A growing group of community members in the Rockford, Illinois area dedicated to eliminating racism and becoming a community where everyone feels valued.
Our Community Needs Summer Programs for Children and Youth
In July of 2021 the United States Department of Education and the Illinois Board of Education allocated more than $150 million dollars in American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Relief to RPS to support recovery in the wake of COVID-19.
In the 2020-2021 school year the City of Rockford, Alignment Rockford, the Rockford Park District, and the Rockford Public Schools created Live Learn Play, a grant program for our community organizations to create programs to assist in extending the student day, week, and year, by providing opportunities for students to re-engage with academics, recreation, and social activities after experiencing social distancing protocols and interrupted learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If your organization is interested in providing summer opportunities for children or youth, go to the Live Learn Play website: https://www.rps205.com/about-rps-205/live-learn-play and find out how to submit proposals.
Civilian Oversight Board Applications
As a member of Eliminate Racism 815, you are most likely aware that the City of Rockford passed an ordinance in February establishing a Civilian Oversight Board.
The NAACP has been advocating for this board for more than 12 years since the Barmore shooting. Along with the NAACP and representatives of several civic and community organizations, we on the Criminal Justice action team have worked diligently for the better part of the last three years to help bring this board to fruition.
We want to assure that this board is comprised of the most qualified applicants. To that end, I urge you to identify among your friends and acquaintances individuals who will be assets to this board and encourage them to apply.
If you have questions, feel free to contact Steve Delap at 815.218.1849.
Book Discussion
Thursday March 31, 2022 6:00 p.m.
Join us by zoom for a discussion of Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert. Rembert grew up in Georgia & joined the Civil Rights Movement as a teen-ager and was arrested after fleeing a demonstration. At age of fifty-one Rembert started drawing & painting scenes from his youth of Civil Rights Movement & chain gangs using leather tooling skills he learned in prison.
Please read the book on your own and we will discuss it.
Book discussions are presented in partnership with Rockford Public Library.
Film Discussion
Friday April 8, 2022
6-8:30 p.m.
Black Boys: Video Project - an inter-generational exploration, that strives for insight to black identity and opportunity. Several Black men hold up the beauty of a healthy relationship with a caring adult. The power of love can serve as a healer for a variety of trauma
