Who We Are

Website: http://www.actionnow.org

Action Now is a grassroots organization of working families, organized in low and moderate income communities in the Chicago metro area. Action Now works on issues that advance the interests of working families, such as foreclosure, quality education, access to healthcare, living wage jobs, clean and safe neighborhoods, immigration rights and former prisoner rights.

Website: http://www.afsc.org

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world. Founded by Quakers in 1917 to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian war victims, AFSC's work attracts the support and partnership of people of many races, religions, and cultures. In Chicago, AFSC is working to limit military recruiting in public schools, as well as organizing taxi drivers to win better working conditions and a living wage.

Website: http://www.bpnc-chicago.org

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), founded in 1997, is a community-based grassroots organization uniting individuals, block clubs, churches, schools and businesses in the Brighton Park neighborhood. BPNC's mission is to create a safer community with a strong infrastructure, improve neighborhood schools, provide a voice for our youth and stabilize the local business and housing structure. BPNC serves a low-income working class neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side.

Website: http://www.chicagohomeless.org

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) organizes and advocates to prevent and end homelessness based on the belief that housing is a human right in a just society. Founded in 1980, CCH is a non-profit organization that works with people hurt by homelessness. CCH focuses their efforts on ending homelessness by addressing root causes, including the lack of affordable housing, the lack of living-wage jobs, the lack of health care, discrimination and violence. CCH is committed to fighting until every person has a place to call home.

Website: http://www.ilhunger.org

In 1988, the Illinois Hunger Coalition (IHC) was established as a statewide membership organization to develop collaborative relationships to eliminate hunger in communities throughout Illinois. IHC seeks to organize low-income communities to develop strategies to promote social justice and ultimately eliminate hunger by addressing the underlying causes. In Chicagoland, IHC organizes Anti-Hunger Action (AHA) comprised of forty community-based organizations representing diverse low-income communities. IHC believes that citizen participation is critical to eliminating unnecessary hunger. IHS is currently fighting to win school breakfasts for all hungry children, as well as working to build the leadership of Latino communities in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.

Website: http://soulinchicago.org

Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural faith-based organization devoted to training ordinary people to become leaders to create meaningful public lives, to mobilize people to address important public issues of justice, and to hold powerful public and private institutions accountable to the people. SOUL’s mission is to empower the Southside of Chicago and the South suburbs to fight for social justice and address issues and concerns within the community.  SOUL is committed to democratic decision-making and to building enough power to make a difference.

Website:  http://www.seiu73.org

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 proudly represents public service workers of every job description and title in Illinois and Indiana. . SEIU 73 members provide vital services that Illinois and Indiana residents rely on. 73 members care for our children, our seniors and parents, and provide a host of other important services. Members include crossing guards, special education classroom aides, firefighters, tollway workers, school custodians, public university employees, and park district employees.

Website: http://www.seiuhealthcareilin.org

More than 85,000 workers across Illinois and Indiana are united in Healthcare Illinois and Indiana. Members work in the home care, child care and healthcare industries caring for patients, seniors, people with disabilities and children. They stand together not only to improve their jobs, but to assure that all Americans have access to affordable, quality care; to push for sensible immigration reform; to hold big business accountable for its impact on their communities and to elect politicians who support working families. Healthcare Illinois and Indiana was formed as a merger of three local unions. In May 2009, Locals 4, 20 and 880 merged industry representation, membership, operations and campaigns as one independent union, maintaining affiliation with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

website: http://www.local881ufcw.org/

Local 881 UFCW represents 34,000 members employed in retail food and drug stores throughout Illinois and Northwest Indiana, as well as a professional division comprised of health and nursing home workers, barbers and cosmetologists, and workers in other retail and service industries. Local 881 is among the largest affiliates of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.