The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance hosted an activist networking event, "Social {drinking} for justice," July 31 at M Lounge.
Advocacy work is often broken up by identity or social issue with little overlap between communities. Organizers aimed to bring like-minded social justice advocates togetherboth non-profit professionals and volunteersto build an intersectional coalition across issues of sexuality, gender, race, social class and others.
"We do kind of get cordoned off in the work we do," said Shannon Sullivan, executive director of The Alliance.
Sullivan stressed the importance of strong connections between social-justice advocates, often consulting with colleagues when working on tricky issues or collaborating with other groups on related issues.
"If we all knew each other better, we'd be able to organically cross-pollinate, because really all our work is interconnected," said Sullivan. "We all have multiple identities, so our groups needs to be intersectional."
"I think it's always great to see marginalized communities joining together, sharing resources and figuring out how to help each other," said Imani Rupert, a volunteer counselor at Broadway Youth Center and an attendee of the event. "I think this event is a good opportunity to meet people working in social justice, including LGBT specifically, and see how different people do different types of work."
Approximately 40 activists met up at M Lounge for appetizers, cocktails and social networking.
"I think there is no substitute for meeting in person," said Sullivan. "We'd love another organization to pick up this event and host it again."