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Upcoming BPI Events
Register to join us on Thursday, September 23, from 10 am to 2 pm, for the Justice 20/20: The Demand for Equity Fall Convening hosted by BPI, Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA), and the Illinois Justice Project (ILJP).
Join BPI on September 24 at 12 pm (CST) as our Co-Director of Public Housing, Senior Staff Counsel, Alexander Polikoff, interviews Sheryll Cashin virtually and discusses her new book, White Space, Black 'Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality.
On October 27 at 12 pm (CST), join BPI for our 2021 virtual annual event, Power In Community. Hear from social and racial justice thought leaders who will discuss the power within communities and how that power is harnessed to usher in needed change. 
New Initiative - Justice 20/20: The Demand for Equity

BPI is working with Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) and the Illinois Justice Project (ILJP) to launch Justice 20/20: The Demand For Equity. This multi-year initiative will bring together individuals and organizations to collaborate to address issues within the Illinois criminal legal system. The name of this effort reflects the future vision of this work: achieving collective clarity among those working to change the criminal legal system and focus on the work that needs to be done. Justice 20/20 is driven by participants' priorities, strategies, and decisions in workgroups organized by specific topic areas.

Beginning in 2020, a wide range of advocates, including law/policy organizations, members of grassroots and community-based organizations, activists, and organizers on the frontlines of fighting for racial equity and social justice, identified a set of values and goals and created a list of issues and actions items required to address our racist, inequitable, and unjust criminal legal system.

In April 2021, BPI, CGLA, and ILJP hosted a meeting of those engaged in criminal legal system advocacy to discuss the concept of communal leverage to address the criminal legal system in Illinois. Aligning with one of the goals of Justice 20/20, this meeting began to set the groundwork for building an inclusive space that welcomes individuals and groups from all ends of the criminal legal advocacy spectrum to work together to influence change.

Over the next several months, BPI will continue to help build out Justice 20/20 to achieve a coordinated collective of individuals and groups that work to advance change in the criminal legal system through:

  • effective implementation of recent and future policy changes,
  • development of new legislative and administrative initiatives to pursue, and
  • identification of and response to administrative barriers.
BPI's Partnership with the Empowering Communities for Public Safety Coalition Gets a Big Win

In July, the Chicago City Council passed a transformative ordinance to empower Chicago communities in building public safety in Chicago. The Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) is a historic ordinance that represents many years of work by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), two broad-based community coalitions. Thousands of people and more than 100 community groups took part in creating the ordinance. BPI’s Police Accountability team provided extensive support to the GAPA coalition since the group came together more than five years ago and worked with the ECPS Coalition since GAPA and CAARPR joined forces behind a joint ordinance earlier this year. 

BPI is committed to working with our community partners and other stakeholders to ensure successful implementation and to see to it that the ordinance realizes its full promise.
BPI SUPPORTS A MORE JUST AND EQUITABLE HOUSING MARKET

Together with a broad coalition of organizations, BPI supports legislation that will make source of income discrimination illegal in Illinois real estate transactions. Source of income discrimination is widespread and increasing in Illinois.  The bill amends Illinois's Homelessness Prevention Act by creating additional legal defenses and protections against discrimination for renters and preventing undue administrative burdens when applying for housing assistance.
 
Protected sources of income under the bill would include emergency housing assistance, social security, disability support, and federal Housing Choice Vouchers.
BPI's Team Is Growing


BPI would like to welcome Tamara Reed Tran, Suresh Sharma, and Nancy Negrete to the team.

About BPI

BPI is an innovative public interest law and policy center, utilizing a combination of legal tools, policy research, advocacy, organizing, and convening to work towards transformational change.  

At BPI, we are committed to addressing the structural racism and systemic oppression that has led to inequities and injustices in Illinois, particularly for people and communities of color.