Mutual Aid in Chicago
Last updated 11/23/2019, 8:59pm CST
Image description: A screenshot from Dean Spade’s mutual aid video with 13 bubbles saying: mutual aid projects, block deportation buses, create land trusts, block the pipleline, breaking people out of prison, prison industry divestment companies, debt strikes, boycott and divest from Israel, pirate radio, self-defense classes, sabotage a jail-building project, blocking coal trains, making videos.
Image credit: Ciro Carrillo, youtu.be/PopmGAvsggg
Dean Spade released a video about mutual aid that really got my wheels turning. I’m constantly trying to figure out the best, most productive way to use the skills I have to dismantle as many pieces of the oppressive systems that I can. #Capricorn
I don’t have many answers on how to choose where any person fits best (I can’t even do this for myself and I’m constantly asking for feedback - hint, hint), but I do know that we need all of these things; they’re all interwoven.
Should we choose what we’re good at over what fulfills us out of obligation to community? What if I just get a job that pays really well and give a lot of money to these community projects? Y’all… I don’t know. I’m so grateful for my therapist, though. And for the countless community organizers and folks who are both on the front lines and behind the scenes.
Okay, enough of my rambling, let’s get to the point: mutual aid. Did you watch Dean Spade’s video yet? It’s called Shit's Totally FUCKED! What Can We Do?: A Mutual Aid Explainer and its 7 minutes and 54 seconds.
BigDoorBrigade.com explains that mutual aid is a term to describe people giving each other needed material support, trying to resist the control dynamics, hierarchies and system-affirming, oppressive arrangements of charity and social services. Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government, but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.
BDB lists critical concepts, additional readings and several videos on mutual aid here.
BigDoorBrigade also has lists of national resources for many types of mutual aid: Bail Funds, Bystander Intervention, Childcare, Cop Watches, Disability Justice, Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief, Food Distribution, Forming Groups/Projects, Health, Housing, Immigration, Legal Support, Parole, Prison Support, Self-Defense
I’ve pulled out the Chicago and Illinois resources from BDB’s links and organized them alphabetically below with other organizations, projects and resources that I know of. Please contact me if 1) you have something for me to add 2) you want to alert me to something about an organization that I’ve shared and/or 3) you’re not sure where to start but have an idea of what you’re interested in working towards.
If you’re not able to show up and/or join any of these groups, please consider donating resources/money/supplies to any of these groups.
If you have some interests in mind, try CTRL+F (or the Mac equivalent) to search for a keyword.
Chicagoland Mutual Aid Connections
Alternatives to Calling the Police During Mental Health Crises (ACP) is a grass root movement to facilitate community dialogues about state violence on mad, psychiatrically disabled, and neurodivergent community members, envision alternative collective to support community members experiencing mental health crises, and further, empower community resilience.
A Just Harvest fights poverty and hunger in the Rogers Park and greater Chicago community by providing nutritious meals daily while cultivating community and economic development and organizing across racial, cultural and socioeconomic lines in order to create a more just society.
Albany Park Defense Network (APDN) seeks to ensure that all immigrants and residents can feel safe, thrive and remain in the community they helped build. We are organizing a rapid response network to document and deter immigration enforcement activity in the neighborhood and support families under threat. The Albany Park Defense Network is a coalition of neighborhood organizations including Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), the Autonomous Tenants Union (ATU), 33rd Ward Working Families, Latino Union, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Albany Park Neighbors for Peace and Justice and Christ Lutheran Church.
Anakbayan is the comprehensive national democratic mass organization of Filipino youth and students. Anakbayan holds the belief that Philippine society today is not truly free nor democratic. It is under the control of U.S imperialism, along with local landlords, big capitalists, and corrupt gov’t officials. The National Democratic Struggle seeks to realize true national liberation for the country and the realization of the democratic rights of the people.
The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) strives to strengthen the Arab community in the Chicago area by building its capacity to be an active agent for positive social change. As a grassroots nonprofit, our strategies include community organizing, advocacy, education, providing social services, leadership development, cultural outreach and forging productive relationships with other communities. Our vision is for a strong Arab American community whose members have the power to make decisions about actions and policies that affect their lives and have access to a range of social, political, cultural and economic opportunities in a context of equity and social justice.
Assata’s Daughters (AD) is a Black woman-led, young person-directed organization rooted in the Black Radical Tradition. AD organizes young Black people in Chicago by providing them with political education, leadership development, mentorship, and revolutionary services. Through our programs we aim to Deepen, Escalate, and Sustain the Movement for Black Liberation.
Axis Lab is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary arts organization that aims to sustain and build upon the legacy of the Southeast Asian community in the Argyle Street Corridor through the intersection of food, design, and education.
Back On Their Feet is an informal, ad-hoc Facebook Group that helps connect Evanstonians in need to existing resources. Our goal is to raise awareness of homeless, transitional, and crisis resources in Evanston and to offer resources and support as available. Join the group here. No judgement: It’s not important how you got here, but how we can help each other.
Black Lives Matter Chicago is an intersectional vehicle that values Black people and our right to self-determination. We fight for justice with families most impacted, while working to create just and equitable systems. One of their mutual aid projects is the FoodBox. and they are in need of volunteers for this. Additionally, as of 2019, BLM has a non-black ally group. (I’m in it! Reach out to me if you’re interested in hearing more.)
Black and Pink's mission is to abolish the criminal punishment system and to liberate LGBTQIA2S+ people/people living with HIV who are affected by that system, through advocacy, support, and organizing. They have a letter writing program; for an incarcerated LGBTQIA2S+ person, corresponding with someone on a regular basis is itself a harm reduction strategy, giving that person a support network outside of prison.
Brave Space Alliance (BSA) is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, and designed to create and provide affirming and culturally competent services for the entire LGBTQ community of Chicago.
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) is a community-based, grassroots organization on Chicago's southwest side, a predominantly Latinx and immigrant community. We work to empower our community and build its capacity by providing school and community-based services and programs. BPNC also engages leaders in social justice organizing campaigns. We work to win change at the local, state, and federal levels. BPNC believes in addressing the holistic needs of the community and the root causes of poverty and inequity through a racial justice lens.
The BTGNC Collective is a network of Black, trans and gender-nonconforming people organizing for our liberation in the Chicago area. We are membership-based, and our mission and values shift as we continue to grow. Through direct action, community education, and creating spaces for healing, we seek to strengthen the bonds within Black tgnc communities, and fight back against the systems that harm us. We collaborate with other organizations, and see ourselves as one group in a larger web of resistance, dedicated to the liberation of all oppressed people.
Chiara Acu offers the most affordable acupuncture in Chicago, with a sliding scale that goes to $15 for community acu treatments and to $35 for private acupuncture. They also take barter, and no one is turned away for inability to pay. In addition, they offer free/at cost acupuncture for social justice organizations. Their spaces are in Humboldt Park and at Haji, a black centered healing space in Chatham. Their focus is on TGNC + queer health and CPTSD/mental health, including trans fertility, pcos, pmdd, transition support and pre/post surgery recovery. Chiara works from a trauma-informed lens, having done crisis line counseling and on-scene advocacy for DV and sexual assault at the ER.
Chicago Action Medical provides health support for justice movements. “We are here to help liberation movements sustain themselves by providing them with emotional & physical first aid & aftercare— emphasizing self-care, sharing of knowledge, and mutual aid.” - Rosehip Medic Collective
In addition to providing medical care at actions, we work to build movements by providing a model of horizontally organized healthcare and create spaces for progressive medical professionals to work together.
The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) was born from the movement to free Angela Davis and all political prisoners, and has continuously defended the rights of oppressed people in Illinois and around the world. We defend the civil liberties of workers, activists, and prisoners. We struggle against white supremacy, the prison-industrial complex, and state violence. We demand community control of the police and full representation for Black people and other poor and oppressed people at all levels of government. They are currently leading the campaign for CPAC.
On November 22-24, we will gather in Chicago to refound the National Alliance and bring the fight for #CommunityControlNow to cities across the country.
Chicago Boricua Resistance is a coalition made of individual Boricuas, organizations, and people in solidarity with Puerto Rico who are enraged about the current economic/humanitarian crisis caused by almost a 120 years of US colonialism. We have come together to develop strategies for resistance from the diaspora, specifically in the city of Chicago.
Our most immediate goal is to fight against PROMESA and the Fiscal Control Oversight Board the US has undemocratically imposed on our people. We aim to provide information, materials, incite protest and a great deal of opportunities to plug into the fight and resist this criminal attack of colonialism in Puerto Rico and internationally.
Chicago Books to Women in Prison is an all-volunteer group that distributes paperback books free of charge to incarcerated people nationwide, focusing on all women and trans/non-binary people. We are dedicated to offering the opportunity for self-empowerment, education and entertainment that reading provides.
The Chicago Childcare Collective (ChiChiCo) is a group of volunteers who support the participation of parents, especially mothers, in racial and economic justice work. The collective matches volunteers with community organizations across the city to have fun with kids while their parents participate in and lead organizing efforts to defend their rights and build a better Chicago.
The Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) pays bond for people charged with crimes in Cook County, Illinois. Through a revolving fund, CCBF supports individuals whose communities cannot afford to pay the bonds themselves and who have been impacted by structural violence. Inability to pay bond results in higher rates of conviction, longer sentences, loss of housing and jobs, separation of families, and lost custody of children. By paying bond, CCBF restores the presumption of innocence before trial and enables recipients to remain free while fighting their cases. CCBF also engages in public education about the role of bond in the criminal legal system and advocates for the abolition of money bond. CCBF is committed to long-term relationship building and organizing with people most directly impacted by criminalization and policing.
Chicago Desi Youth Rising (CDYR) seeks to empower Chicago youth to combat racial, economic, and social inequity. CDYR is a weekend summer leadership retreat for youth ages 15 – 21 who trace their heritage to South Asia and the diaspora, and who want to grow as changemakers. Participants draw upon their diverse experiences and intersectional identities while they examine and challenge the underlying causes of their communities’ problems and conditions to become agents for social change.
Chicago Dyke March is an anti-racist, anti-violent, volunteer-led, grassroots mobilization and celebration of dyke, queer, bisexual, and transgender resilience.
Chicago Freedom School (CFS) was founded in 2007 and creates new generations of critical thinkers who use their unique experiences and power to create a just world. Inspired by the Mississippi Freedom Schools of the Civil Rights Era, CFS takes an innovative approach to youth activism, leadership development, and movement building. Through youth programs and trainings, we equip young people and adult allies with the tools develop actionable strategies for social change.
The Chicago Recovery Alliance (CRA) is a racially and ethnically diverse group composed of people living with HIV and drug use, working in addiction treatment, healthcare, education, law and other assorted areas. CRA is unique as an organization in that our work entails building one-on-one relationships with individuals affected by HIV and drug use and provide them with a wide array of options for achieving any positive change as they define it for themselves. CRA is an organization for those interested in directly serving, supporting, educating and advocating with others for reducing drug related harm.
Food Not Bombs has groups all over Illinois (including Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Rogers Park and Uptown) and lots of Facebook groups based on location. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty. Food Not Bombs is not a charity. This energetic all volunteer grassroots movement is active throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. For over 30 years the movement has worked to end hunger and has supported actions to stop the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people, end exploitation and the destruction of the earth and its beings.
For the People Artists Collective (FTP) is a radical squad of Black artists and artists of color in Chicago. As artists who organize, it is our duty to create work that uplifts and projects struggle, resistance, liberation and survival within and for our marginalized communities and movements in our city and our world. As artists, cultural workers, abolitionists & organizers that are actively envisioning a world without prisons or police. Where a multitude of gender and expressions are valid and seen. Where all bodies are valued and celebrated as they are and as they change, regardless of color, size, age, and ability. Where justice is transformative and not punitive. Where space to grow and heal is accessible and abundant. A world where people can move freely or stay, where all forms of self conception and self determination are valued and supported.
#GoodKidsMadCity is a group of Black and Brown young people united in fighting to end violence in our cities. We call for more resources to underserved communities. They were at the forefront of #NoCopAcademy. (Full list of NCA endorsers)
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH) organizes and trains young people to advocate for issues that directly affect their lives and communities. ICAH has conducted statewide research, developed resources, changed public policy, and hosted frequent events and training sessions for youth and service providers, always with an emphasis on building youth leadership skills and serving marginalized populations, including low-income, immigrant, homeless, LGBTQ, and pregnant and parenting adolescents. ICAH works in partnership with youth, advocating policies and practices that promote a positive approach to adolescent sexual health and parenting.
Invisible to Invincible (i2i) is a community-based organization that celebrates and affirms Asian/Pacific Islanders who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning or Queer in the Chicago area.
Kuumba Lynx (KL) provides performances & productions, film screenings, art making workshops & residencies, youth artist apprenticeships, community cultural events (battles, exhibitions, festivals & poetry slams), and praxi sharing, all rooted in an indigenous culture of urban artistry and activism. KL seeks to energize courageous spaces that challenge youth and their communities to deeply engage & listen, critically observe and react, and creatively speak with one another. KL has honed an arts making practice that presents, preserves and promotes Hip Hop as a tool to resist systemic violence where black and brown youth can reimagine and demonstrate a more just world. KL’s Program Facilitators are a collective of artists, activists, educators, and healers.
The #LetUsBreathe Collective is an alliance of artists and activists organizing through a creative lens to imagine a world without prisons and police. The Collective operates the Breathing Room space, a Black-led liberation headquarters for arts, organizing, and healing on Chicago's South Side.
Liberation Library provides books to youth in prison to encourage imagination, self-determination and connection to outside worlds of their choosing. We believe access to books is a right, not a privilege. We believe books and relationships empower young people to change the criminal justice system. Liberation Library, founded in February 2015 by Project NIA, is a volunteer-based group in Chicago that provides books to young people in Illinois prisons and juvenile detention centers.
Love + Project (L&P) supports women and gender non-conforming persons of color who are criminalized or harmed by state and interpersonal violence. Through love, we work towards healing and transformation with these individuals and their families. Through resistance, we seek to protect their right to defend themselves. Through love, through resistance, we protect!
Masjid al-Rabia is a Muslim community center in Chicago where everyone is welcome. Through Education, Advocacy and Outreach we empower leadership from within our communities and strive to foster in an Islam that truly leaves no one behind.
The Midwest Access Coalition (MAC) envisions a world in which all people have access to safe, free, legal abortions wherever they live. As a practical abortion fund, MAC helps people traveling to, from, and within the Midwest access a safe, legal abortion with support in the following areas: travel coordination and costs, lodging, food, medicine, and emotional support.
Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration (MUAVI) organizes mutual support and participatory defense in solidarity with mothers who've suffered criminalization and separation from their kids. MOMS UNITED! is an intergenerational membership based organization that builds the collective strength and power of mothers directly impacted by racial, and economic injustice in Chicago.
Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) is an undocumented-led group that organizes against deportations, detention, criminalization, and incarceration, of Black, brown, and immigrant communities in Chicago and surrounding areas. Through grassroots organizing, legal and policy work, direct action and civil disobedience, and cross-movement building, we aim to defend our communities, challenge the institutions that target and dehumanize us, and build collective power. We fight alongside families and individuals challenging these systems to create an environment for our communities to thrive, work, and organize with happiness and without fear.
National Lawyers Guild Chicago (NLG Chicago chapter) is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. Our aim is to bring together all those who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends; who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who see the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression. NLG trains and supervises Legal Observers (LOs) also!; you don’t have to be a lawyer to do this.
[DEACTIVATED 2018] The People’s Response Team is a multi-racial, intergenerational group committed to supporting efforts to end police violence in Chicago. We seek to RESPOND as soon as possible to violence by law enforcement in Chicago, to DOCUMENT and counter mainstream media and law enforcement narratives, and to CONNECT families and loved ones of victims of law enforcement violence with resources and organizations that provide support during this traumatic time. We do not collaborate with or talk to law enforcement. PRT also developed a series of trainings and resources (still on website) to give people the tools they needed to do this work in their own communities. Please continue to use/adapt these trainings in your communities as needed, but note the last update to these resources occurred in late 2017/early 2018. Check out their Cop Watching Pro-Tips.
PO Box Collective is a social practice and creative engagement center in Rogers Park with a mission of radical art and community programming. Events include workshops, skill-shares, art shows, meetings for organizing, and more.
Point to Point is a harm reduction program in Kane County committed to providing people who use drugs the resources they need to make any positive change in their life. We believe in empowering drug users to care about their wellbeing by offering the tools they need to inject safer. We offer fentanyl test strips so they can know what their using and Narcan so they can prevent fatal overdose. Participants are met with compassion above all else, never looked at with judgement or stigma. We believe that all drug users deserve to be treated with dignity and hope they learn to love themselves a bit more because of our services.
Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project (PNAP) is a visual arts and humanities project that connects teaching artists and scholars to men at Stateville Maximum Security Prison through classes, workshops and guest lectures. Classes offered include subjects ranging from poetry, visual arts, and film study to political theory, social studies, and history.
Project Fierce Chicago (PFC) seeks to create affirming transitional housing for LGTBQIA+ youth in Chicago that is responsive to the needs of young people. By mobilizing our communities, we provide pathways to independence. We envision a future where all youth have access to safe and affirming housing and the support and opportunities to achieve their goals. We believe in the power of collective action and community accountability. When youth thrive, communities thrive.
Protect RP is Rogers Park neighbors coming together to protect our community, especially those among us who are being targeted because of national origin, legal status, faith, gender expression, or race. As a community that prides itself on our diversity, we are moving to put our values into action. This is neighbor-to-neighbor work! We are developing a rapid response network here in Rogers Park and joining with other groups across the city to keep our communities strong.
Rogers Park Solidarity Network (RPSN) is a Rogers Park residents coming together to provide mutual aid to our community and build resistance to all forms of oppression. Solidarity Networks organize workers and tenants to fight back against corrupt landlords and bosses. RPSN also organizes locally against the Heartland Alliance child detention centers in Rogers Park. We believe in autonomous nonhierarchical organizing, direct action, and abolishing borders and all forms of detention.
SoapBox Productions and Organizing is a film and social activism 501(c)3 that specializes in multimedia curation of creative projects centered around education, entertainment, and structural social change. We coalesce cinematic excellence with grassroots organizing efforts by developing, documenting, and promoting racial, economic, and social justice initiatives with community collaborators. Through art and action, SoapBox utilizes media to power and sustain social movements for a more equitable and creative world.
Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) is a community organization that builds the power of residents on the Southside of Chicago to impact the forces and decisions that affect our lives. We fight for human rights to racial and economic justice through organizing, popular education, and leadership development amongst people most directly affected by issues like gentrification, displacement, incarceration and criminalization of youth of color and health cuts.
Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) believes that our faith calls us to the fight for justice for all, especially those who have historically been marginalized and oppressed. Our mission is to assist low-income people of color in the Chicago Southland to build power, then subsequently leverage that power to fight for their own interest and liberation. We achieve this mission by partnering with congregations, people of faith and local community groups, training them in disciplined organizing strategies, to build leadership, create public policy and foster legislation, engage in direction action, and hold their public officials accountable to the interest of their communities. We are dedicated to the belief that all people deserve decent and affordable housing, access to healthy, nutritious food in every neighborhood, and a sanitary environment where people will be able to breathe clean air and drink clean the water. And we are committed to ensuring that public funds are leveraged fairly, to invest resources in the communities that need them the most and not redistributed to keep local economies beholden to corporate greed.
Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) provide lifesaving care and far-reaching education to people affected by HIV that improves quality of life.
Transformative Justice Law Project (TJLP) is a group of radical activists, social workers, and organizers who provide support, advocacy, and free, holistic advocacy and criminal legal services to poor and street-based transgender people in Illinois. Their organization is composed of collective members, folks who receive services, attorneys, interns, volunteers, and advisers.
Ujimaa Medics aka UMedics is a group of Black community organizers, activists, pastors, healthcare professionals, parents, siblings, cousins, and friends of African Descent in Chicago. We could no longer stand being completely helpless, terrified and devastated as we attended funeral after funeral. We work hard with few resources and for little or no money to because we love our communities. We get up and active because we know we can’t depend on hospitals that refuse to open trauma centers, or medical centers with slow emergency response times. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we’re much more wise and powerful than we often think we are.
The Westside Justice Center is a community-centered organization that promotes a holistic approach to justice by: 1) Facilitating legal literacy to reduce recidivism; 2) Providing legal and quasi- legal assistance to individuals; and 3) Establishing and nurturing community trust through participatory deliberations and restorative justice practices, to collaboratively mitigate the consequences of incarceration on criminalized communities.
Youth Empowerment Performance Project (YEPP) creates a safe environment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer youth experiencing homelessness to explore their history, investigate new ways to address their struggles and to celebrate their strengths through the process of developing a theatrical performance piece.
These resources may be seen as mutual aid also. I wanted to make a separate section for folks specifically looking for help rather than how to get involved. TJLP (listed already above) has legal resources, too.
Chicagoland Legal Resources
Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) mitigates the criminal records barrier by employing an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together teams of lawyers and social workers to comprehensively support client goals. CGLA leverages strategic partnerships across other social service sectors including workforce development and housing organizations to maximize our collective capacity to serve our mutual clients. Through our policy and advocacy efforts, we work to remove the systemic barriers that perpetuate the cycle of poverty by way of coalition- building, legislative support, and leadership development.
The Chicago Torture Justice Center (CTJC) seeks to address the traumas of police violence and institutionalized racism through access to healing and wellness services, trauma-informed resources, and community connection. The Center is a part of and supports a movement to end all forms of police violence. CTJC is a community center for Chicago police torture survivors. CTJC was established as a result of a historic Reparations Ordinance passed by the Chicago City Council in May 2015. The Reparations Ordinance provides redress for racially-motivated police torture orchestrated by Chicago Police Department Commander, Jon Burge between 1972-1991. Over 120 predominantly African-American men were tortured into giving false confessions by Burge and officers under his command. These men spent decades wrongfully imprisoned and were denied their freedom; even after evidence proved that they were tortured.
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights are civil rights lawyers and advocates working to secure racial equity and economic opportunity for all. We provide legal representation through partnerships with the private bar, and we collaborate with grassroots organizations and other advocacy groups to implement community-based solutions that advance civil rights.
First Defense Legal Aid (FDLA) has been dedicated, for over 15 years, to issues of indigent defense, police accountability, and the protection of civil rights. FDLA's mission is two-pronged: to ensure equal justice to people in custody at Chicago Police stations and to educate the people of Chicago about the power of their Constitutional rights. FDLA provides a free, reliable, and experienced lawyer to individuals who are arrested in the city of Chicago. The FDLA attorney is available at the initial and most critical stage of the criminal justice process: from the time of arrest until the court system assigns a Public Defender. At the police station, the attorney helps the client understand and assert his rights, gathers information about arrest and detainment, documents evidence of police brutality, advocates for medical treatment, and informs the family and friends of the detainee throughout the process. FDLA also provides Know Your Rights trainings.
Legal Aid Chicago resolves critical legal problems that trap people in poverty. Legal Aid Chicago staff prevent unfair evictions from the only decent housing our clients can afford; protects survivors of sexual assault, human trafficking and domestic violence; secures or preserves desperately needed benefits such as veterans’ benefits, social security or health benefits; assists senior citizens who have been swindled by consumer scams or robbed of their livelihoods through fraudulent consumer scams; and helps children receive the education they need to succeed.
The Moran Center ensures justice and restores hope with a lifeline of innovative, holistic legal and social work programs because ALL kids deserve: JUSTICE in the courtroom, ACCESS to the classroom, and SUPPORT in the community. Our goal is to provide Evanston youth and their families with the support to successfully emerge from a challenging legal situation, tools to make positive life choices, and the ability to thrive in the Evanston community. To that end, our programmatic approach focuses on justice in the courtroom, access to the classroom, and support in the community.
People’s Law Office (PLO) has civil rights lawyers in Chicago that have been fighting for the victims of police brutality, wrongful convictions, false arrest and other government abuses for over 40 years. If your constitutional rights have been violated, they can help.
The Shiller Preyar Law Offices (SPLO) is a unique law firm specializing in civil rights, immigration, criminal, and civil law. Whether our clients are suffering at the hands of the police, working to secure their immigration status or battling DUIs, the attorneys at Shiller Preyar provide tireless and dedicated attention to those who need it most. Our attorneys are supported by a friendly and helpful staff. We work as a team to help you get what you deserve.
Uptown People's Law Center is dedicated to supporting the struggle of poor and working people. They are lawyers and community advocates who work on behalf of 1) Prisoners denied their basic human rights, 2) Tenants facing eviction & 3) Individuals seeking Social Security disability income. In addition to brief service and legal representation, our staff provides training to community members and organizations, and recruits and supervises pro bono attorneys to assist our clients. Please note that UPLC does not represent individuals in criminal cases.
See also Resources for TGNC Chicagoland which includes housing discrimination resources for all people.
Related content: Self-Reflection Questions for Community Organizers by Kelly Hayes of Lifted Voices
