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Naazneen Vhora and Sakshi Sharma have won first place in the University of Illinois at Chicago's Earth’s Remedies’ Community Consulting Competition. The pitch competition, organized by Earth's Remedies and sponsored by Net Impact, gave graduate students real-world experience by connecting them to Crystal Dyer, founder and CEO of the Austin-based travel agency Gone Again Travel.
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The weekly farmers market outside Austin Town Hall Park is back, Block Club Chicago is reporting. The city market begins June 10 at Austin Town Hall and will be held from 1-6 p.m. on Thursdays through Sept.
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When the Illinois General Assembly started its once-a-decade redistricting process, I sounded the alarm, saying that Black people had more to lose than any other group, given population loss in some of our districts. It turns out that I was right. State lawmakers approved Friday the “Map that Dilutes the Black Vote," and it awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzer’s signature.
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About 50 demonstrators gathered outside the 29th Ward office at 6272 W. North Ave. earlier this week and called on Ald.
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Ninety-two West Side residents recently graduated from ComEd's CONSTRUCT Infrastructure Academy. Since 2013, the program has prepared minority candidates from Chicago's West Side for careers in local energy. The latest round of graduates includes Jereh Brown, 31, and nine other Austin residents who worked through Austin People's Action Center.
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West Side residents are being encouraged to participate this weekend in a global effort to provide clean water around the world. A virtual Global 6K for Water, set for this Saturday, is being organized by World Vision, an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development and advocacy group that has an office in Austin.
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When I convened the West Side Heroin Task Force five years ago, we wanted to respond to the explosion of deaths caused by overdoses due to heroin and other substances like fentanyl, especially on the West Side of Chicago. Thanks to the support of SUPR and other groups, we have held many education sessions with community groups and churches, and our outreach teams are now on the streets twice a week giving out naloxone (Narcan) and teaching people how to reverse an overdose, should one occur.
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Congressman Danny Davis, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections and about a dozen community organizations, hosted a Mother’s Day event last weekend for incarcerated moms.
Davis said in an interview the event was part of his larger work helping those leaving prison with their reentry to society. While the greatest proportion of those incarcerated are African American men, he said, “the fastest growing part of the prison population are young, African American females.”
“I don't know what life would have been for me if I had not had the presence of my mother,” Davis said at last week's event.
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In a common refrain they're getting tired of repeating, three influential West Side ministers pressed Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration to do more to open the state's fledgling but lucrative cannabis industry to Black and Brown people. “The process was not transparent, so when we blinked and looked up, everybody had dispensaries but people in our communities,” said Cy Fields, senior pastor of New Landmark Missionary Baptist Church.
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The Loretto Hospital, in partnership with the University of Illinois Cancer Center, is offering free women’s cancer screenings throughout the month of May. Services include 2D and 3D tomosynthesis mammograms and pap smears for uninsured or underinsured residents of Austin and surrounding communities.
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Tobias Bell, Tamia Crawford and Ziolet Nellum want to give Austin a platform to tell its truth with their new podcast, “Austin Has the Mic.”
“'Austin Has the Mic’ is a podcast where we literally give the mic back to the community, the residents, people in Austin so they can tell their story,” Crawford said. The current narrative about Austin “glorifies the dangers of Austin,” focuses on businesses leaving and the vacant, dilapidated buildings that dot the neighborhood, Bell said.
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A 40-foot CTA bus will be coming to Austin Saturday as part of the city's campaign to get more Chicagoans vaccinated against COVID-19. Both the two-dose Pfizer and one-dose Johnson & Johnson shots will be offered on the bus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 8 at Moore Park, 5070 W. Adams, said Gaby Wagener-Sobrero, a community engagement manager for the city.
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