ONE Northside’s economic justice team works closely with our partners at Fair Economy Illinois. Some of you may have been wondering “When you’re not marching, what is Fair Economy Illinois working on?” And we hear you loud and clear! So at FEI, we have decided to host a webinar as an introduction to our collective and to explain what our organizing looks like. We welcome people of all familiarity with community organizing and our collective to participate in this webinar. The webinar will be on Thursday, August 17. There are mid-day and evening options. Please fill out this form to indicate your interest.

Secondly, we want you to save the date of 9/16-9/17 for our first-ever Campaign Leadership School. With the exception of a handful of champions, the people running our country, our state, and our cities and towns are making all the wrong choices. It’s time to build a movement to replace those people with people from our communities. People who share our values and who will be accountable to us – not the people and corporations who write 5 and 6 figure campaign checks.

This two day training will cover how to organize a canvass and phone bank in your neighborhood to build relationships with neighbors, understand what they care about and invite them to take action to support legislation and campaigns that put people and the planet first. We will have many more details on this soon, but I wanted to get the dates on your calendar. Email hgelder@onenorthside.org for more information. (There will be a sliding scale registration fee ranging from $25 – $100.)

Millions of people have been ravaged by the budget crisis and suffered from decades of disinvestment in our communities. We must stand united as a state to elect leaders that will fight for the people and the planet, not the profits. We must fight for a People and Planet First Budget through concrete legislation and the pressure of direct action. And we will bridge the urban-rural divide that the politicians have used to pit us against each other. It is not Chicago against the rest of the state, it is us against the politicians who have used us as pawns in their games. Join us on this webinar on 8/17, and let’s keep up the fight for an Illinois that works for all of us!