and offering social organizing training sessions. CRS decides what issues to work on by participation from its churches and their members, and by working with other organizations.
Members of UCE could work directly with CRS staff to join a committee or to attend an event or training session. They could go to the Community Renewal Society website to see dates and times of coming events. UCE Members also could talk to any member of the UCE Legislative Action Team, or join our Team’s monthly meeting, usually the second Tuesday of each month, from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
The Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) builds partnerships among social movements and organized communities within and between the U.S. and Latin America. We work together through popular education, grassroots organizing, public policy advocacy, and direct action to dismantle U.S. militarism, neoliberal economic and immigration policy, and other forms of state and institutional violence.We are united by our liberating faiths and inspired by the power of people to organize and to find allies to work for sustainable economies, just relationships and human dignity.
Deborah’s Place opens doors of opportunity for women who are homeless in Chicago. Supportive housing and services offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals and moving on from the experience of homelessness. We achieve our mission through a unique model that weaves together supportive housing with a menu of voluntary, evidence-based services. We deliver these services in an intentional environment that recognizes each woman’s strengths and abilities and fosters a sense of belonging and community. The Deborah’s Place model has evolved over 36 years, using external research and internal data to develop and deliver effective programs and services. We know that women who experience chronic homelessness can overcome complex barriers to housing, health and stability when they have what they need to be successful – access to affordable and appropriate housing, adequate healthcare, regular income and positive social supports. Deborah’s Place serves more than 500 women annually through outreach, housing and support services.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteer opportunities at Deborah’s Place are limited. Currently, we are able to accept individual or small volunteer groups to do meal service in our Dolores’ Safe Haven program. Volunteers can cook a meal in our kitchen or bring in a catered meal and serve it to residents for lunch or dinner 7 days a week. Other volunteer opportunities may be available as the current health situation permits. For more information on volunteering at Deborah’s Place, please complete the contact form on our website at https://www.deborahsplace.org/contact-us/.
Interfaith Action of Evanston strives to build a just community. We work with diverse faith communities and individuals seeking to address the systemic issues of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and hunger. Through interfaith dialogue, we bring people together to build relationships and encourage understanding across faith boundaries. We partner with local legislators, community leaders and our neighbors to promote a healthy and equitable society.
We manage and staff soup kitchens, a warming center, an emergency overnight shelter, a hospitality center and free fresh produce distribution in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Producemobile.
We monitor and advocate for social justice. We share ideas across faiths and recommend actions to engage legislators and policymakers. Our public gatherings provide a venue for volunteers, supporters and others who care about ending hunger and homelessness.
We invite and promote opportunities for our faith community members to attend worship and/or engage in conversations with members of different faiths who share their values.
The Night Ministry is a Chicago-based organization whose mission is to provide human connection, housing support, and health care to members of our community who are unhoused or experiencing poverty.
Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA) is a not-for-profit organization that empowers refugees by providing them with the educational resources needed to make a successful transition to the United States. Our vision is a world where migrants in need are welcomed and empowered. Our mission is to ensure that refugee families are provided access to an education sufficient to prepare them to become economically self-sufficient and robustly engaged in American civic life. Our strategy is to be located in the neighborhoods that we serve to make daily educational services easily available to newly-arrived refugees.
We work to end extreme sentences for children and youth in Illinois and replace them with compassionate, common-sense policies that bring people home sooner and make communities safer.
OUR STORY
Clarence and Wendy founded C&W in August 2014, a family own market and ice cream parlor located in the Evanston community offering residents and neighboring communities with essential items, groceries, snacks and produce. Through our Foundation, C&W marketplace will always seek new opportunities to partner with local businesses or organizations to uplift the Evanston community and serve those in need.
HISTORY OF C&W / CLARENCE & WENDY
Clarence and Wendy are long term residents of Evanston. Clarence has spent most of his professional career working as an IT management professional and Wendy has worked more than 40 years in health care and insurance providing professional insurance services to multiple organizations in the Chicagoland area.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Clarence and Wendy have committed full-time to the growth and development of C&W’s offerings to the Evanston community.
ICIRR is dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society.
Created in 1986 in response to President Reagan signing into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act, ICIRR has been at the forefront of helping immigrants realize and contribute to the dream that is America.
Evanston Reparations represent an historic opportunity to address the harm caused to the Black community due to discriminatory practices. ECF’s mission is built on the belief that working toward a more vibrant, equitable and inclusive Evanston will benefit every member of our community. To advance Evanston Reparations and ECF’s mission, the Foundation’s Board of Directors made a declaration to hold the Evanston Reparations Community Fund.
In June 2019, the City of Evanston adopted a resolution affirming the City’s commitment to end structural racism and achieve racial equity. Thereafter, the City held two community meetings to gather input on reparations, culminating in the November 2019 resolutions to utilize tax revenue from the sales of recreational cannabis to Evanston Reparations with up to $10 million over the next ten years.
The Evanston Reparations Community Fund (“Fund”) is intended to be a perpetual resource for Evanston’s Black community, to complement the tax revenue stream earmarked by the City for initial reparations remedies, and to ensure funding is available for reparations once those tax revenues are no longer available. The Fund will not be involved in the distribution of tax revenues earmarked by the City of Evanston for reparations. Those dollars will be administered directly by the City of Evanston through the efforts of the City’s Reparations Subcommittee comprising three alderman and city staff.
The Fund will specifically support the work of the Reparations Stakeholders Authority of Evanston (RSAE), a now 501c3 tax exempt organization. (#86-3806645) It raises funds and distributes grants to Evanston’s Black community. The RSAE will initially be led by Black community leaders. It is anticipated the RSAE will raise funds through outreach to community members, foundations and others interested in advancing Evanston Reparations.