STOP ON THE MOVE: video and remarks from our gala

Below the video are written excerpts of remarks as prepared. See also gala photos here, and basic gala info here.

Marcus Gill, STOP board chair

Welcome to “STOP on the Move”: our 19th-anniversary gala celebration. 

STOP is one of the leading organizations that advocates for social and economic equality for those who face systemic social and economic oppression. Our work began in 2004. We love and support our communities. In doing so, we support our members in becoming the voice and change that they want to see in their neighborhoods.

STOP has worked to preserve 604 affordable units in Woodlawn — all residents having the right to return to their homes — 504 Grove Park Units and 100 Kimbark units. STOP won the University of Chicago’s trauma center, STOP won the Woodlawn Housing (CBA) Ordinance, and STOP co-leads the Treatment not Trauma campaign. The future of STOP is bright, and with your support, we know that this work will continue.

I would like to thank everyone for coming, contributing, and supporting the work of the STOP organization. I’d like to invite you to contribute and support us more. Sign up to be a monthly donor to STOP.

Marcus and Alex at the gala (left to right)

Alex Goldenberg, STOP executive director

It is great to be here. You are beautiful. We got STOP members, leaders, supporters, the youth, the elders. There’s no place I’d rather be.

I have the honor of saying a bit about STOP’s work and then introducing our keynote speaker.

This organization, STOP, we do some badass work. Some call us scrappy, some unrelenting, others radical. We are all those things, but most importantly we are true to our values. We have been doing transformative community organizing for 19 years and we have kept the course. We have shown that when you keep at it, you can make the impossible possible and push us to dream and fight for more.

For 19 years we have been at the forefront of challenging gentrification and displacement in Woodlawn, which is now being accelerated by the University of Chicago and soon-to-be-completed Obama Center. This past year we got the City to agree to set aside 20 lots on 63rd between Ingleside and University that will result in 157 units of real affordable housing.

We have led the fight for City mental-health clinics and Treatment Not Trauma: the emergency response program that sends mental-health professionals to respond to mental-health crises, instead of police. We have fought for over 10 years to re-open the closed mental-health clinics. This past year we got a question on the ballot about whether or not the clinics should be re-opened. 90% of the people in our area voted yes. Together with our coalition allies, we made Treatment Not Trauma a major city-wide issue and a major piece of the Brandon Johnson campaign and administration. And now, after over ten years of fighting, the mayor just announced that he will re-open two clinics. This is a historic down-payment on his promise to re-open all the clinics, something people told us was impossible. 

Speaking of impossible: After a five-year fight, our youth program won the opening of a $40 million dollar trauma center at the University of Chicago. Today our youth have been fighting for re-investment in restorative justice. They want more programming at Hyde Park Academy that engages parents and youth in conflict resolution and peace-building, and more investment in the curriculum and extracurriculars. They want to remove the police officer from their school and re-invest those resources into those programs.

STOP develops leadership to support our members in leading these fights, but it’s never just been about those fights. We are not stopping when we get reinvestment in restorative justice, or two clinics, or three affordable housing developments. We are building power to fight for our long-term vision: We want to end the school to prison pipeline. We want the human right to healthcare and housing. We are fighting for Black liberation — for a world where all people are fully invested in to reach their full potential.

This work is not easy. Our board, our staff and leaders are dedicated.

I want to acknowledge our previous youth organizer who just left us this summer. I don’t know if you all heard but Miss Ling Young was awarded the Leader for a New Chicago award by the Field and MacArthur foundations this year. Unfortunately for us, she's moved on to bigger things, but we are very proud of her for it: she is now the Chief of Staff of the City Council Committee on Education.

So she left some big shoes to fill, but Anana Durr has risen to the occasion. Anana is the restorative-justice coordinator and youth organizer doing transformative work with students at Hyde Park Academy. Raise your hand Anana!

So we are small but mighty. Between our staff and 35-40 leaders, we get the job done. But we realize that we need to grow. We need to build our power if we are going to take on the developer class and meaningfully confront gentrification… if we are going to re-open all the clinics and build the fight for universal healthcare… if we are going to win the schools our students deserve and end the school-to-prison pipeline. That’s why tonight is so important: ‘cause your support helps us do that. So that we can grow and build the power we need to win.

On this night of so much beauty and joy, I am also thinking about the bombs dropping on Gaza, about the children being killed. I mourn all lives lost in this war, but there’s no question that Israel is a settler colonial state, and it’s committing genocide on the Palestinan people as I speak. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and understand their fight for land against displacement as connected to our fight against displacement. And it's only in solidarity that we ultimately can change the conditions that allow our government to pass an additional $14 billion to fund the Israeli war machine while we have people who are homeless sleeping in our streets tonight, people facing eviction, and children hungry. So their fight is our fight. That’s why we must stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Solidarity really is why we invited our guest speaker tonight. When the clinics closed back in 2012, we had a whole coalition of pastors standing with us to stop the clinic closures. But once Rahm Emanuel offered them funding for some small programs, they turned their backs on us. But the mighty Chicago Teachers Union never did. You see, the CTU saw our fight for mental-health services on the south and west sides as their fight. Our guest speaker tonight, Stacy Davis Gates, has been part of the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union which has shaped it into a powerhouse fighting for our communities.

In order to win, we recognize that organized community needs labor and labor needs organized community. The leadership of the CTU recognizes this and has worked towards this. They take risks and lead others in labor, and of course it’s not perfect, but they are trying, and in the process they are making history. And Stacy Davis Gates, probably more than anyone, sees clearly the vision of what’s possible with real solidarity.

She is pushing all of us to dream bigger, and has pushed all of us to work a hell of lot harder too, by helping to make possible the election of Brandon Johnson as Mayor Chicago, who is re-opening two clinics, and who is going to pass the mansion tax, “Bring Chicago Home.” Stacy’s bold leadership is doing justice to Karen Lewis’s legacy and we are so grateful to have her here tonight to share some thoughts about this moment and why this work is so important. So without further ado, I’d like to invite up Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union.