A Social Justice Movement for the 21st Century

The Justice Project: The March Continues is a grassroots social justice movement to inspire the communities in the northern suburbs of Chicago and beyond to be welcoming, inclusive and diverse, and to offer them a framework for doing so.

What defines a welcoming community? One in which residents and the organizations representing them ensure equal access to everyone who works, visits, lives or seeks to live in their neighborhoods.

How do we build neighborhoods that are truly welcoming? The Justice Project: The March Continues has established Principles of the Welcoming Community that set out the framework by which municipalities can evaluate themselves in order to become more accessible, safe and engaged; and by which residents can hold their elected and appointed representatives accountable.

 To Continue What Others Began

Our inspiration is The North Shore Summer Project, a grassroots campaign founded in the early 1960s by ordinary women and men determined to end housing discrimination on Chicago’s North Shore. Their tireless persistence drew the attention of the larger Civil Rights Movement, and in July 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed a gathering of 10,000 on the Winnetka Village Green in support of open and fair housing markets. Not long after, federal fair housing legislation was enacted.

The North Shore Summer Project ultimately became Open Communities, a social justice advocacy organization serving 16 north suburban communities.

The Justice Project: The March Continues is a new grassroots social justice movement that is reshaping the ideals of our founders for the 21st century.

ORGANIZED AND READY TO ROLL!

On a frigid Thursday evening, December 12, 2024, over 80 residents from a dozen northern suburbs gathered together at the Art Center of Highland Park, to gain inspiration and organizing partners as we choose to take action for welcoming, just, and sustainable communities in the new year. We thank Forefront for making this event possible. Learn more right here on our website!

Ensure your suburb’s planning process centers diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ)!

At our winter roundtable on February 6, 2022 Andrés Tapia of Highland Park, a Senior Client Partner and Korn Ferry’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategist, shared the latest ideas and DEI resources. Learn more right here on our website!

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