During a series of town hall meetings hosted across the South Side of Chicago by Illinois legislators, community members demanded accountability and transparency in the legalization law. This leads to the first Coalition meeting at the Port Ministries in Back of the Yards where the group develops a list of priorities for legalized cannabis. During the Coalition’s first year, they met with lawmakers to share their strategies to achieve equity & justice, participated in National Expungement Week events, and launched the Know Your Rights program.

The Coalition organizes the first ever Community Benefits Agreement for a cannabis business in the nation, holds its first fundraiser raising thousands of dollars for record clearing programming, and launches an expanded expungement program that includes RAP Sheet Assistance Day, a community resource fair, and virtual resource fair.

The Coalition launched our in-house wraparound reentry services. We also celebrated the passing of HB1443, legislation that Coalition members helped draft. We secured grants for our work, including for policy research.

We launched two major programs this year, including our re-entry collaborative, the Community Legacy Resource Fellowship, as well as the CEIC Youth Team, who provide all the same resources and programming for their peers.

We continued hosting our community programming, and we launched a Tech Literacy Program for people impacted by incarceration. In total, we trained nearly 1,000 people on how to use Email, write resumes and apply for jobs, create budgets, protect their online data, and much more!

On top of all of our existing programming, we distributed more than 25,000 Stash Bags in collaboration with Prevention First. We hosted another lobby day, bringing more than 100 people to the Capitol to speak truth to power.

The Coalition continues to table at nearly 200 events each year, distributing resources and education for our neighbors. We continue advocating for our communities in policy, and watchdog the state.