Call for Volunteers: Chain Reaction Project

September 15, 2011 at 1:03 pm (NIA Events, Research)

Call for volunteers:

Chain Reaction is seeking volunteers in many areas. Here are some of the opportunities, lasting from November 2011 through November 2012 (some opportunities are only for a few months in that period–please contact us for more information):

· Help take video/audio footage
· Interview young people or lead talking circles
· Work on video and audio editing
· Transcribe interviews
· Coordinate/design a project website (can be in wordpress)
· Update project website
· Develop curriculum for listening sessions
· Facilitate listening sessions
· Research and document other police accountability projects
· Help with development of a toolkit for other organizers

If you have skills you’d like to share in video, audio, interviewing, editing, facilitation, research, web, typing/transcribing, design, or general administrative work, please register for the Volunteer Orientation:

Saturday November 5
1pm-5pm
Depaul University Richardson Library
Dorothy Day Room (Room 400)
2350 North Kenmore Ave
[Bring your lunch with you]

Pre-register by emailing lewispants@gmail.com

Orientation co-sponsored by “Building Communities, Ending Violence” at DePaul University.

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Teach In: Closing Illinois Youth Prisons – October 29

September 13, 2011 at 6:44 pm (Advocacy, NIA Events)

Elizabeth Clarke, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative, recently penned a column titled “Closing Juvenile Prison Makes Sense.” In the piece, she makes the following important points about Illinois juvenile prisons:

Illinois currently runs eight separate far-flung juvenile facilities to house an average of less than 1,200 youth. These eight facilities are costly. The average annual cost per bed has rapidly risen from $70,915 five years ago to an estimate of more than $90,000 this year. The per bed cost at the Murphysboro youth prison, which the governor plans to close, is far above average and climbed to $142,342 per bed in FY10. Operation of each facility entails significant administrative costs as does collective oversight and management of the eight separate facilities.

If each of the eight facilities ran quality programming with successful results, there might be justification for continuing their operation. The facts, however, are dismally opposite. Reports document a juvenile prison system that is ineffective, with over half the youth returning to juvenile prisons within three years. Most facilities struggle to maintain minimal educational programming, let alone adequate mental health treatment, recreation or vocational classes.

On September 8th, Governor Pat Quinn announced that he would recommend closing IYC-Murphysboro this fiscal year. This is a good start but we believe that many more youth prisons can and should be closed too.

It’s time for the citizens of Illinois to make a forceful case for closing more youth prisons in the state. We invite all those who are interested in this topic to join us for a teach-in about closing Illinois youth prisons:

Saturday October 29th
1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave
(Congress Lounge, 2nd floor)
RSVP: projectniaevents@hotmail.com.

We will be joined by Chris Bernard of the John Howard Association who will share important information about each Illinois youth prison including capacity, condition, and cost.

Click HERE to download a flier for this teach-in.

This teach-in is organized by Project NIA and is co-sponsored by the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation at Roosevelt University.

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