SR0936 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0936 LRB102 26893 MST 38018 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) is a community-based, non-profit organization serving the Brighton Park community, a predominantly Latinx, low-income working class neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side; and

WHEREAS, BPNC's mission is to create a safer community, improve the learning environment at public schools, preserve affordable housing, provide a voice for youth, protect immigrants' rights, promote gender equity, and end all forms of violence; and

WHEREAS, Founded in 1997, BPNC unites individuals and neighborhood institutions to organize campaigns to obtain essential resources for a predominantly immigrant community, improve public policy, and address the root causes of poverty and inequality; and

WHEREAS, BPNC works to address a range of community issues through school and community-based services, including school-based programs, trauma-informed counseling addressing child abuse and domestic violence, violence prevention, case management services, health and wellness, foreclosure prevention and financial literacy, and public benefits enrollment; and

WHEREAS, Since its inception in 1997, BPNC has worked to achieve three goals: (1) to develop and train community residents as grassroots leaders to lead campaigns for neighborhood improvement and development, (2) to develop the social service infrastructure to address the needs of the community, and (3) to build community by bringing together leaders and institutions from throughout the neighborhood; its model engages low-income and immigrant Latinx community members who are most affected by the lack of access to healthcare, public education funding inequities, immigration reform, and economic injustice; and

WHEREAS, BPNC works to unite local institutions, community leaders, funders, community partners, and vested stakeholders to improve the service infrastructure of the Brighton Park community; it has worked diligently to increase community partnerships and improve collaborations with local institutions and philanthropic organizations to maximize funder dollars without duplicating programs; and

WHEREAS, In 2012, BPNC worked with United Way Metropolitan Chicago (UWMC) to develop the Brighton Park Neighborhood Network (BPNN), which focuses its efforts on developing an infrastructure of social services within Brighton Park to support cradle-to-career opportunities for children, youth, and young adults; BPNN has worked collaboratively to develop a common agenda to develop a more robust and efficient social service infrastructure and to engage institutions and community leaders in policy change campaigns in the four key areas of violence prevention and public safety, education, health, and income/economic development; through the BPNN collaborative, BPNC has coordinated resources among community service providers and other institutions to develop a pipeline of services to support student's academic and social emotional growth from 1st grade to 12th grade; and

WHEREAS, Over the course of its inception, BPNC has served thousands of families across Brighton Park and the southwest side of Chicago in a variety of capacities; most recently, since April 2020, BPNC has provided over $2.5 million in direct cash assistance, food assistance, rental and mortgage assistance, and utility assistance for over 1,000 families in the community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; over the past ten years, BPNC has registered over 8,500 people to become part of the donor registry in Illinois; BPNC has also seen hundreds of individuals become U.S. citizens through its citizenship program; BPNC continues to maintain a strong commitment to its full-service community schools program, working closely with local Chicago Public School partners to provide students and their families academic, social-emotional, and mental health support; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge support for community-based, non-profit organizations such as the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council as they strive to improve their neighborhoods; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the BPNC as a symbol of our respect and esteem.