On Tuesday afternoon, October 20th, 2026, more than 40 residents of Villagebrook, Marian Park, and Autumn Ridge apartments, as well as allies from multiple local congregations held an action for sidewalks and pedestrian safety at Villagebrook Apartments.
Organized Residents of DuPage United Are Telling a Story of Hope: Come Together, Build Together
DuPage United assembled more than 250 residents to celebrate an affordable housing win in Glen Ellyn and to call for five similar developments across DuPage County
I am calling this the newsletter for DuPage United (DU) and Fox River Valley Initiative (FRVI), since much of our activities involve both of these Metro IAF organizations.
So, where are we, what have we done and where are we going?
I will try to summarize the past several months, including the April 20th Leader meeting. DU and FRVI continue to make progress.
DuPage Sponsors, publicly known as DuPage United, was one of 37 DuPage County not-for-profit organizations to receive a grant through DuPage Foundation’s Spring Community Needs Grant Program (CNGP). DuPage Foundation awarded $702,860, a new record amount, to organizations working in the areas of Health & Human Services. DuPage Sponsors received a grant in the amount of $25,000 to help support its ongoing campaign to reduce the number of incarcerated people with mental illness.
I would like to share about a recent visit in mid-January to 1212 Larkin, an affordable, accessible, housing development, in Elgin. DuPage United hosted tours of 1212 Larkin, led by organizers Amanda Reilly and Rabbi Ricky Kamil and people from DU’s member institutions (local churches, synagogues, mosques, nonprofit organizations, and associations). We were joined by a number of county and city/village officials, at the invitation of DuPage United, to visit 1212 Larkin and learn more about it. County Board Member Greg Schwarze was in my group.
Members of Redeemer were invited to see what affordable housing looks like in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. So, Mary Landis and Lanny Wilson trekked out to 1212 Larkin Street in Elgin, Illinois on cold, wet January 14, 2021 to view the project which was initiated in large part by the Fox River Valley Initiative in Kane County, an affiliate organization of our own DuPage United. One of the people on the tour offered that this is what it looks like when spiritual aspirations take material form.
Click here to download this reflection.
The last minutes of George Floyd’s life evoke the 22nd Psalm:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
And are so far from my cry
And from the words of my distress?
O my God, I cry in the daytime but you do not answer;
By night as well, but I find no rest.
So, too, do our thoughts go to our own memories of Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray--sons of our cities: New York, Cleveland, and Baltimore--black men murdered by police brutally, callously. Our anger and rage rise again.
The staff and board of DuPage United and DuPage Sponsors are honored to receive a $10,000 Community Needs grant from DuPage Foundation for our continuing work to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jail and prison in DuPage County. We commend DuPage Foundation for recognizing that systems change takes time and commitment, and for supporting our long-term strategy.
1212 Larkin is now accepting applications. Those in need of housing or know people who need housing are encouraged to apply soon. Click here for rental criteria.
Why do we experience such difficulty even imagining a different sort of society? Why is it beyond us to conceive a different set of arrangements to our common advantage? . . . . Our disability is discursive: we simply do not know how to talk about these things any more.
—Tony Judt, Ill Fares The Land (2010)
