Activists from AFSC and the Chicago #StopShotSpotter Campaign project a large message on the side of Chicago Stock Exchange on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in 2024. Eduardo Rodriguez / ERC Productions
The Chicago Peacebuilding program works to dismantle militarist practices that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities. We support the well-being of those who are targeted and criminalized by state violence and work for the abolition of the Prison Industrial Complex.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) receives nearly $2 billion in annual funding, a disproportionate sum that starves local communities of life-affirming resources necessary for real community safety.
Chicago Peacebuilding responds by working alongside those directly impacted. We contribute to strategic coalition efforts to cut CPD's budget — with the goal of abolishing police completely.
Additionally, AFSC Chicago supports community needs and builds community alternatives. Using anti-colonialism as a framework, we make explicit the systemic interconnections between militarism abroad and its effects here in Chicago.
One key entry point for AFSC is the mental health care system in Chicago. We are working with the Treatment Not Trauma coalition to reopen 12 mental health clinics and establish a robust public mental health care system. The coalition aims to create a hotline to dispatch EMTs and social workers instead of armed police officers.
AFSC also works with the Final 5 Campaign to close the remaining five youth prisons in Illinois.
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Program News
Videos
Midwest Youth Summer Intensive 2024
Youth connected with AFSC programs in St. Louis and Chicago joined Twin Cities young people in Minneapolis July 28-August 3, 2024 for our first-ever Midwest Youth Summer Intensive. Black and Palestinian youth gathered to learn more about the work of making positive change in our communities.
Why defund the police
WILD youth protest against new youth prison in Illinois
WILD, AFSC's Chicag0-based summer youth organizing institute, and Brighton Park Neighborhood Council youth, rally against new youth prison construction in Illinois, demanding $120 million of IDJJ funding for youth programs and alternatives, not more trauma & incarceration.
