On Saturday, January 30th, youth, community members, organizers and advocates from all over Illinois gathered in Chicago to coordinate actions that will take place over the next few months. About 185 leaders from various districts worked together in learning new skills, in sharing their personal narratives of struggle, fear, determination, and perseverance, as well as generating ideas and plans as to how to target their respective districts and legislators.

Participants included the Immigrant Youth Justice League, Nuestra Voz, students from Illinois high schools, members of community organizations such as Latinos Progresando and ICIRR (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights), as well as students from various Illinois universities such as Dominican, Northern Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, and University of Illinois at Chicago, just to name a few. Steven Smith, Illinois representative of Reform Immigration FOR America, and Jose Luis Marantes national youth organizer for Center for Community Change helped to facilitate and set the stage throughout the day.

Remember the 2006 marches? The movement building training concluded with a tallying of commitments including 66 buses and 2,825 riders committed to raising $243,000 for a national march to D.C.!

On January 26th, 2010, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution, voting 13 to 3 in support of CIR ASAP and urging Congress to pass a just and humane immigration reform.

Illinois, Obama’s home state, is on a roll in holding him accountable and there is no stopping them!

To participate or receive updates on Illinois, make sure to check out the organizations mentioned above.

Finally, special shout out to Kyle from Citizen Orange who came all the way from Massachusetts to conduct the web 2.0 training!