Join us as we celebrate four decades of advocacy for justice in Chicago's northern suburbs and honor eight courageous citizens who share our vision of open and inclusive communities.
Our Honorees: Frustrated and disheartened by the tone and tenor of an escalating affordable housing debate in Winnetka, Ann Airey, Jen McQuet, Nancy Pred and Katie Seigenthaler formed a new grassroots organization to support a modest, multi-pronged plan to expand rental and ownership options for those families who fell through the cracks: Winnetka is Neighborly (WIN). Surrosh Shakir is a Winnetka renter who was stunned to find out that the Village was powerless in forcing a landlord to repair apartments. Along with WIN, she tirelessly and publicly advocated for rental standards and tenants' rights, ultimately helping to bring about unanimous support from the Village Council in December 2011 to adopt a Property Maintenance Code.
Three Deerfield residents supported a family when it needed it most. Kiana Kelly, an African American single mother with a disabled daughter, felt racially isolated in the Deerfield. After she was harassed by neighbors, Eve and Sherman Beverly, the first African Americans to purchase a home in Deerfield in the late 1960s, and their friend Butler Sharpe successfully advocated on behalf of the family to the mayor, police chief, and other village officials to quell the dispute. In 2011, when the condo Kiana rented was foreclosed, they helped the family secure a new apartment in Highland Park through Community Partners for Affordable Housing.
Find out what's happening in Winnetka-Glencoewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The late Rayna and Marvin Miller, long dedicated to civil rights and open housing on the North Shore, founded what is now the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs in 1972. Over the decades their work ranged from picketing real estate offices, to finding homes for African Americans in virtually all-white suburban neighborhoods and ensuring a welcoming atmosphere, to passionately testifying for fair housing rights and affordable housing developments. 40 years later, Interfaith continues this advocacy and provides services in fair housing enforcement, foreclosure prevention counseling, Homesharing match-making, and landlord/tenant advice.
Enjoy an evening of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and dessert, a raffle and silent auction, plus the smooth tones of This Is Our Music (students from New Trier High School's Jazz Program).
