Sanctuary Building
In our Palenque…
We welcome new arrivals as our new neighbors. • We recognize this is not a new crisis now but one people have been forced to navigate for a very long time. • We acknowledge the root causes as policies and social structures that have been orchestrated by Western governments to claim power while displacing and uprooting people from their homes. • We know if systems continue to make life impossible for people to live with abundance, we will have refugees everywhere. • We act in response through community actions and connections to provide basic and essential needs, resources, and comfortable spaces to decompress. • We collaborate to share stories that tell how similar many of our experiences really are. • We stand in solidarity with our longstanding and our new neighbors. We support peace and justice.
Learn more about the history and our current state of new arrivals in Chicago
Social Story project - Where Am I Now?
Youth leaders have also been instrumental in our Social Story project. We hope this tool can offer opportunities to grow love and understanding between established immigrant communities, African Americans, and asylum seekers (many of whom are of Afro-Latine and Native American descent). We realized that this political moment requires a “social story” to help ground new and old Chicagoans in common experiences of migration, fleeing from violence in search of peace and greater opportunity, and then confronting new challenges adjusting and being accepted.
Reframe the moment for both migrants and long-time Chicagoans who have gone without for too long.
Introduce some key historical/geopolitical information to both groups so they understand each other better (for example, including the history of segregation and redlining in Chicago and what it looks like to be unhoused; addressing the geopolitical situation in Venezuela or Ecuador—but telling these histories in accessible story form).
Ask some reflective questions of one another.
Provide information for accessing basic services in that area for all people in need.
The social stories that we shape through this project are being used as an organizing strategy to educate new arrivals about the history of movement work and current campaigns like Bring Chicago Home and Treatment Not Trauma.
Download the full coloring book here!
Nuevos Horizontes Comic Book
In a time of change and growth in Chicago, the Estudiantes sin Fronteras club at Schurz High School is embracing our new arrival neighbors by celebrating diversity and promoting understanding through storytelling. Through the Palenque project, students have collected personal stories from teenagers who have journeyed to Chicago from different countries, creating a comic book that highlights the unique migration experiences that have brought them to our city. Join us in shifting narratives and fostering unity through the power of shared stories.
Download the full comic book here: In English or In Spanish
