Our Partners
Organic Oneness is a grassroots, social justice organization that co-creates with communities to mobilize systemic change, healing, and wellness, foregrounding Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). While building awareness, consciousness, and actions that address the social conditions that threaten social justice and equity, OO convenes experts and resources to provide access to healing spaces and skills. CRR19 leveraged OO organizing capacity to convene organizations, institutions, and key community leaders to support CRR19’s mission. OO is a core partner and fiscal agent of CRR19.
CRR19 believes that the individuals and communities most impacted by the intergenerational transmission of traumatic violence experiences should be central in the design of the artistic markers. This guided us to connect with Firebird Community Arts (Firebird). Firebird’s flagship program Project FIRE serves those who have been impacted by structural or interpersonal trauma, including violently-injured youth, veterans, formerly-incarcerated individuals, undocumented and immigrant populations and Chicago Public School students from the South and West sides of Chicago. Youth participating in Firebird’s trauma-informed arts initiative, Project FIRE, are leading the creation of thirty-eight durable glass blown structures.
CRR19 aims to have these glass blown structures embedded in Chicago’s sidewalks as a gift to the city. CRR19 and Firebird are currently engaged in conversations with the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicago Monument’s Project and the Department of Transportation regarding art’s fabrication, sustainability, durability, and overall safety.
“Everything is a full circle…with Eugene [Williams] up to Breonna Taylor to George Floyd…Nothing has changed. Ain’t nothing changed but the date, you know?”
– Dantrell “Trell” Blake, Project FIRE artist
The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) supports artists and cultural organizations, invests in the creative economy, and expands access and participation in the arts throughout Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. As a collaborative cultural presenter, arts funder, and advocate for creative workers, our programs and events serve Chicagoans and visitors of all ages and backgrounds, downtown and in diverse communities across our city — to strengthen and celebrate Chicago. DCASE produces some of the city’s most iconic festivals, markets, events, and exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park, and in communities across the city — serving a local and global audience of 25 million people. The Department offers cultural grants and resources, manages public art, supports TV and film production and other creative industries, and permits special events throughout Chicago.
The Chicago Monuments Project (CMP) was launched in 2020 to confront inequities in the City’s collection of monuments and memorials during a time of larger civic unrest. A collaboration between Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Chicago Park District, and Chicago Public Schools, CMP was guided by an advisory committee of community leaders, artists, architects, scholars, curators, and City officials. Together the CMP asked: Who is missing from our public memory? How can we tell a fuller, more truthful story? The committee identified clear gaps in representation, especially of Native peoples, Black and Brown communities, and women. CMP began its work in Fall 2020, conducted outreach throughout 2021, and compiled analysis and recommendations in a Spring 2022 report. While significant attention was paid to issues pertaining to the existing collection, CMP agreed that its most important work was in the development of new works that will tell an inclusive story going forward.
Launched in 2020, the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project is a bold, multi-year effort to bring communities together and breathe new life into our nation’s commemorative landscape. By funding commemorative projects that add to the stories we tell about our history and expand the ways we choose to remember, we hope to help create a richer, more complete picture of America and its history. DCASE and the Chicago Monuments Project received $6.8 million in funding from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project to support the implementation of eight priority projects–including CRR19–and related initiatives that reflect the city’s diversity and promote healing through public art. Mellon provided the lion’s share of the funds needed to finance the 38 markers envisioned by CRR19 and created by Firebird’s Project FIRE youth artists.
The Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention (CCYVP) is based at the UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. CCYVP studies the causes and consequences of youth violence and uses the data to partner with community stakeholders to create, implement, and test programs and policies. Under the leadership of Dr. Deborah Gorman-Smith, principal investigator and Dean of the Crown Family School and Pastor Chris Harris, co-investigator and CEO of Bright Star Community Outreach (see below), CCYVP has brought more than 40 community organizations and 30 schools together to develop a Community Action Plan. The plan and current efforts are focused on youth and family violence prevention, education equity, trauma-informed care, workforce development, racial justice, and healing.
Illinois Tech, Office of Community Affairs and Outreach
The priority is to build formal relationships and partnerships between Illinois Tech, local community-based organizations, businesses, and Chicago Public Schools, as well as the surrounding Chicago community areas. With a general focus on shoring up education opportunities and amplifying art and culture, as well as stimulating economic development, the Office of Community Affairs and Outreach Programs aims to be the connective tissue linking the Illinois Tech community—faculty, students, and staff—with the organizations, businesses, and individuals looking to make a positive change in Bronzeville and in the surrounding communities on the South Side.
Facing History & Ourselves is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to use the tools of history to help teachers and students stand up to racism and bigotry. Their teaching resources address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history, helping students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives. In 2019, to mark the Centennial and at the request of Chicago Public Schools, Facing History developed a curriculum to explore the racial violence of 1919 and its legacies. Dr. Cosey-Gay and Mr. Francis piloted the unit as part of an action civics program with 18 One Summer Chicago youth hired through CRR19’s community partner, Bright Star Community Outreach (BSCO). We continue to expand our partnership to ensure that Chicago-area educators and students connect their classroom learning with the places and spaces that are Red Summer’s legacy.
The Greater Bronzeville Community Action Council (GBCAC) is a coalition of community stakeholders including residents, community-based organizations, businesses, and Greater Bronzeville students, families, teachers, and administrators. GBCAC promotes inclusion, collective action, and responsibility to secure equitable quality education and resources for children, families, and educators from early childhood through college. The GBCAC executive leadership includes Pastor Chris Harris (chair), Pastor Michael Neal (vice-chair), and Annie Simmons (secretary). In April 2019 the GBCAC coalition leaders voted for Dr. Cosey-Gay, an executive member of the GBCAC, to join Dr. Cole as co-director of CRR19 to leverage existing relationships within this collaborative network and gather further community support.
In 2013, Pastor Chris Harris, CEO of Bright Star Community Outreach (BSCO) convened community stakeholders to create a network of partners across multiple sectors to serve as a buffer against high levels of homicide, violence and trauma that affect one of the nation’s most historically significant African-American communities, Bronzeville, located on the south side of Chicago. As a pastor, he knew that many people went to him because of his community-level credibility with his congregation, neighborhood residents, school principals, and local organizations. Convened partners were drawn to a prevention planning system called Communities That Care primarily because this community-wide, coalition-based, data-driven system prioritizes local leadership and involvement, which is well-aligned with Pastor Harris’ perspective regarding intervention and research in the community: “Nothing about Us without Us.”