Senior Community Organizer Rachel Ramirez traveled to Hungary, Romania and Slovakia this month, training and collaborating with service providers interested in learning more about community organizing.
The Great Lakes Consortium (GLC) for International Training and Development offers the organizing exchange between the U.S. and Central Europe. Continue reading Senior Organizer Rachel Ramirez offers training in Central Europe
Attorneys for homeless residents evicted from living in tents under the Wilson and Lawrence avenue viaducts will continue a lawsuit contesting the discriminatory redesign of Uptown viaducts, now undergoing reconstruction.
At a court hearing Monday, attorneys that include the CCH Law Project withdrew a request for a temporary restraining order, noting that the issue was moot because the hearing was set several hours after the city carried out the 7 a.m. eviction.
The lawsuit contends the re-design violates the Illinois Homeless Bill of Rights because it “discriminates against (viaduct residents) solely because they are homeless. The city’s current design plans were drawn with the purpose of intentionally preventing plaintiffs and other homeless individuals from returning to the viaducts after the repairs are complete.” Continue reading Lawsuit will continue that contends Uptown viaduct redesign discriminates against homeless people
WHEN: Monday, September 18, 7 a.m.
WHAT: Press conference convened by homeless encampment residents of the viaducts on Lake Shore Drive at Wilson and Lawrence avenues. Residents received a 30-day notice that they must vacate the premises by September 18 at 7 a.m. due to viaduct repairs.
Residents who will be displaced have been calling for a housing alternative as well as a re-design of the viaducts that does not discriminate against homeless people. The current re-design puts bike lanes on the sidewalks, which is less safe for pedestrians, bikes, and cars, and which is discriminatory toward homeless people. The city has met neither of these demands.
Residents will speak to the press about their campaign, the city’s lack of response, and their plans moving forward.
At 10:30 a.m. Monday, residents will be in Courtroom 2508 of the Daley Center regarding their complaint filed by CCH against the city of Chicago, pursuant to the Illinois Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act.
WHERE: Wilson Avenue and Lake Shore Drive
WHO: Homeless residents of the Wilson and Lawrence viaducts, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH), and ONE Northside
For more information:
Mary Tarullo, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless: mary@chicagohomeless.org
Angelica Sanchez, ONE Northside: asanchez@onenorthside.org
In June, Senior Organizer Rachel Ramirez’ research — titled “The community organizing model of organizational leadership” — was awarded “Best Abstract” by a panel of judges at the the Chicago Universities for Public Policy Research Symposium at Northwestern University.
Rachel originally submitted this research for her master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration at Northwestern, which she completed in 2016 while working full-time at CCH.
By Rachel Ramirez
I began my organizing career about seven years ago under the guidance of an organizer who amazed me by seeing the possibility for transformative social change in every issue, no matter how terrible or unjust. What I didn’t realize was that as his mentee, I myself was a participant in and beneficiary of the “community organizing model of leadership” from day one. As a novice Midwest Academy intern, I would come back to the office from the field with information on the issues and social problems that community members identified during our one-on-one conversations. My early mentor would ask me questions, push back, motivate me, and send me back out into the field to keep doing the work myself. Like most new organizers, I felt lost, frustrated, and energized as I witnessed and helped to unfold a successful campaign to prevent the total loss of public medical care in an impoverished Chicago community.
The capacity of organizing to “turn pain into power” (a refrain often used by CCH leader Leeanna Majors) and to create real change against the tide of the status quo continues to captivate me, and to be underestimated by almost everyone outside of the organizing field. Organizers know how to grow the leadership of people who are often overlooked, foster creative teams, and help and guide people into strategic battle in the public arena. Organizers are rarely seen as “leaders” in the traditional sense, because, just as my mentor was doing in my first summer of organizing, we lead from behind. It was the realization during my graduate school program in Public Policy and Administration that organizing is underappreciated and misunderstood in both the public and private sectors that agitated me to research and write about the organizing model of leadership, and I am pleased that I have been able to share it in writing and in presentations with organizers and non-organizers alike.
My master’s thesis poses the first known model of organizational leadership based on organizing practices. This research uses a grounded theory approach, including the development of a visual model, to synthesize the perspectives of seven experienced Chicago-based community organizers and the existing literature to create a community organizing model of organizational leadership. Findings show that while the community organizing model shares commonalities with both the servant leadership and transformative leadership models, community organizing practices constitute a unique model of leadership because of their emphasis on public power. Building a more powerful organization is the baseline for all community organizing leadership objectives, practices and skills of community organizers. A powerful organization allows the development of community leaders to lead to efficacy in the public arena via strategic campaigns.
It is not my organizer’s ego that compels me to want to make the organizing model of leadership more widely known. Most organizers, myself included, do not desire to be “seen” by the traditional power structures that we are helping to bend to the will of the people. However, organizing is direly needed in conflict situations across the United States and the globe, to help people work together to transform their society and achieve what they need through effective, nonviolent means. And the benefits to organizing of becoming a more widely respected field include a broader stream of funding and of talented aspiring organizers. I hope to continue to contribute as both a practitioner and a researcher in order to help our field grow to meet the challenges of our time, and to help lead more individuals onto this path of social change as my first mentor did for me.
Complaint contends city redesign of viaducts discriminates against homeless people
Homeless residents of the Uptown Wilson and Lawrence viaducts, through their attorneys, filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago on Thursday. Plaintiffs Carol Aldape and Thomas Gordon, supported by attorneys from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP, and Uptown People’s Law Center, argue that the city’s re-design of the viaducts violates the Illinois Homeless Bill of Rights because it “discriminates against them solely because they are homeless.” Continue reading Homeless Uptown viaduct residents file lawsuit against the city
By Cydney Salvador, Media Intern
An Illinois bill permitting the use of educational funds to secure housing for homeless children has been signed into law.
House Bill 261 will allow school districts to reallocate funds dedicated to homeless students’ transportation costs to instead pay for housing assistance, rent, and security deposits. CCH endorsed the measure, sponsored by State Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg). Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the bill on August 25. Continue reading New Illinois law allows school transportation funds to be reallocated for homeless student housing
By Patricia Nix-Hodes, Director of The Law Project at CCH
As students head back to school, it’s important to point out that children and teens without housing have special rights to school enrollment, transportation and school fee waivers. Continue reading Homeless students have special rights to school enrollment, transportation and fee waivers
By Cydney Salvador, Media Intern
This Labor Day, Chicago witnessed one of the largest fast food strikes in city history as part of the Fight for $15 movement, with the help of homeless workers and leaders from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
In the U.S and around the world, minimum-wage workers in healthcare, fast food, janitorial services, and customer services went on strike during the September 4 National Day of Action. Almost 5,000 people rallied in support of strikers, according to Chicago Fight for $15. Continue reading 213 CCH leaders joined Chicago Fight for $15 at one of city’s largest fast food strikes
Key legislation to expand record-sealing in Illinois has been signed into law after advocacy by the CCH Reentry Project and RROCI coalition partners.
Gov. Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 2373 at an August 24 ceremony hosted by the Safer Foundation, a Reentry Project member.
Effective immediately, HB2373 expands record-sealing eligibility to more felonies, three years after completion of sentence. Before, only nine felonies were eligible for sealing. Continue reading Legislation to expand record-sealing is signed into law
It is bittersweet for me to announce that I will be leaving the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless at the end of August to join the staff at the Chicago Urban League.
I started my career at CCH almost three years ago as a Policy Fellow, where I worked on legislation removing barriers to employment in schools for people with criminal records. Continue reading Farewell to Policy Specialist Jonathan Holmes
