06/02/2021
The Obama library is coming to Chicago. Will local residents be displaced?
#CBAnow
Complex slated for South Side’s Jackson Park prompts fears that low-income Black residents will be displaced
Southside Together Organizing for Power - STOP
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We build the power of low income and working Black families in Woodlawn and surrounding neighborhoods — to impact the forces and decisions that affect our lives.
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Sign up for our occasional emails at the bottom of STOPchicago.org
Our mission: To advance economic and social human rights by organizing and developing leadership among people most affected by economic and racial oppression. We have saved over 600 of units of affordable housing, won a trauma center, and much more. We are — and we organize —
1. tenants, for instance, for a Community Benefits Agreement around the Obama Center
2. mental-health patients and providers, for instance, to re-open City mental-health clinics
3. students and youth, for instance, for police-free schools
Plus allies!
Operating as usual
05/25/2021
On this one-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder, we invite you to join us at this Saturday at 1pm downtown:
Anniversary of the Murder of George Floyd | Art Build + Action
05/24/2021
Aldermanic Chief of Staff and Ethics Officer Listing Revised as of 6/27/2017
Aldermanic Chief of Staff and Ethics Officer Listing Revised as of 6/27/2017
05/18/2021
We need your help for #MentalHealth legislation today! By 5pm (when they're due), please submit a Witness Slip in support of the Community Emergency Services and Support Act, at bit.ly/CESSAwitness
(Please select "Proponent," say you're representing your "self" or a group, and click "Record of appearance only.")
CESSA was developed over the last several years by Access Living's #RacialJustice organizing group, in partnership with the family of Stephon Watts, a fifteen year Autistic teenager who was killed by police in his own home.
CESSA would:
- Address the mental and behavioral health needs of people by sending support instead of police whenever appropriate.
- Support the statewide creation of a 911 non-police response option, separate from law enforcement, by sending support instead of police for mental and behavioral health emergencies everywhere an ambulance service exists.
- Require responders to use appropriate de-escalation techniques and then connect callers to their existing care providers or to available community services and supports.
- Save State and local dollars by supporting people in the community rather than in emergency rooms and jails.
- Support each EMS Region to design regionally appropriate systems.
Again, please fill out bit.ly/CESSAwitness. And thank you!
05/17/2021
Howard Brown Health and University of Chicago medical students are working to get our South Side communities vaccinated this Saturday!
You can get an appointment at hbh-covid-vaccine.as.me/ShilohSDA. Or you can just walk in!
They're even offering some bus transportation, from these sites: qrco.de/vax-pickup
Have questions about the vaccine? Call the number below or watch tihs town hall: fb.watch/5yuRYCIATK
Howard Brown Health and University of Chicago medical students are working to get our South Side communities vaccinated this Saturday!
You can get an appointment at hbh-covid-vaccine.as.me/ShilohSDA. Or you can just walk in!
They're even offering some bus transportation, from these sites: qrco.de/vax-pickup
Have questions about the vaccine? Call the number below or watch tihs town hall: fb.watch/5yuRYCIATK
05/17/2021
Meet Savannah Brown, our new housing organizer! — Southside Together Organizing for Power
This month Savannah Brown joins STOP’s full-time staff! She'll focus on organizing tenants and their tenant associations at subsidized complexes.
"By affirming the humanity of us all, I look forward to co-creating an inclusive future shaped by Black and Brown people," Savannah says. "I seek to do so by providing spaces for folks typically unheard, allowing for their experiences to be shared and uplifted."
Join us in welcoming Savannah!
She shares: “I first got involved with STOP through Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100)'s participation in the CBA coalition. From the intergenerational participation to the town halls, I was hooked.”
05/04/2021
Wardell Lavender, community activist known as 'Mayor of Woodlawn,' dies at 80
Wardell Lavender, community activist known as 'Mayor of Woodlawn,' dies at 80
Wardell Lavender, a community activist who became known as the “Mayor of Woodlawn,” died of prostate cancer on April 7. He was 80 years old.
05/04/2021
Ahead of Hearing on Violence we Demand Mental Health NOT Police
Today we are holding a press conference, speaking before a City Council hearing on increasing violence. We are demanding that American rescue Plan money be used for public mental health, not police.
04/26/2021
Re-imagining school safety: town hall Tuesday, April 27, 5pm — Southside Together Organizing for Power
What's your vision of school safety?
Tomorrow at 5, call in or Zoom with Hyde Park Academy students and alumni as they discuss holistic approaches to safety beyond policing. Learn about the safety vision of STOP youth and bring your own ideas to the table.
This June, Hyde Park Academy’s Local School Council will vote on whether they want to keep police in the school, or put in place an alternative safety plan. Here at STOP, our youth have been fighting to get the police out and instead invest in social workers, violence interrupters, and restorative justice.
We want to hear from YOU! Register:
This June, Hyde Park Academy’s Local School Council will vote on whether they want to keep police in the school, or put in place an alternative safety plan.
04/26/2021
Community activist Wardell Lavender, known to many as the ‘Mayor of Woodlawn,’ dies at 80
Our Alderwoman Jeanette B. Taylor 20th ward to the Tribune on the passing of our co-founder, Wardell Lavender:
“I wouldn’t be in office if it wasn’t for Mr. Wardell,” Taylor said. “He really is the reason why I fell in love with Woodlawn and made it home for me.”
Wardell Lavender, 80, died on April 7 after a late-in-life career in political activism that spanned co-founding the organization Southside Together Organizing for Power, door-knocking for Ald. Jeanette Taylor’s 2019 campaign and getting kicked out of City Hall multiple times during demonstrations...
04/13/2021
Push To Open Chicago Mental Health Clinics 9 Years After Emanuel Closed Them
Check out this great coverage of yesterday's action.
And tune in tonight at 7pm CDT to Chicago Tonight, where they will interview us about the fight to re-open the City mental health clinics.
“Stop Chicago” community activists are asking Mayor Lori Lightfoot to invest in city-run mental health clinics across the city as the nation’s mental health crisis is compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
04/13/2021
Letters: It’s time to support rent control
We couldn't agree more with Deborah Harrington, long-time STOP ally and #Woodlawn native.
"I place my vote on the legislation to repeal Illinois’ #RentControl ban. This path forward is a sensible solution that other states use."
In response to the April 6 Tribune editorial, “Yes, gentrification is a problem. But rent control isn’t the remedy.,” I can agree only with the first statement.
04/12/2021
Thanks to the ~100 people, 2 aldermen, Collaborative for Community Wellness orgs, and 9+ years of activists who joined us this afternoon -- the 9th anniversary of Mayor Emanuel's closing half of the City's #MentalHealth clinics.
Together we can push Mayor Lori Lightfoot to use federal stimulus funds for #TreatmentNotTrauma!
04/12/2021
Reopen the Clinics!!! Pass Treatment Not Trauma!!
We are live on 9yr anniversary of clinic closings
04/12/2021
"$25 Million and More" Petition
Asked if she'd reopen public #MentalHealth clinics, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said yes. Asked if she'd spend $25M dollars on that, she declared, "Yes and more." Here's the video: youtu.be/4X7Ura_tpho
Call on the mayor to do this with stimulus funds: bit.ly/reopenclinics #TreatmentNotTrauma
When Candidate Lightfoot was asked if she would commit to reopen closed public mental health clinics, she said yes. When asked if she would commit to spend $25 million dollars on rebuilding the public mental health infrastructure in the city she said, emphatically, "Yes and more." (https://fb.watch/...
04/08/2021
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share that Wardell Lavender, a co-founder of STOP, recently passed away. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Wardell was a guiding light, a source of joy and comfort, a real leader, a master base-builder, and a dear friend to so many.
His face was known and loved by everyone in the community.
Wardell was the stuff of legend. He traveled the world and the country. He shared tables with Mayor Washington, businessmen, and the homeless. Always dapper in his Cadillac, he was known across the city from smoke filled pool rooms to picket lines; banned from casinos because he was too lucky, and kicked out of City Hall because his voice would not be silenced. Wardell once owned a Harold’s Chicken Shack where he got the nickname ‘the Chicken Man’. He was also known in the community as ‘baby chick’ and ‘Rodriguez’ (which none of us ever understood). But the nickname he most earned was ‘the Mayor of Woodlawn’.
Wardell fought to save affordable housing, save City mental health clinics, and bring a trauma center to the University of Chicago. He fought for labor rights and immigrants rights, he fought with and for the poor and working people of Woodlawn, for their right to live with dignity and respect. He always brought youthful energy and joy to the movement; he loved to say ‘viva the struggle’ or ‘long live the struggle’.
Wardell built and activated a base of literally hundreds of people in causes for racial and economic justice and progressive political leadership. He knocked on thousands of doors putting canvassers 50 years his junior to shame. He made thousands of phone calls, flyered, marched, offered rides, and participated in countless meetings. But what will perhaps most be missed is his kindness and compassion. He lent a hand to so many in the community without judgment and treated everyone with dignity. He did all this with a beautiful smile that will be sorely missed.
To the Mayor of Woodlawn: you will forever remain in the hearts of the STOP family and movements across Chicago, we are grateful to have struggled and laughed and danced with you, ‘viva the struggle’!
Rest in Power
03/10/2021
Closing The Gap: A Closer Look At The 2012 Mental Health Clinic Closures
Advocates say the cuts hurt hundreds of at-risk residents and led to more homelessness — and more people in the criminal justice system.
02/18/2021
Join our reunion and fundraiser for the next half hour!
STOPchicago.org/news/studentsalumni
Join our reunion and fundraiser for the next half hour!
STOPchicago.org/news/studentsalumni
02/16/2021
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
A Message from The Alliance for Community Services:
Hi everybody!
Get excited for the show tonight! The link to the Zoom meeting should be in the email with your ticket confirmation, but just in case that's hard to reach, here it is again!
ZOOM LINK:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821375282
Meeting ID: 878 2137 5282
If you've got some friends or family who would like to attend with you, but cannot afford to buy a ticket, feel free to share the link with them :)
We've got an awesome show for you tonight - see you at 7!
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...
02/12/2021
The Alliance's Digital Showcase
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-alliances-digital-showcase-tickets-136910028581
An online fundraiser featuring performances from members of our community to benefit The Alliance for Community Services
02/10/2021
Students and Residents Allying for Woodlawn: panel, fundraiser, reunion 17 years on (Feb. 17) — Southside Together Organizing for Power
Did you know we began as the "Student Tenant Organizing Project"?
Join (and share) our 2/17 reunion and panel of students and alumni. And meet leaders from trauma-center and before to CBA and beyond!
REGISTER BELOW for Wed., Feb. 17 at 7-8:30pm CT by video/call. From Duff Morton, Natalie Naculich, Adam Light, William Thomas, and Dominic Surya… To fellow students: Can you come to this panel? To fellow alumni: Can you join this reunion and fundraiser? To all: Can you invite students and
02/09/2021
Treatment Not Trauma Phonebank
Treatment Not Trauma Phonebank
Join STOP as we call residents to build support for Treatment Not Trauma--a council order that would dispatch mental health professionals and an EMT when someone is having a non-violent mental health or other crisis, instead of armed police officers.
02/08/2021
Electeds and Community Leaders to Hold Solidarity Fasting and Urge Lightfoot Admin to Deny Permit for Massive Metal Shredder Despite Pandemic, New Hunger Striker Joins Ranks while Activists, Electeds, and NGOs Hold Solidarity Fasts to Stop General I
Electeds and Community Leaders to Hold Solidarity Fasting and Urge Lightfoot Admin to Deny Permit for Massive Metal Shredder Despite Pandemic, New Hunger Striker Joins Ranks while Activists, Electeds, and NGOs Hold Solidarity Fasts to Stop General I
02/06/2021
Working Shift: What’s It Like to Be a Cab Driver?
Want to get to know our public-health organizer, Cheryl Miller?
Check out this charismatic interview of her on 15+ yrs driving taxis! Where she helped unionize!
In the latest installment of our series the Working Shift, we talk to Chicago cabbie Cheryl Miller about what it’s like to drive a taxi.
02/05/2021
Welcome our new public-health organizer, Cheryl Miller! — Southside Together Organizing for Power
Let's welcome our newest #organizer for re-opening #mentalhealth clinics!
Cheryl has lived on the South Side most of her life, and been active in causes ranging from war to AIDS.
She believes that people sharing their experiences can change society.
She has been active in social justice causes ranging from anti-war and peace movements, anti-domestic violence, and AIDS activism. Most recently, Cheryl helped to lead the fight to organize a union for cab drivers.
02/04/2021
We’re hiring a housing organizer. Apply or share! — Southside Together Organizing for Power
Spread the news: We are #hiring a #TenantOrganizer!
Help us take our @ObamaCBA work to the next level, and build the power of low-income and working-class Black renters in Woodlawn and surrounding neighborhoods.
Help STOP take our CBA work to the next level and continue to build the power of low income and working class Black tenants in Woodlawn and surrounding neighborhoods.
01/30/2021
Happening tomorrow in Hyde Park/Kenwood/Woodlawn!
12/30/2020
STOP’s treasurer: Will we sustain 2020’s outpouring of anger and support? — Southside Together Organizing for Power
As we close 2020, thank you for your commitment. Together, we can make 2021 transformative. stopchicago.org/donate
If you can, give today so that throughout 2021, we can turn 2020’s break-throughs into a new, better normal. stopchicago.org/donate
12/22/2020
Donate — Southside Together Organizing for Power
Appeal from our treasurer, Mike:
"Many of our victories this year, from the eviction ban to de-fund endorsements, were hard to imagine before 2020’s uprisings. But of course, they weren’t miracles; they’re what happens when more of us organize and invest -- thank you!"
stopchicago.org/news/appeal20
Donate And join us as a member!Affirm our mission and values, anddonate $60 per year or $5 per month.Members get a free STOP t-shirt and a discount to STOP event.Note: This membership is distinct from membership that elects our board. Our board is elected by members of our member groups: the Chicago...
12/19/2020
TLDR: If you can, give today so that throughout 2021, we can turn 2020’s break-throughs into a new, better normal. stopchicago.org/donate
Members and friends,
I’m Mike Scott, STOP member and board treasurer. Around the world, “2020” has meant loss and anger -- from the pandemic and policing and more. Yet last month, I hosted “Thankful for the Struggle,” and we as a STOP family came together with victories and hope: fall CBA ordinance passage, summer school-police de-funding, spring mutual aid, and every month new virtual town halls.
Many of these victories, from the eviction ban to de-fund endorsements, were hard to imagine before 2020’s uprisings. But of course, they weren’t miracles; they’re what happens when more of us organize and invest -- thank you!
2021 promises a vaccine and a “return to normal.” But of course, injustices like displacement and criminalization here are normalized, and there’s no miracle cure for that. As I consider budgets, I ask: Will 2021 leave our community behind once again, or will we sustain 2020’s outpouring of anger and support?
If you can, contribute today so that throughout 2021, we can turn 2020’s break-throughs into a new, better normal:
- Give $100 A MONTH or $1000 now so that for a month, we can support a young AmeriCorps worker becoming a STOP tenant organizer, for SENIORS FIGHTING COVID AND GENTRIFICATION
- Give $25 A MONTH or $300* now so we can organize a virtual town-hall, for instance, on POLICE-FREE MENTAL-HEALTH FIRST RESPONSE with our new public-health organizer, Cheryl Miller
- BECOME A DUES-PAYING MEMBER FOR JUST $5 A MONTH!
- Or any amount -- no contribution is too small (or large : )
- *You can deduct from your 2020 taxable income $300 in donations to tax-exempt exempt orgs like us, even if you don’t “itemize”! This per the CARES (coronavirus) act.
Give at stopchicago.org/donate or make a check to “Southside Together Organizing for Power” at 602 E 61st St, Chicago, IL 60637.**
As we close 2020, thank you for your commitment. Together, we can make 2021 transformative.
Mike Scott
STOP member and treasurer
**PS If you are 70.5 or older and have an IRA, consider making a contribution to us from your it -- it’s especially advantaged under tax law passed in 2017.
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Videos
Ahead of Hearing on Violence we Demand Mental Health NOT Police
Forum on the Vaccine
2020 struggle and victories - how we got here!
#TreatmentNotTrauma: The Debrief
Lessons from fair-tax loss, for city/state budgeting: STOP town hall
what he said #CopsOutCPS
CPS students are taking over the street outside of BOE headquarters RIGHT NOW demanding that they vote #copsoutcps on Wednesday
STOP CBA Town Hall: What was won, what comes next?
In case you missed it, check out some highlights from last month's virtual town hall celebrating the CBA win! Hear details on the exact terms of the proposal, as well as community feedback on what comes next.
Today we celebrate a major victory. We have won an agreement on the CBA Housing Ordinance to stop displacement around the Obama Center. Read the CBA Coalition’s full statement below: After 5 years of hard fought struggle, the Obama CBA Coalition and allies have won an agreement on the CBA Housing Ordinance. This is one of the most significant and aggressive affordable housing policies won in Chicago’s recent memory. As it stands, this ordinance has the potential to stop the displacement of thousands of low income and working class Black residents who live near the future Obama Presidential Center. This comes at a time when we find ourselves facing crises on multiple fronts: the health and economic crisis of COVID-19 and the crisis of systemic racism. Systemic racism put nearly 10,000 black people at risk of being pushed out of Woodlawn, the neighborhood home to the imminent Obama Presidential Center. The same people who are essential to our city in the fight to survive COVID-19 are also many of the folks who make less than $50,000 a year. They are restaurant workers, homecare workers, grocery clerks and delivery drivers. As Woodlawn residents continue to fight for their lives in this pandemic, this ordinance comes as a welcome reprieve in the fight to keep a roof over their heads. The CBA Housing Ordinance will set aside 52 vacant lots for real affordable housing, it will create a rehab program to preserve real affordable housing, it will give tenants the first right to purchase their homes if the owner decides to sell, it will provide grant money to help working class homeowners make repairs, and provide grant money for working class people to access homeownership. Make no mistake, this ordinance is not perfect; it does not answer all of our demands. The city is aware that there are still amendments that we will continue to push such as a right to return. This amendment will allow recently displaced Woodlawn residents to be given preference for newly built
We don't want them get #CPDoutofCPS #PoliceFreeSchools #DefundthePolice
Graduation March to Defund Police
Live on WGN Chanel 9 right now!
Ayodelle blessing #LightfootsTentCity with healing music...
Haroon Garel on STOP partnering with Humanity First for mutual aid
Especially now that so many stores are closed, we're grateful that we can bring our community and members food and supplies. Thanks for leadership by our member Haroon, and his org Humanity First USA! If you can fund this, now's of course a key time. If you need help, call us.
Mental-health pandemic town hall
Join our town hall on mental health in our lives, organizing, and pandemic!
Can they hear us now? #RighttoRecovery
Town hall
Given the pandemic, hear about organizing, especially from organizer Lisa Owens of Boston's City Life/Vida Urbana.
#CBAnow
Sit-In in front of the Mayors Office fighting to stay in our neighborhoods & communities. No more displacement! #CBANOW
Woodlawn’s Not For Sale! We are at the Leon Finney land auction now, where developers are grabbing the land and plan to make luxury housing. This is why we need a CBA Housing Ordinance! 30% of this land would go to affordable housing if we had a CBA Ordinance. This is the first taste of the land grab that is coming. #CBAnow #IfweDoneGetItShutItDown
We were fighting for public mental health in 2011, we’re still fighting now! We don’t quit & we know when we fight we win! Our own Amika Tree Tendaji demanding Lightfoot keeps her promises especially the 25$ million for public mental health #BudgetfortheMany #ReimagineChicago Video Credit CTU
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Comments
STOP's Public Health Organizer, Cheryl Miller, is part of this forum of experts discussing the (in)justice surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in our city, particularly the Southside. I hope you all can join us, and don't forget to submit any questions you might have here: https://tinyurl.com/vaccinejustice
Happening tomorrow in Hyde Park/Kenwood/Woodlawn!
Mayor Lightfoot is talking about bringing Black people back to Chicago when the conditions they left under have worsened. That's why we have to be at the table during these conversations.
Can I get y'all to sign and share this petition for an independent equity commission for Black communities?
HEALTHY FOOD HUB TIS' THE SEASON FOR
PRE-ORDER & DELIVERY!
NEXT STOP!
This Week's Mobile Market
Pick-Up Schedule:
Tuesday
Englewood - 6821 S. Halsted
Chicago, IL 60621 - (Beloved)
12pm-2pm
Wednesday
Chatham - 7801 S. State
Chicago, IL 60619 - (Providence Bank)
12pm-2pm
Thursday
Harvey - 31 W. 154th St.
Harvey, IL 60426 - (FCHC)
12pm-2pm
- Delivery Schedule -
Tuesday & Wednesday Delivery Route -
South Side of Chicago: 5 square mile radius from 60619
60617, 60619, 60620, 60621, 60628, 60636, 60637, 60643, 60649 (Chatham, Woodlawn, Englewood, Auburn-Gresham, Hyde Park, South Shore, South Chicago, Deering, Riverdale, Roseland, Morgan Park, Beverly)
Thursday Delivery Route -
South Suburbs: 7.5 square mile radius from 60437
60409, 60411, 60417, 60419, 60422, 60425, 60426, 60429, 60430, 60437, 60438, 60461, 60466, 60469, 60473, 60475, 60476, 60478, 60827 (Harvey, Markham, Dolton, Calumet City, Chicago Heights, Park Forest, Olympia Fields, Matteson, Homewood, South Holland, Lansing, Lynwood, Glenwood, Sauk Village, Crete, Pembroke)
Pls sign to #EndMoneyBail, thx!👇🏾
https://www.facebook.com/321275377976909/posts/3173651292739289/
I really wanted to invite folks who live in Bronzeville or Kenwood to get involved with Bronzeville Kenwood Mutual Aid. We are neighbors helping neighbors! The goal of mutual aid is to share and exchange resources. We believe we are what we need and we can take responsibility for caring for each other in changing times.
To Join Us and Volunteer
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfcnCkF5p0xcdL0cicKpKn3g1KNw-Zsmh0vzLSIqf9kxSY4Gw/viewform
If you are in need of support please hit us up!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9-Nr2zB7EQoQf76wvvz_0zntG_tX4PvvdEGX-KJGaTgm7NA/viewform
Good evening!
I'm looking for parents and community members willing to participate in a feedback session around unequal/inequitable resource distribution in Chicago Public Schools. If interested, please inbox me.
Thanks!