Dear CWIP Community Members,
Our city and its most vulnerable communities are under attack. Now and always, Chicago Women in Philanthropy stands steadfast behind our commitment to all our Chicagoland women and gender expansive immigrant neighbors, colleagues, friends, and family.
You’ve likely seen the news or experienced it firsthand:
● Every day in our neighborhoods, Chicagoans are being targeted based solely on what they look like or what language they speak in the name of “immigration enforcement.”
● Federal agents are terrorizing neighborhoods as they use tear gas against peaceful protestors, cause chaos in our communities and rip mothers from their cars in the school pick up line.
● An apartment building in South Shore was violently raided, resulting in children being detained with zip ties and separated from their families in the middle of the night.
The list of attacks grows daily, but so too do the examples of the ways neighbors are standing up for one another. As our communities face these great threats, we are heartened by the swiftness, strength, and creativity with which Chicago has come together to protect each other . Whether it is through attending Know Your Rights training, forming “watch teams” near schools, attending “whistle packing” events, supporting our hardest-hit neighborhoods by shopping and dining locally, or attending protests, Chicagoans are showing up and not backing down.
Our city is showing up through philanthropy as well, across the many ways philanthropy is formally and informally practiced. Individuals, communities, and institutions alike are organizing to support rapid response efforts to protect and care for each other. People are donating to immigrant justice organizations, creating fundraisers for organizations or families impacted by immigration enforcement, and getting involved in their local mutual aid networks. Many of our CWIP members and colleagues–program officers, fundraisers, and their partners–are working around the clock to match resources with those who need them most. We are inspired by the responsive, instructive practices a group of leading funders are employing, recognizing that “business as usual” does not apply to institutional philanthropy at this moment either.
CWIP’s vision of an equitable, inclusive, and connected social sector is impossible without the full inclusion of, and leadership of, immigrants. This moment requires action and we all have a role to play. Below are some resources and ways to get involved:
● Chicago Mutual Aid Directory
● Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)
○ Immigrant Community Resources
○ Know Your Rights Fact Sheet
○ Request a Know Your Rights training
○ Report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity by calling 1-855-435-7693
● Know Your Rights for Chicago Activists: National Lawyers Guild Chicago
● Community Care Resource Center: New Life Centers
● Print your own Hands Off Chicago window sign
● Buy a whistle or organize a “Whistlemania” event to help alert your neighbors of ICE activity
If you have resources to share with the CWIP community, asks for support, or other ways to get involved, please let us know by reaching out to CWIP at info@cwiponline.org.
As always, thank you for all you do to help create the equitable and connected world we want to live in. We are grateful and proud to be working alongside you.
Chicago Women in Philanthropy