Nine Friends from Northside Friends Meeting attended CROAR (Chicago Regional Organizing Against Racism) anti-racism workshops during 2019. These trainings had a significant, at times life-changing, impact on all of us. An initial interest in opposing racism grew into a corporate leading and the creation of an Ad Hoc Committee for Ministry on Racism. With the support of Meeting for Business, the Ad Hoc Committee engaged in conversations with CROAR to develop anti-racism training, designed specifically for Quakers. Spirit has flowed freely and we gratefully announce that Northside, Evanston, and Oak Park Monthly Meetings will co-sponsor a 2 ½ day CROAR AntiRacism workshop this May. It will begin with an evening session on Thursday, May 28 and continue for two full days on Friday and Saturday, May 29-30.
CROAR training challenges participants to look inward and explore the impact of systemic institutionalized racism on their own lives and concurrently charges individuals to return to their institutions to view their structures and interactions through a new lens of anti-racism. Ultimately, the goal of CROAR training supports interrupting and dismantling evidence of institutional systemic racism in our monthly meetings and other Quaker institutions. See our article submitted for the Winter issue of Among Friends on the impact of this workshop on our Meeting.
The backing of Meeting co-sponsors (Northside, Evanston, Oak Park) and several individual donors have made make it possible to offer the full 2 ½ day workshop for only $100 per person. You can register here.
Only attendees of Illinois Yearly Meeting will have the opportunity to register up until April 1. At that time, if there are still open spots for the workshop, CROAR will open registration to Quakers from across the country. The $100 fee covers the full 2 ½ day workshop, meals and all materials. Additionally, those who complete the workshop can attend ongoing monthly and quarterly caucuses in the Chicago area.