This year Illinois increased the Parent Mentor Program grant to $3.5 million – a $1 million increase from 2019. With this funding, 30 more schools receive support from parent mentors in primarily Black and Brown communities where funding has largely been divested. SWOP organizer Maggie Perales runs finances for the entire statewide parent mentor program. Perales emphasized the impact of this funding increase on their work this year: 30 more schools, each with 8 more parent mentors, each supporting around…

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Local School Council (LSC) elections are on April 22-23. Why may community members want to get involved? Castro, an education organizer at SWOP, said that when you “invest in your schools, you invest in your neighborhoods.”  Castro also explained that LSCs are a way of practicing democracy that can make change here and now. Participating in public spaces is critical.  SWOP wants strong LSC candidates and elections, because LSCs can create positive changes in schools which can act as powerful…

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Thanks to our great team of volunteers, SWOP was able to help seventy-six people at the December Citizenship Workshop which SWOP hosted. At these monthly workshops, individuals received a legal screening and, if eligible, filled out their N-400 application for naturalization. Each applicant also got an opportunity to apply for a fee waiver which is intended to help low income individuals who cannot afford the current $725 immigration fee (application and biometrics). The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)…

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At our second Leadership Development training, we reviewed our conversations from the first day of training together. Jeff Bartow explained that change requires confrontation. While this does not necessarily mean conflict, confrontation does require honesty. Conflict often does accompany confrontations towards change. Jessica Biggs, Southwest System of Care organizer, led us through an example of a power analysis. We discussed different forms of power, including power with, power within, and power over. When conducting a power analysis, we ask:  What is…

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Hundreds of SWOP members, leaders, and their families celebrated our work together at our annual holiday party. SWOP staff estimated about 500 people came. SWOP would not exist as it is without these hundreds of people and more. Building community is relational. People show up because of the people they know are expecting them. Building off of this understanding and our campaign for Census 2020, organizer Adriana and youth leader Iliany shared about the importance of every person being counted….

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Leadership Development trainings are not what someone might expect – they’re not about public speaking, or personality, or personal success. Rather, these trainings could be renamed “Reflection on Public Life” according to SWOP’s executive director Jeff Bartow, who led the English-speaking training in November 2019. Throughout the first session of Leadership Development with Bartow in November, a group of staff and community members learned together about power, organizing, anger, community, change, and transforming overwhelming problems into tangible and actionable issues….

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“The comeback is a particularly stunning feat when you consider the neighborhood’s history,” wrote Associated Press reporter Martha Irvine in “Inspiring tale of a Chicago neighborhood that would not die.” Irvine highlighted the work of SWOP, Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), and neighborhood residents as resistance to the issues caused by white supremacist violence and divestment.  Read Irvine’s “Inspiring tale of a Chicago neighborhood that would not die” here.  Irvine, Martha. “Inspiring tale of a Chicago neighborhood that would not…

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Action Councils are spaces for SWOP organizers to share about their work. Partners, members, volunteers, and more gathered together to learn updates and be invited to work on campaigns. At Thursday’s Action Council on November 14, organizers shared updates on their work with immigration, building community safety, and education. Most of the time focused on the 2020 census because it impacts everything of which SWOP is a part. Imelda Salazar, who is leading SWOP’s work on the Census work, presented…

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Community organizing looks like many different things. The reason for this is that community organizing depends on relationship building. Sometimes, this looks like a group of people doing fall yard work. Through SWOP’s partnerships with United Power for Action and Justice and Ascension Parish, Nick Brunick became a supporter of SWOP. Nick is an attorney at Applegate and Thorne-Thomsen (ATT) which focuses on affordable housing and community development. So Nick connected ATT with SWOP.  Now ATT is sponsoring the rehab…

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National Health Corps is a branch of AmeriCorps that provides support for community organizations that effectively and compassionately bridge the health-resource gap in underserved communities. In these neighborhoods, the social determinants of health are often outside of individual or family control and lead to disproportionately health-damaging experiences. Organizations like SWOP connect people in the community with holistic support and address factors such as housing, education, income, and healthcare while fostering one-to-one relationships. I plan to support SWOP’s System of Care…

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