| Arab American Action Network | |
3148 W. 63rd St. Chicago, IL 60629
773-436-6060
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Staff
Hatem Abudayyeh
Executive Director
Rasmea Yusef
Associate Director
Suha Abuosba
Case Manager
Samira Ahmad
Lead Case Manager
Gihad Ali
Youth Organizing Program Coordinator
Halima Bahri
Youth Services
Program Coordinator
Muna Hammad
New Americans Initiative/ Citizenship Project
Nadia Musa
AmeriCorps Members
Nazly Damasio
Aaisha Durr
Tahany Elian
Besan Quran
Muhammad Sankari
Shira Tevah
Laila Younes
Put Illinois to Work
Amal Abdellatif
Medinah Abdelmuti
Tammy Abughnaim
Kholoud Abusalem
Inas Affaneh
Yasmeen Affaneh
Mahmoud Alshaikh
Nuer Alshaikh
Aris Cervantes
Ramzy Elian
Veronica Garcia
Hanan Ghanayem
Ayah Hassan
Mustafa Hassan
Remal Hindi
Amany Hussein
Widad Hussein
Heba Matari
Rowaida Nofal
Asma Razik
Donia Razik
Sabreen Razik
Arasele Robles
Fatmah Tabally
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Board
Lamees Talhami
Louise Cainkar-Mashrah
Treasurer
Widad AlBassam
Laila Farah
Ahlam Jbara
Mona Khalidi
Souzan Naser
Ora Schub
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$3,000 DREAM Scholarships Available
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Students American Dream Scholarships Available Now!
Application Deadline is March 15th, 2011 Four $3,000 American Dream Scholarships will be awarded to promising students pursuing a career in the Human Services field. This one-time scholarship opportunity is made possible through a partnership between the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS). Last year, ICIRR and DHS were honored by the Migration Policy Institute with an E Pluribus Unum award recognizing their outstanding immigrant integration programs. If you are foreign-born graduate who has been accepted and planning to attend an accredited Illinois Public College or University in the upcoming 2011/2012 school year, you may be eligible. To obtain a complete list of eligibility requirements, please download the application checklist and application. Apply Now! |
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AAAN's Muhammad Sankari Featured on WBEZ
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Cultural Outreach Coordinator and Youth Organizer Muhammad Sankari was nominated by the Chicago Cultural Alliance to participate in WBEZ's Dear Chicago series, a project that "flips the script by having Chicago residents talk about urgent problems affecting their lives," according to WBEZ's website.
Sankari spoke on the criminalization of youth of color and the need to change the city's policing tactics. He was joined by Yazen Affaneh, one of our youth leaders, who spoke on a personal experience he had with the police.
Listen to the story here.
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ATTN: Calling all the Youth
Have you seen our amazing youth video?
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Watch here.
Have you taken this survey?
Dear Friends & Community Members,
The Arab American Action Network's Youth Organizing Program is seeking Arab youth from across the U.S., ages 14-24 years, to participate in a 21-question survey that takes less than 10 minutes to complete. This survey was designed by youth leaders in our program, with the support of adult staff and consultants. With this survey, we hope to better understand the views and beliefs that young people in our community have around domestic violence and abuse, and we will use these findings to further develop the AAAN's Healthy Relationships Program, our domestic violence prevention program for youth.
Please share this link with young people and encourage them to participate in this anonymous survey.
Click here to participate: AAAN Survey of Arab Youth
Have you forgotten...? About the Arab Youth Network and the AAAN's after-school drop-in hours? The Arab Youth Network (AYN) was created to empower Arab-immigrant and Arab-American high school students like yourself from across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs through a variety of leadership activities and by giving you opportunities to get more involved in the community.
Apply here. After School Drop in Center Mondays & Wednesdays, 5-8PM. Do homework, get tutoring, and just hang out. No need to sign up in advance, just show up! |
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And the Winner Is...
2010 MIDDLE EAST AMERICA DISTINGUISHED PLAYWRIGHT AWARD
GOES TO YUSSEF EL GUINDI!
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Seattle-based playwright Yussef El Guindi, author of numerous plays including Our Enemies (Osborn Award), Back of the Throat and Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, has been selected to receive the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. Honorable mentions went to playwrights Nastaran Ahmadi, Denmo Ibrahim, Ken Kaisser, Mona Mansour, and Heather Raffo.
The prize, which is granted every other year to an American writer of a Middle Eastern background by a consortium composed of San Francisco's Golden Thread Productions, New York's Lark Play Development Center, and Chicago's Silk Road Theatre Project, comes with a $10,000 commission to write a new play of the author's choice, artistic development support for two years, and possible productions at both Silk Road and Golden Thread. During the commissioned play's development and production arc, representatives of each partner organization, along with El Guindi, will travel to each city-Chicago, New York, and San Francisco-to observe the play's creative process and to engage in public conversations and panel events about Middle Eastern American voices.
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Upcoming Events
Tonight!
Justice For All and All For Justice: Building Community Resistance to the FBI and Grand Jury Repression
Friday, March 4th
5:30 PM
Aqsa School
7631 W. 92nd Street, Bridgeview, IL
Free admission; refreshments will be served.
On September 24th, 2010, a number of anti-war and international solidarity activists, including a Palestinian, had their homes raided by the FBI, and 14 total were served Grand Jury subpoenas in Chicago, Minnesota, and Michigan.
In December, another 9 in Chicago were served subpoenas,
including six additional Palestinians. All 23 are resisting this "witch hunt" that seems to be focused on the Palestinian
community and Palestine solidarity work, and have exercised their 5th amendment right to not testify at the Grand Jury.
Please join us as we discuss current and historical FBI repression against Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and other communities in the U.S., with panelists Michael Deutsch, Hatem Abudayyeh, Rafeeq Jaber, Sarah Smith and Sheikh Jamal Said, as well as provide a legal update and talk about what our community can do to stop FBI repression.
Tahrir/Liberation Square in Chicago!
12:00 PM
Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph
Join community organizations from around the city for teach-ins and workshops on Chicago's own revolution.
National Coming Out of the Shadows Day
Undocumented. Unafraid. Unapologetic.
March 10th
3:00 PM
Daley Plaza
Join the Immigrant Youth Justice League (IJYL) for a mass youth-led immigrant rights mobilization in Chicago, and national coordinated actions by youth and students starting on March 10th, 2010 in support for a path towards legalization.
Michelle Alexander Book-Signing and Reception: "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness"
Thursday, March 17
Roosevelt University
Murray-Green Library, 10th Floor
430 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago
4:30-6:00 PM Lecture and Discussion
6:00-6:30 PM Book Signing and Reception
"A timely and original framework for understanding mass incarceration, its roots to Jim Crow, our modern caste system, and what must be done to eliminate it. This book is a call to action." --Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP
Arabic Storytime Saturday, March 19 11:00 AM Oak Lawn Public Library 9427 S. Raymond Avenue, Oak Lawn, IL
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AAAN Updates=========================================
AAAN youth attended Students for Justice in Palestine- De Paul's 4th Annual Café Resistance on January 24. Performers included DePaul Student KrisDeLash, Bill Chambers of the Palestine Solidarity Group, Phero, SWYC's King Keith, Louder Than a Bomb co-founder Kevin Coval, formerly-of-the-AAAN Gon, and emcee Khaled M. The evening celebrated arts that resist oppression.
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AAAN celebrated with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) the New Americans Initiative's 1000th citizenship workshop during the 2011 One Nation, One Dream: Immigrant Integration Summit on February 5. Volunteers helped almost 200 people fill out U.S. citizenship applications. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn commended the State of Illinois and ICIRR for their work welcoming new Americans.
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The AAAN's After School Matters youth organizing program semester began on February 11 with 15 participants, including some returning youth leaders and many new youth. Asia Grove, a new participant, says "the program has been great so far."
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AAAN attended a press conference February 28 with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to call attention to and protest the proposed 75% state budget cuts in immigrant and refugee services. Participants in the conference included members of the Latino caucus and representatives of social service agencies.
Learn more about these budget cuts.
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AmeriCorps Working
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A vital program under threat of shutting down
 | | Younes addresses audience at 15th anniversary fundraiser |
The Arab American
Resource Corps
(ARC) began as the Arab-American Community Service Initiative in 2002, an innovative project developed by the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)-Michigan to place AmeriCorps members with Arab-American community-based organizations across the country. Most immigrant communities face barriers-including poverty, racism, and a lack of culturally and linguistically specific services-to participation in American economic and civic life. For the Arab community in the wake of the attacks of 2001, these problems were compounded by increased isolation and fear. Since 2002, ARC members have helped Arab Americans and immigrants around the country move past their fears to access the services they need to maintain strong and healthy families, take steps toward economic self-sufficiency, and become integrated into American society. The program has grown from 30 members in 03-04 to the 75 members currently serving in 10 states and D.C.
ARC members do a variety of different tasks. At the AAAN, some serve as bi-lingual caseworkers. Some work in the after-school homework assistance program for elementary school children and youth. Some do cultural presentations about the Arab American community for outside groups and institutions. And every year, they plan a service day in May. This year, one of the AAAN's ARC members, Laila Younes, wants to create a bigger and better Service Day than ever before. Younes, in her second year of AmeriCorps in the Youth Services program, came up with the idea to host a health fair/ community bbq/ blood drive in the park. (To help us raise the costs we need for our March 19th event, donate here and write in "Service Day.") Currently studying for the MCAT, she anticipates a career in medicine to "give back to underserved populations and the Arab community," she says. "Not just in terms of providing healthcare, but also health education." Service Day will be an opportunity for her to put it into practice.
Read more.
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 The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) strives to strengthen the Arab community in the Chicago area by building its capacity to be an active agent for positive social change. As a grassroots nonprofit, our strategies include community organizing, advocacy, education, providing social services, leadership development, cultural outreach and forging productive relationships with other communities. |
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