Last Saturday, we celebrated the end of the 2014 Freedom Fellowship and the end of a great year at the Chicago Freedom School. Rooted in history and connected to current movements for change, our youth leadership programs, trainings, teach-ins, and gatherings created interenerational spaces for dialogue, skill-building, learning, and leadership.  

As we reflect on 2014, we also look forward.  In February, we will launch the Young Leaders for Justice program with Project Nia to support young organizers to address the criminalization of youth of color. 

We will continue to host our Adultism, Rev Up, and White Folks and Racial Justice trainings this spring, and we look forward to convening intergenerational dialogues on topics such as youth criminalization and issues facing street-based and home free LGBTQI youth. 

And of course, in the summer of 2015, the Freedom Fellowship will enter its eighth year. 

It takes human energy to make change, but it also takes space, utilities, staff, food for meetings, and CTA passes for youth. Please consider the Chicago Freedom School in your year-end giving and ensure that our work stays strong. There are a couple ways to support us with a tax-deductible donation before December 31st:

2. Sign up for our monthly giving program: When you sign up to give $10 per month or more, you can show of your CFS spirit with a CFS tote bag!

3. To make your contribution by check, please mail it to the address below. 

With your help, we can continue to build youth-led and intergenerational spaces for leadership and social change. Thank you for all that you do year-round to make our world more fair and just. 

In solidarity, 

Naomi Milstein

Executive Director

35 incredible young people ages 14-19 participated in the Freedom Fellowship, Youth Leadership Board (YLB), and Youth Evaluation Team.  Our Youth Leadership Board was honored by the McCormick Foundation in June 2014 for their leadership and activism. 

A peace circle during the Healing Retreat at Black Oaks Center for Sustainable and Renewable Living

Organizing 101 Training during the Summer Leadership Institute

Youth Leadership Board and McCormick Foundation CEO, David Hiller

Freedom Fellows and YLB members wrote curriculum and led workshops for over 160 young people across Chicago on topics such as the school-to-prison pipeline, the legacy of Nelson Mandela, healthy relationships, and human rights in education. 

Freedom Fellow, Makiah Lyons, leading a workshop on human rights in education

Our educational workshops and trainings brought together 695 youth, educators, organizers, community members, and social workers to build youth-adult partnerships for youth-led action, confront racism, build organizing strategies, and integrate restorative justice into youth programs. 

Youth Leadership Board members teaching an adultism training, March 2014

Organizing training series at Village Leadership Academy

Teachers and youth workers from universities, K-12 schools, and community organizations explored strategies to grow social justice in education during our 4-day Rev Up training institute in June 2014.

Rev Up June 2014 Participants

To commemorate the historic 50th anniversary of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer, we partnered with the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation at Roosevelt University, the Crossroads Fund, The Public Square, Freedom Lifted, and the J.E. Fehsenfeld Family Foundation to host educational programs, write a Movement History of Voting Rights curriculum, send three CFS Alumni to Mississippi for a civil rights history tour, and screen the new documentary, Freedom Summer. 

Discussing freedom schools then and now, March 2014

Youth from CFS and Mikva Challenge during our 'Movement History of Voting Rights' workshop, April 2014

CFS Alumni with 1964 freedom school teacher, Diane Horwitz in Mississippi, June 2014

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