As the year comes to a close, we’re celebrating some of our favorite #POW moments of 2013: impressive victories, inspiring actions and smart organizing by Crossroads Fund grantees and their allies. If you’re inspired by these moments too, make a donation to Crossroads Fund and plant the seeds for more #POW moments in 2014!1. A Level 1 Trauma Center treats adults with traumatic injuries. There are no Level 1 Trauma Centers on the South Side of Chicago. Victims of trauma from gunshot wounds to car accidents, must be transported to the North Side of Chicago or the suburbs to hospitals that will treat them. In the process they lose critical treatment time, and sometimes their lives. Crossroads Fund grantee Fearless Leading by the Youth has been organizing to address the South Side “trauma desert” since 2010, when one of their organizers was shot and killed just blocks from the University of Chicago Hospital. This year they made great progress in their campaign, winning public hearings with University of Chicago Hospital officials and State Senators. 2. Kimberly Wasserman Nieto, founder of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. The Goldman Prize is largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. It is awarded each year to six environmental activists from across the globe. Each winner receives an award of $150,000.Kim was honored for her tireless dedication to environmental justice, and LVEJO’s successful campaign to close Chicago’s two coal burning power plants. LVEJO has been a Crossroads Fund grantee since their founding in 1998, and they were one of five current or former Crossroads Fund grantees who worked with the successful Chicago Clean Power Coalition.3. On January 4th the doors to the Tamms “Supermax” prison in downstate Illinois closed for the last time. No longer will inmates there be kept isolated from all human contact, locked in their cells 23 hours a day, in conditions that many argue clearly meet the definition of torture.The closure of Tamms came about through the actions of Governor Quinn, who vetoed all funding to keep the prison open, but it would not have been possible without the years of grassroots organizing and advocacy by community groups and the families of prisoners held there, including Crossroads Fund grantees. Groups like Tamms Year Ten utilized art, poetry, direct action, public education and political advocacy to build awareness of the inhumane conditions at Tamms. Their work was instrumental to building the political will to close the prison.4. The Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign was the subject of a front page profile in the New York Times Magazine documenting their work against foreclosure and for housing justice in Chicago. Shadowing housing rights activist J.R. Fleming, the article painted a haunting picture of the neighborhoods that have been devastated by foreclosure, divestment, unemployment, the demolition of public housing, violence and now the impact of mass school closings.Crossroads Fund was the first foundation funder of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, a role we have played with many emerging activist organizations in our 30+ year history. Crossroads Fund was willing to take the chance to fund a new group of South Side activists using direct action tactics to prevent evictions and foreclosures, rehabbing vacant homes them to provide free housing to formerly homeless families.5. The day after Thanksgiving this year was a day of unprecedented labor activism in Chicago and across the country! A record number of Walmart workers and their allies picketed outside of “Black Friday” sales and participated in acts of civil disobedience.Crossroads Fund grantee Warehouse Workers for Justice supports warehouse workers, many of whom work for Walmart suppliers, organizing for basic rights like fair pay and safety and respect on the job. They’ve made great strides over the years, most recently winning a substantial settlement for warehouse employees fired from a Walmart supplier for organizing activities. They took to the streets on Black Friday in solidarity with other Walmart employees in Chicago and beyond.6. Although gay marriage was signed into law in 2013, this historic moment was the result of years of grassroots work by thousands of individuals and organizations. Affinity Community Services is just one of many grassroots LGBTQ organizations whose work over many years, organizing, marching and educating their communities laid the groundwork for this victory.7. Crossroads Fund grantees worked with the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center to adopt a new, comprehensive policy protecting the rights of LGBTQI youth in the center. The policy lays out basic LGBTQI terms for staff, mandates equal treatment for queer youth, forbids staff from searching youth for the purpose of determining their gender, prevents staff from disclosing a youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity to peers and requires JTDC to inform detainees about the policy upon entry. Further, it creates an LGBTQI Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) that must make recommendations on placements, ropa, names and pronouns, and services for each young person who identifies as LGBTQI.8. A coalition of worker rights groups helped pass one of the strictest laws in the nation to prevent wage theft in Chicago. The law was passed with the support of current and former Crossroads Fund grantees, including ARISE Chicago Worker Center, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos/Immigrant Workers’ Project, Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, Latino Union, and Restaurant Opportunities Center. According to a study by the UIC Center for Urban Economic Development, an estimated $7.3 million is stolen in workers’ wages in a single week in Cook County.9. Protecting Public Benefits: Members of Jane Addams Senior Caucus rallied to protect Social Security and Medicaid from Federal budget cuts. As budget cuts and a growing Federal debt have led to attacks on social security benefits, members of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus have taken to the streets and the halls of congress to voice their support for public benefit programs. Their advocacy has included calls to keep the retirement age at 67, and support social security by lifting the cap on taxable income.10. The Launch of Bending the Arc: The Robert Howard Annual Symposium: Robert Howard (1942-2013) was an attorney on the front lines of civil rights and political reform battles in Chicago over the last 45 años. In honor of Bob’s work and legacy for social justice, Crossroads Fund is excited to be a partner in the presentation of Bending the Arc: The Robert Howard Annual Symposium, a yearly public program celebrating movements for racial, social and economic justice across generations. On September 7, 2013 Youth Fund for Social Change activists from across the city met with Dr. Angela Davis to discuss the impact of violence on their lives and communities. This day-long convening was followed by a talk featuring Dr. Davis, who was joined by a panel of local activists and organizers discussing gun violence, social justice activism and the work we must do to build a path forward.11. Working for Education Justice: Students, parents, teachers and their allies took to the streets across Chicago to demand quality public education for all students. Crossroads Fund grantees both new and old, including Blocks Together, Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce, Fearless Leading by the Youth, Raise Your Hand and more organized against school closings, high stakes testing, charter expansions and the school to prison pipeline.12. The Creation of the Solidarity Fund: A coalition of foundations and individuals came together to provide support to local groups whose work is grounded in advancing social justice, racial equity and immigrant rights, and who recently lost funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). CCHD based its decision to defund these groups on their membership in a immigration rights coalition, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), which in May 2013 expressed support for marriage equality in Illinois. Crossroads Fund has already begun giving out grants to the defunded organizations, and we will continue to fundraise towards replacing the full $300,000 withdrawn by the CCHD.13. Seeding Change, Building Movements and Growing Leaders! In addition to the 12 previous #POW moments from 2013, there were countless moments, small and large, that furthered racial, social and economic justice in the Chicago area this year. En 2013 Crossroads Fund gave out $326,929 in direct grants, training, consultation and public programs, supporting more than 76 groups working on a broad variety of issues across the region. We can’t wait to see the victories and accomplishments of each of these inspiring groups in 2014 and beyond!If you’re inspired by these moments too, make a donation to Crossroads Fund and plant the seeds for more #POW moments in 2014!
