Happy Pride Month from CIF

🌈🎉 Celebrating Pride Month: Embracing Diversity and Inclusivity! 🌈🎉

As we enter the vibrant and empowering month of Pride, we want to take a moment to recognize the incredible diversity within our community and shed light on an often overlooked intersection: the beautiful bond between the LGBTQ+ community and individuals with disabilities.

At Center for Independent Futures, we firmly believe in fostering an inclusive society that embraces everyone, regardless of their abilities or sexual orientation. We want to celebrate and honor the remarkable individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ and also have disabilities.

Did you know that people with disabilities are an essential and vibrant part of the LGBTQ+ community? Their unique experiences, perspectives, and resilience contribute to the rich tapestry of the movement for equality and acceptance.

Throughout history, individuals with disabilities have faced unique challenges when it comes to expressing their identities and accessing supportive resources. We stand with them, advocating for their rights, breaking down barriers, and ensuring their voices are heard loud and clear.

This Pride Month, we want to celebrate the beautiful spectrum of identities within our community, including those who identify as LGBTQ+ and live with disabilities. Let’s continue to create safe spaces, promote inclusivity, and champion equality for all!

Join us as we celebrate love, diversity, and resilience. Together, we can create a world where every individual feels empowered, accepted, and celebrated for exactly who they are.

Happy Pride Month, everyone! 🎉🌈

#PrideMonth #InclusionMatters #LGBTQ+ #DisabilityPride #LoveIsLove #DiversityandInclusion

CIF Bingo Night is back and in Evanston

On August 21, Center for Independent Futures (CIF) is excited to host Bingo Night, an inclusive event full of fun, laughs, and prizes from 6:00-8:00 pm at Double Clutch Brewing Company, 2121 Ashland Avenue, Evanston.

Prior to the pandemic, CIF hosted Bingo Night at Hamburger Mary’s in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. For years, participants, family, board members, and staff gathered for fun evenings of Charity Night Bingo, raising funds for CIF. During the pandemic, CIF held Virtual Bingo Nights hosted by crowd-pleaser and friend of CIF,  Alexis Bevels.

Sadly, Hamburger Mary’s closed its doors, and Alexis Bevels has moved on to Los Angeles.  Imagine how thrilled we were to learn that Double Clutch Brewing Company has begun hosting “Bier Hall Bingo” featuring  Muffy Fishbasket right here in Evanston! 

Both Alexis and Muffy made their mark in Evanston prior to being involved with Center for Independent Futures. In 2017, the Evanston Public Library hosted Alexis and Muffy “as part of its bimonthly program geared toward the city’s LGBTQ teens,” as reported by the Daily Northwestern in the article, Chicago drag queens to speak at Evanston Public Library. 

CIF’s Bingo Night is more than just a fundraiser. It’s an inclusive event recognizing the diversity of our own community. “The LGBTQ community and the disability community intersect in significant ways,” observes an article entitled LGBTQ People with Disabilities. “Too often, people with disabilities are represented by straight, white men in a wheelchair.”  The disability community mirrors society in general, with members of all genders and sexualities. 

We hope you join us for this inclusive night of fun and laughs as we raise funds supporting CIF’s person-centered coaching, supported community housing, and community building. Your $20 bingo card is your ticket to this summer night out. While we play bingo, food will be available for purchase. Dinner costs are not included in the bingo card price.

Come be a part of our community where everyone is welcome! Get your bingo card today! 

Team CIF is ready to roll – Bike the Drive 2021

We have our gears greased and our tires pumped!


TeamCIF is a community of adults with and without disabilities who participate in the Fifth Third Bike the Drive every year. This group is committed to raising funds for Center for Independent Futures, which supports adults with disabilities living full, independent lives.

Every dollar raised supports our efforts to provide virtual and in-person social opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Our activities are giving a lifeline to so many of our participants during these challenging times. Please donate today and support individuals with disabilities living their full lives!

On September 5th, our bike riders will join thousands of others on Lake Shore Drive. The entire length of this gorgeous route will be closed to regular traffic, open only to cyclists. It is an honor for our participants to take part in this Chicago tradition.

Please donate today and support individuals with disabilities living their full lives!

Donate to the entire team here. Individual riders’ pages may be found here: Mike SenerAdam WiserRicky GoodenJeff Morthorst, and the Fox Family.

Help Spread the Word!

Moving Beyond Diversity

Thanks to Evanston Cradle to Career, some staff members attended a two-day seminar on moving beyond diversity. What does that mean?

It means that if we are going to create a society that treats everyone equally, we can’t only consider diversity. We must reconsider the ways we are taught to think about abilities, race, class, and gender. Together, our community needs to think of the diversity of experiences people have – not just diversity of skin color.

Continue reading to find out what each staff member discovered at Beyond Diversity.

Sharon Purdy

As our facilitator said, “public learning is hard.” My best learning happened when I was most uncomfortable.

Why did I show up? I wanted an action plan. I wanted something I could do every day to be more aware and continue to learn from others’ perspectives. It’s great that our small group of colleagues at CIF has continued the conversation. I look forward to continued work together in hopes that we can keep this important conversation and resulting ideas and actions in the forefront of the work we do.

Niki Moe Horrell

I grew up in a mainly white community where there were distinct prejudices against people of color and this was against the threads of who I was, yet, this was where I lived. During the seminar, my mind was opened to some harsh realities:

Five staff members who attended Beyond Diversity pose for photo

I would not know how it feels to be racially profiled and followed by the police. I would not know how it feels to be watched in a department store. I would not know that the lighter the skin tone, the more privileged the person is.

People of color mentioned each of these experiences at the seminar. We all need to put ourselves in others’ shoes and create a change, for people of every color matter and every color creates the human race.

 

Claudia Quijada

Diversity and inclusion are becoming an important topic nowadays. However, there are always big challenges that societies face and these challenges, sometimes, become stronger than the willingness of good people. We can only achieve an inclusive goal when a society finds support from local governments. They must create policies specifically for the protection of the rights of minority groups.

Kathy Lyons

In championing inclusion for people with disabilities, we can be allies with others who face discrimination because the community of people with disabilities is as diverse as the population of people without.

The work of becoming racially conscious is deeply personal, often uncomfortable, and on-going.

Chrissy Lewis

Courageous Conversations logo

The opportunity to participate in the Beyond Diversity training for two days was a professional gift. The facilitator was willing to take risks and allow the people participating in the training to drive the conversation on race.  When these personal conversations took place, I learned the most about ideas like colorism and having courageous dialogues.

Although Evanston is a diverse community, it isn’t integrated. I spent time reflecting on my role in white dominance and the privileges that I am afforded. Finally, I reflected upon what conversations to take back to the Center for Independent Futures community on race.  

Connor Larsen

The most important aspect of being aware of race is possessing an ability to talk about difficult issues. The Beyond Diversity seminar provided us with tools for productive and valuable conversations about race, white privilege, and whiteness.

I am excited to work at an organization that encourages its staff to take racial differences and community building seriously. While there is so much work to be done in the world at-large, the best thing we can do is start at home. We will continue to have these difficult conversations among staff and community partners, and I hope that we can spread the tools we learned.

Du kan hitta närmaste apotek som är öppet på natten eller Vilka andra sexrelaterade problem drabbar kvinnor? på en söndag genom att gå till adressen. Observera att om du köper läkemedel på ett jouröppet apotek tillkommer 2,50 euro på kvittot.

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