Peace Advocacy Organizations
The following is a list of peace advocacy organizations working locally and nationally. You are invited to find out more about them by calling them, or by exploring their websites.
- American Friends Service Committee
- Amnesty International
- Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism
- Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine
- Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
- 8th Day Center for Justice
- Illinois Peace Action
- Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
- Loyola Anti-War Network (LAWN)
- Model United Nations
- The Mustard Seed Christian Bookstore
- Not In My Name
- Not in Our Name Project
- Office of Peace and Justice of the Archdiocese of Chicago
- Pax Christi
- Peace Museum
- Revolution Bookstore
- Voices in the Wilderness
American Friends Service Committee
The AFSC carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world. Founded by Quakers in 1917, AFSC's work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. In its Chicago office, programs include The Middle East Peace Program, the African-American Community Empowerment Program, the Praxis Project, and the Economic Justice Program.
Contact Information:
Michael McConnell, Regional Director
637 S. Dearborn, 3rd floor, Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: 312-427-2533
Email: afscchicago@igc.org
Website: www.afsc.org
Amnesty International
The Loyola chapter of Amnesty International is a student organization that advocates human rights and works toward social justice. The main concern is to lessen and eventually stop human rights violations that are rampant in most politically oppressed countries. Amnesty fulfills its duties and goals through letter writing, petition signing, and activity/information tables and events.
Contact Information:
Midwest Office, 53 West Jackson, Suite 731, Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312-427-2060
Email: aiusamw@aiusa.org
Website: www.amnestyusa.org
Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism
The CCAWR believes that waging war on Afghanistan and Iraq will neither serve justice nor guarantee security. The coalition seeks to build support for three specific agenda points: No to War, No to Racist Attacks, Defend Civil Liberties
Contact Information:
Phone: 888-471-0874
Email: CCAWR@aol.com
Website: www.chicagoantiwar.org
Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine
The committee is a community-based group dedicated to organizing local activities and educational events that advance the cause of peace and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. It supports efforts for resolution of the conflict that combine vision with pragmatism. Its ongoing activities include community education, film and discussion series, and action activities.
Contact Information:
Email: justpeace1@aol.com
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
The council seeks to cultivate harmony between the world's religious and spiritual communities and to foster their engagement with the world and its other guiding institutions in order to achieve a peaceful, just and sustainable world.
Contact Information:
Rev. Dirk Ficca, Executive Director
70 East Lake Street, Chicago, IL 60090
Phone: 312-629-2990
Website: www.cpwr.org
8th Day Center for Justice
The Center is composed of religious communities who collaborate in the struggle to provide a critical alternative voice to the systems that suppress the human community. It works for structural changes that will hasten the arrival of a more just world. It accomplishes this by seeking to model a world of right relationships by practicing principles of collaboration, cooperation, interdependence and nonviolence in all its work.
Contact Information
8th Day Center for Justice
205 West Monroe, Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312-641-5151
Email: 8thday@claret.org
Website: www.8thdaycenter.org
Illinois Peace Action
Illinois Peace Action is the state's largest peace and disarmament organization. IPA is an education and action organization of citizens committed to the abolition of nuclear weapons and to a long-range vision of lasting world peace. It works to educate citizens on the dangers of nuclear weapons and excessive military spending, advocate policy leading toward a more peaceful world, and build coalitions with other groups to reach these goals.
Contact Information:
Illinois Peace Action
226 South Wabash, Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312-566-9780
Email: ilpeace@igc.org
Website: www.webcom.com/ipa
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs combats poverty, racism, and anti-Semitism in partnership with Chicago's diverse communities. It pursues social and economic justice for Chicago's most vulnerable neighborhoods by promoting a vision of empowering communities from within. JCUA carries out this mission by assisting minority groups, building coalitions, promoting enlightened public policy on poverty and race issues and mobilizing a Jewish constituency to create a more just city.
Contact Information:
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
618 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: 312-663-0960
Email: jcuamail@jcua.org
Website: www.jcua.org
Loyola Anti-War Network (LAWN)
The Loyola Anti-War Network is a network of students, staff and faculty at Loyola University Chicago interested in raising awareness on campus and the Chicago area about U.S. led unjust wars. LAWN formed in reaction to the crisis in Iraq and has remained a visible presence on campus since October of 2002. The organization has held candlelight vigils, teach-ins, speakers, speak-outs, die-ins, banner drops, rallies and many other activities to protest the war against Iraq and to educate students about the realities of war.
Currently the organization is looking to expand the Loyola community's knowledge of other wars the U.S. is engaged in while continuing to spotlight Iraq. Last year we hosted the first national conference for the Campus Anti-War Network here on our campus in February of 2003. This year the national conference will be held at UIC in November; if you would like more information on that, please e-mail Anthony Moser at amoser2@luc.edu.
Contact Information:
Email: Jackie Boyd at jboyd@luc.edu.
Model United Nations
American Model United Nations (AMUN) is an educational organization founded to provide students with the highest quality, most professionally run simulation of the work and meeting of the United Nations. The Model United Nations Club at Loyola University seeks to enhance awareness of the United Nations' institutions and functions. It provides an avenue for student participation in Model United Nations simulations outside of structured classes, and supports university participation in major regional and national Model UN simulations under faculty direction and at the student's initiative. The AMUN International Collegiate Conference will be held in Chicago from November 22 -25, 2003, and will welcome over 1100 students from across the U.S. and the world.
Contact Information:
American Model United Nations International
5005 West Winona, Chicago, IL 60630
Phone: 773-777-AMUN
Email: mail@amun.org
Website: www.amun.org
Loyola contact: Erin Jackson at ejacks2@luc.edu
The Mustard Seed Christian Bookstore
THE MUSTARD SEED CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE is an ecumenical book source for the Christian market with emphasis in pastoral resource material in such areas as psychology, counseling for those in ministry, and social issues. In addition to Christian literature and general spirituality, the store carries a complete line of Bibles, along with books relating to Catholicism, Pentecostalism and Orthodox spirituality and the saints. You will find greeting cards, Christian jewelry, music, t-shirts, gift plaques, Bible covers, wall crosses and a variety of religious articles.
Contact Information:
Mustard Seed Christian Bookstore
1143 West Sheridan Road (Broadway & Devon near Loyola), Chicago, IL 60660
Phone: 773-973-7055
Not In My Name
Not In My Name is a gathering of concerned Jews who are committed to a peaceful and just resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It advocates for an end to the occupied territories, equitable distribution of natural resources, and a just resolution to the plight of Palestinian refugees.
Contact Information:
Not in My Name
PMB 206, 2859 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201
Phone: 312-409-4845
Website: www.nimn.org
Not in Our Name Project
A national network of individuals and organizations committed to building, strengthening, and expanding resistance to stop the U.S. government's entire course of war and repression being waged in the name of fighting terrorism.
Contact Information:
Email: info@notinourname.net
Website: www.notinourname.net
Office of Peace and Justice of the Archdiocese of Chicago
Based in the Catholic Social Tradition, the office educates, advocates, and empowers through the Catholic Church, parishes, schools, institutions and with community partners, to transform lives and society.
Contact Information
Adrienne Curry, Program Coordinator
Archdiocese of Chicago, Office of Peace and Justice
155 East Superior, Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312-751-8367
Email: acurry@archchicago.org
Website: www.archchicago.org
Pax Christi
Pax Christi USA strives to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ by exploring, articulating, and witnessing to the call of Christian nonviolence. This work begins in the personal life, and extends to communities of reflection and action, to transform structures of society. Pax Christi rejects war, preparations for war, and every form of violence and domination.
Contact Information:
Pax Christi USA
532 West Eighth Street, Erie, PA 16502
Phone: 814-453-4955
Email: info@paxchristiusa.org
Website: www.paxchristiusa.org
Peace Museum
The Peace Museum is the first and only of its kind in the U.S. exploring the impact of war and peace through the arts. It is actively dedicated to exploring creative nonviolent solutions to social issues through education, community involvement, and exhibitions chronicling local, national, and international efforts to attain peace. The collection consists of more than 10,000 artifacts including original paintings, sculptures, drawings, etc. Its current exhibit is "Nagasaki Journey" and is located in the Garfield Park Gold Dome
Contact Information:
Peace Museum
100 North Central Park Avenue (in the Garfield Park Gold Dome), Chicago, IL 60624
Phone: 773-638-6450
Website: www.peacemuseum.org
Revolution Bookstore
Books to understand and change the world! A collectively run bookstore that has been in Chicago for 25 years, it has a broad selection of revolutionary, radical, progressive books, magazines, videos and music, about philosophy, history, economics, women's and black studies.
Open hours: Tues-Fri 2-7 pm, Sat 11-7 pm, Sun 12-4 pm.
Contact Information:
Revolution Books
1103 North Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622
Phone: 773-489-0930
Voices in the Wilderness
Since its founding in 1996, Voices in the Wilderness has campaigned to end economic and military warfare against the Iraqi people. It has done this mostly by organizing delegations to Iraq in deliberate violation of UN economic sanctions and U.S. law, to publicly deliver small amounts of medical supplies to children and families in need. Its primary focus has always been ordinary Iraqi civilians and the most vulnerable of Iraqi society, especially children.
Throughout the US led "Operation Shock and Awe," VitW organized Iraq Peace Team delegations to live alongside ordinary Iraqis before, during and after the massive bombardment and subsequent occupation. Voices in the Wilderness functions as a network for nonviolent education and action: developing and practicing ways of nonviolent resistance. VitW is committed to teaching peace in formal teaching and learning environments as well as through grassroots, non-traditional settings
Contact Information:
Voices in the Wilderness
5315 North Clark Street, Box #634, Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: 773-784-8065
Email: info@vitw.org
Website: www.nonviolence.org/vitw