American Friends Service Committee – Chicago Peacebuilding: Chicago Peacebuilding works to dismantle militarism and state violence. AFSC for investment in communities of color criminalized by those same systems, working to defund the Chicago Police Department and invest in communities, close youth prisons and organize for community safety beyond policing. [Website] [IG]
Appleseed Center for Fair Courts: Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts advocates for a legal system that is equitable, accessible, and fair to all people; efficient so justice is not delayed; and effective in seeking solutions to social injustices. Their work focuses on improving civil and criminal court processes for people with and without representation and promoting judicial excellence. [Website] [IG]
Arab American Action Network: 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, their strategies include community organizing, advocacy, education, providing social services, leadership development, cultural outreach and forging productive relationships with other communities. [Website] [IG]
Black Lives Matter Chicago: An independent organization, BLM Chicago advocates for Black liberation, abolition, defunding the police, and investing in what the hood needs. [IG]
#CareNotCops: #CareNotCops is a joint campaign between UChicago United and Students Working Against Prisons that demands that UChicago end their continued harm on the South Side of Chicago by abolishing the UCPD, investing in students and communities of color. [IG]
The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR): The Chicago Alliance is a branch of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a mass defense organization that defends the rights of Black people and all oppressed peoples to unite, organize and fight for freedom, justice and equality. CAARPR advocates for community control of the Chicago Police Department and to free incarcerated survivors of police torture. [Website] [IG]
Chicago Torture Justice Center: The Chicago Torture Justice Center 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. [Website] [IG]
Citizens Network of Protection: A 501c3 non-profit organization created to promote racial and economic justice within the legal system, prevent government overreach and abuse in the area of law enforcement, and uphold civil rights within the Evanston community. [Website]
Communities United: Communities United (CU) is a survivor-led, intergenerational racial justice organization in Chicago. At the heart of CU’s organizing is the development of grassroots leadership to build collective power to achieve racial justice and transformative social change. With this approach, CU focuses on advancing affordable housing, health equity, education justice, youth investment, immigrant rights, and shifting resources from the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems into restorative justice alternatives. [Website] [IG]
First Defense Legal Aid: First Defense Legal Aid mobilizes lawyers and over-policed community members to fill gaps in public defense and create, protect, and engage replicable alternatives to the criminal system starting with its entry points. [Website] [IG]
Free 2 Move: The Free2Move Coalition is an alliance of community and advocacy organizations working to create a safer, more racially equitable system of traffic safety in Chicago and end pretextual traffic stops. [Website] [IG]
GoodKids MadCity (GKMC): GoodKids MadCity is a youth-led gun violence prevention organization that strives to create a self-sustaining community through mutual aid, community events, and much more. They believe in the importance of prioritizing the safety, needs, and voices of Black and/or Indigenous people of color and advocate for violence prevention that prioritizes more resources, not policing. [Website] [IG]
Grassroots Collaborative: Grassroots Collaborative builds power with working families through strategic community-labor organizing, grassroots leadership development, civic engagement, and training. Their 9 member organizations and 125,000 members, along with an effective and diverse set of ally organizations across movements, create transformative change to win fully funded resources for our public schools, social services, and affordable housing that working families depend on. [Website] [IG]
Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments: Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments was created as an organizing and campaign hub for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system to come together, build a movement, and lead and implement advocacy campaigns to end the impact of a criminal record following people long after incarceration. [Website] [IG]
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs Community Safety Committee: JCUA organizes people and resources to advance racial and economic justice. JCUA works in collaboration with directly impacted communities to transform unjust systems and bring material improvements to people’s lives. Their Community Safety Committee advocates for robust accountability of the Chicago Police Department and the expansion of non-carceral approaches to public safety. [Website] [IG]
#LetUsBreathe Collective: The #LetUsBreathe Collective is an alliance of artists and activists organizing through a creative lens to imagine a world without prisons and police. They organize artists, educators, healers, and organizers to love and transform themselves, their families, their communities, and their cities through radical imagination and healing. They offer a paid summer apprenticeship, multidisciplinary cultural and political education events and more. [Website] [IG]
Lucy Parsons Labs: Lucy Parsons Labs (LPL) organizes safer communities by challenging the systemic domination accelerated by both public and private institutions. As technological advancements are increasingly used to exploit Black, brown, and low-income communities, LPL will continue to provide expertise to the growing network of communities defending our rights. [Website] [IG]
Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS): MAMAS is a fiery feminist of color, abolitionist reproductive justice collective hailing from the heart of Chicago and working to amplify and build power among mother-survivors of state violence. MAMAS are unapologetically confronting and dismantling systems of state violence – including prisons, war, colonization, imperialism, and migrant injustices. One Chicago collective, Mothers of the Kidnapped, is dedicated to caring for those who are caring for survivors of police torture. [Website] [IG]
Push for 5 Coalition: Campaign seeking to make Illinois the fifth state in the U.S. to end qualified immunity for police officers. [Facebook]
#StopShotspotter: A broad coalition of local and national organizations and communities who are deeply concerned about ShotSpotter’s harmful impacts on the Black, brown, and poor people that the company surveils, united to #StopShotSpotter and build community-led responses to address the root causes of gun violence. [Website] [IG]
Workers Center for Racial Justice: A grassroots organization fighting for Black Liberation and for a fair and inclusive society that benefits all people. The Workers Center for Racial Justice organizes Black workers and their families to address the root causes of high rates of unemployment, low-wage work and over-criminalization impacting Black communities. [Website] [IG]
beyond november 