State of Illinois Redistricting
Under Valerie’s leadership, the Lawndale Alliance worked with State Representative Arthur Turner, Jr., Cook County Commissioner Robert Steele, other legislative leaders and a coalition of regional and community-based organizations to conduct community outreach and training for local residents. The coalition included the Illinois Campaign for Accountable Redistricting, Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO), Open Door Foundation, Empowered Citizens of North Lawndale (ECONL), and the North Lawndale Community News. The coalition offered a series of three 2-hour workshops to provide insights into the relationships between the Census and the redistricting process; the redistricting process and calendar; the parameters within which redistricting must occur; an overview of current legislative maps and proposed changes; the impact of the redistricting process upon local communities, and how citizens may get involved at the grassroots level. The group requested that the Legislature host a meeting on Chicago’s West Side, and the Senate Redistricting Committee obliged.
The Lawndale Alliance expanded their reach by working with a broad-based coalition of grassroots community organizations who worked across racial and ethnic communities to support the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations(UCCRO) Redistricting Committee’s “Unity Map.” More than 27 African-American, Latino, Asian, Arab, immigrant and other community organizations, representing over 40,000Illinoisans, created and endorsed this map to advance racial equity and racial unity. The coalition called upon the General Assembly to protect the voting rights of Illinois residents by creating 56 majority-minority state house and senate districts as new legislative boundaries were being crafted during the redistricting process—an increase of 11 from 2000.The “unity map” protected existing voting rights districts, created new majority-minority districts, and respected many communities of interest that were split into as many as four statehouse districts for the last decade including Little Village, Chinatown and Back of the Yards.
Valerie helped to analyze demographic data, community and ward boundaries and legislative district maps proposed by the State and 6 different coalitions throughout the State. She provided testimony to the State House and Senate Redistricting committees in support of the North Lawndale Community, the West Side of Chicago and the Unity Map. Valerie archived documents from the Lawndale Alliance’s community engagement process, including meeting flyers, handouts, Power Point presentations and notes from town hall meetings, updates from legislative hearings and other redistricting resources on the group’s blog. Valerie’s testimony helped to restore majority African American districts whose African American populations would have been diluted without intervention from the coalition and engaged stakeholders. Valerie has provided a copy of a Power Point presentation she developed for the third workshop for the redistricting bootcamp.You may visit http://lawndalealliance.blogspot.com to review the archives from the redistricting process.
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