Journey for Justice Alliance wants to localize its equity work and make it policy, starting with a Chicago convention Saturday

What started in 2021 as a push for equity in education is now a campaign that seeks to secure “sweeping anti-racist legislation” in at least 20 cities before year’s end, according to Jitu Brown, national director for Journey for Justice Alliance.

The dozens of intergenerational, grassroots community organizations that make up the national network are following up on their Equity or Else Quality of Life Agenda — a platform centered on addressing basic needs for those in poverty and/or marginalized communities through policy initiatives — with an Equity or Else week of town halls where the group is pushing the agenda toward becoming policy in 39 cities, including Chicago.

“We have to understand that the way we begin to heal our communities is through self-determination, beginning to say, ‘We want community schools instead of school closings. We want decent housing. We want economic infrastructure in our neighborhoods.’ This is what our ancestors fought for,” Brown said.

Journey for Justice kick-started its coalition in 2012, and in 2021 it reached out to leaders and organizers from different quality-of-life areas — housing, health care, environment and climate justice, youth investment and food insecurity — to share how inequity affects these areas and offer grassroots solutions. The alliance produced a 16-page report last year that asked local and federal administrations to make a commitment to racial justice in those areas.

Chicago’s Journey for Justice Alliance meeting will take place at the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization’s annual convention. Brown said this and the other town hall meetings aim to localize the quality-of-life agenda; push to get resolutions passed in cities by elected officials; and establish equity commissions to make the resolutions law. Brown said the goal is to have resolutions passed in at least 20 cities by year’s end and within the next two years, begin to see legislation passed at the state level. Then it’s about pushing all the local work on to the federal level.

Ald. Angela Clay, newly elected in the 46th Ward, said the initiative has her support. She said it’s a tangible goal to get the resolution passed before the end of the year.

“We can always talk about things when they don’t go right or what just happened this past weekend downtown and say look, this is why we need this quality-of-life plan,” Clay said. “We need to put something in motion where people feel seen. … This is a plan by the people and the people should feel respected in their decisions and have people in City Council actually make this happen for them.”

“The locking of arms across states is us bringing together our wildest dreams of having a more amplified voice collectively,” said Shannon Bennett, executive director of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization. “This agenda for Equity or Else has expanded to all aspects of our lives.”

Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization’s free convention will be held at Dr. Martin Luther King Junior College Preparatory High School from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. It will feature workshops on youth investments, senior rights, affordable housing, economic development and education. The Journey for Justice Alliance town hall meeting will follow the workshops.

For more information go to standing4equity.org or j4jalliance.com.

drockett@chicagotribune.com