WHAT:           Open Communities presents Open Doors Open Minds, the 4^th Rayna and Marvin Miller Housing Justice Award Benefit.  Celebrating outstanding grassroots achievement in fair and affordable housing in Chicago’s northern suburbs as well as the 40-year-old organization’s first year as Open Communities, the event is open to the public and includes cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, music and a silent auction. Tickets are $75.

WHEN:           Wednesday, May 29, 2013 from 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

WHERE:         Lakeview Room at Park Center, 2400 Chestnut Avenue at the Glen in Glenview. 

WHO:             Gail Schechter, a pioneer of justice-oriented community organizing in suburban Chicago, is the recipient of the Miller Housing Justice Award. On her 20^th anniversary as Open Communities’ Executive Director, she is being honored for organizing racially, ethnically, and economically diverse residents in the northern suburbs, including low-income Morton Grove motel tenants, Skokie cab drivers, and Highwood Latino renters fighting displacement; residents of affluent Northbrook, Park Ridge, Wilmette, and Winnetka uniting for affordable housing in their own communities; parents, teachers, and religious leaders as United We Learn to push for education funding reform in the wake of State Sen. Rev. James Meeks 2008 protest with Chicago children at New Trier High School; and uniting religious leaders in the wake of hate shootings in 1999. Originally from New York City, Gail was a tenant organizer, and later staff organizing director, for a Brooklyn non-profit group. Last year, Governor Quinn appointed her to the State Housing Appeals Board in the designated “affordable housing advocate” chair. 

Jan Marsden-Johnson and Gerald (Jerry) Howard are the recipients of the Housing Action Award. Two of the founders of the Deerfield Affordable Housing LLC, they are being awarded for realizing the first affordable single family home in Deerfield. Both are on the Board of One Deerfield Place, the only senior affordable multifamily building in Deerfield. Jan, an advocate for individuals with special needs, wanted to expand affordable housing choices for years. Jerry lent his expertise as a private client advisor to refinance One Deerfield Place and generate assets that opened the door to new projects. With these new funds and technical support from Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, Jan spearheaded the expansion of affordable housing to individual homes in Deerfield. Along with other board members, they formed the Deerfield Affordable Housing, LLC and bought their first home last year. A family has moved into the home and the group bought a second house, planned to be a supported living home for special needs adults.

WHY:             In honor of Rayna and Marvin Miller, founders of Open Communities in 1972 (then called the North Shore Interfaith Housing Council) and long dedicated to eradicating racial and economic discrimination in housing in Wilmette and surrounding suburbs, the Award was established in 2008 to reward and publicize north suburban grassroots achievement by residents to bring about diverse and inclusive communities in their own backyards. 

2013 is the agency’s first year as Open Communities, having transformed itself from the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs in October 2012.  Open Communities’ mission is to educate, advocate and organize to promote just and inclusive communities in north suburban Chicago.  The name change and broadened mission expand the agency’s capacity to assist local residents to come together around diversity-related issues such as equitable public school funding and immigrant integration, in addition to fair and affordable housing.  Inclusive and diverse communities are healthy, robust and right.  

About Open Communities

Founded in 1972 by north suburban residents and congregations, Open Communities is a nonprofit, membership-based organization dedicated to fostering economically and culturally diverse communities.  The organization educates, advocates and organizes in the name of social justice, working collaboratively with current and prospective residents, local groups and municipalities. Programs include:

•           Fair Housing Discrimination Investigation & Education

•           Foreclosure Prevention Counseling

•           Homesharing

•           Landlord/Tenant Advice

•           Immigrant Leadership Development

•           Affordable Housing Advocacy

•           Community Organizing.