banner
Advertisement for Russell Hampton
Advertisement for ClubRunner
Advertisement for ClubRunner Mobile
Upcoming Events
International Service Committee (ISC)
Via zoom
Feb 28, 2022
7:15 AM – 8:30 AM
 
Community Service Committee Meetings
Vitrual (Zoom)
Mar 08, 2022
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
 
Club Service Committee - Zoom
Zoom
Mar 09, 2022
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
 
Al Tillery
ZOOM
Mar 16, 2022
12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
 
Alvin B. Tillery, Ph.D., hosted by Evanston's 3 Rotary Clubs DEI Task Force
Zoom
Mar 16, 2022
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
 
International Service Committee (ISC)
Mar 21, 2022
7:15 AM – 8:30 AM
 
Community Service Committee Meetings
Vitrual (Zoom)
Apr 12, 2022
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
 
Club Service Committee - Zoom
Zoom
Apr 13, 2022
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
 
View entire list
Meeting Notes from February 15, 2022
The Light for February 15, 2022
 
By Kathy Tate-Bradish
 
President Linda Gerber opened the meeting, and Bryant Wallace started us off with “Why We Are Rotarians.” For today’s thought, he reflected on the immediate and more distant past. As Coretta Scott King said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” What she went through impacted the community they all lived in, and “Service Above Self” is where the impact we have on our community comes from. 
 
Announcements
 
President Linda thanked our Light editor, Chuck Bartling, for several decades of working on our “newsletter of record.” Chuck told us he started in the mid-90s, and used to type the bulletin, paste it together, get it camera-ready, and take it to the print shop, which would then print and mail it to the club members. Today, he is grateful to the scribes who make his job easier. Linda extended the club’s debt of gratitude for 26 years of the record of our times.
 
Past District Governor Suzanne Gibson reminded us of the Bystander Intervention Training which will be held Thursday at 7 p.m.
 
Special Presentations
 
Connect by Rotary
 
Brian King, president-elect of the Rotary Club of Evanston and Director of Membership Development at Rotary International, introduced a new channel to expand our reach, especially to younger professionals, and to engage more like-minded people of action who aren’t able or interested in committing to a club at this time. Connect by Rotary is a platform being piloted only in the Chicago and Houston areas at the moment.
 
Brian introduced his colleague, Quinn Drew, Connect’s Community Engagement Specialist. Quinn explained that Connect, though primarily a community of non-Rotarians, is a good space to share events and ideas. The best part of Rotary can be not just connecting in shared volunteer experiences, but going back, discussing it, tagging people, and getting an expanded experience.
 
We can keep the excitement alive by using the volunteer forum to share upcoming opportunities, asking or answering questions, and sharing photos or quotes.
 
Mentoring is one of the benefits available on the site – being a mentor or asking for a mentor.  Club members interesting in mentoring can take the mentoring course in the Rotary Learning Center and can send Quinn the certificate to become available on Connect as a mentor. The process is explained on the site: connect.rotary.org.
 
Quinn urged club members to go to Connect by Rotary and sign up. Tell friends and acquaintances to “connect” with us! They are available to answer questions and coach us through the process.
 
Empower Girls Initiative
 
Rebeca Mendoza is working with Cherie Animashaun, the founder of the Her Rising Initiative, to create an initiative for our club to help empower girls, in line with RI President Shekhar Mehta’s priority, which will be continued with President-elect Jennifer Jones.
 
This initiative would give us a way to connect with youth. It will be something new and different for us, a social media campaign, reintroducing ourselves to the community, and highlight hearing from our girls. Start conversations with the young girls in your circle and ask them what they need to be empowered. Submit words of empowerment. Girls can share what they need to be empowered.
 
Rebeca showed a video of Cherie talking about the project. Email the text or videos to empowergirls@evlrc.org. Hillary Hufford-Tucker has designed a webpage for the initiative. More information will be forthcoming.
 
Program
 
Topic: Community Partners for Affordable Housing
 
Speaker: Rob Anthony
 
Club member Keith Banks, Executive Director of Reba Place Development Corporation (RPDC), introduced Rob Anthony, president of Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH).
The two organizations are collaborating on an affordable housing project in Evanston. They met while partnering on an affordable housing forum hosted by new member Dan Coyne. Rob has a wealth of experience related to affordable housing, is talented, family oriented, and cares about community.
 
Rob told us compelling stories about people whose lives were transformed by being able to get affordable housing through CPAH. It’s not just offering an affordable roof over someone’s head, but CPAH will also rehab a house to allow someone with mobility issues to stay in their home rather than having to move to institutional living. 
 
CPAH’s policies, especially through its Land Trust, enable people to build equity in their affordable home so that even when they sell it, they retain the equity they put in and the home stays affordable into perpetuity for future buyers. They started the first Land Trust in Illinois 25 years ago, and also built the first LEED gold certified affordable housing 12 years ago.
 
They partner with the City of Evanston and Evanston Township High School. Each year a geometry class at ETHS builds a house, the city donates a lot, the home is moved there, and it stays affordable even after it’s sold to the next buyer.
 
CPAH promotes diverse housing – their mission is not to make all housing affordable, but to make sure all communities have a broad range of housing in terms of both costs and people’s needs – single story, accessible, etc. Their mission is to develop affordable housing and provide services that empower individuals and families to secure and retain quality housing.
 
CPAH helps people buy a home, with education about the process, counseling, forgivable grants, and making affordable homes available for sale. They help people rent a home with affordable rentals and rental assistance. They help people repair their home with forgivable grants for repair and accessibility, and offer low cost loans. And they help people save their home with free counseling and mediation, and will intervene with the lender where appropriate.
 
Access to safe, affordable housing is fundamental – without it, everything else falls apart. With it, kids perform better in school, people can get and keep jobs, physical and mental health outcomes improve, and families can plan for the future and build stability.
 
In partnership with RPDC, CPAH has proposed “Adrian’s Village,” named after the late Adrian Willoughby, Executive Director of RPDC and beloved community member, as a development at Lot 1, the underutilized parking lot on South Boulevard.
 
They are one of two finalists in the process to be allowed to develop the lot. Adrian’s Village has been a labor of love. It would be a mixed-income development, with a second early learning center for Reba, a large play space, very green with onsite renewable energy.
 
The development team is local, much of it BIPOC-led. There will be a unique wealth-building fund, where even renters will be able to build wealth, not just owners. Home ownership is the greatest means by which low and moderate income households generate wealth, and this will allow renters to also have that opportunity.
 
CPAH works on housing justice and is assisting the city in administering the reparations funds pro bono, as part of CPAH’s DEI commitment.
 
Several members suggested that we could contact decision-makers that we might know to make it clear that our club, with its focus on affordable housing, supports the bid by CPAH and RPDC to develop Lot 1.
 
Guests and Milestones
 
Visiting Rotarians
 
Suzanne Gibson, Barrington Breakfast Rotary Club, Past District Governor
 
Brian King, Evanston Rotary Club, Rotary International
 
Jose Lopez
 
Other Guests
 
Georgia Vlahos, prospective member
 
Quinn Drew, Rotary International
 
Club Anniversaries
 
Marv Edelstein, 13 years
 
Nick Powers, 9 years
 
Steve Steiber, 9 years
 
Charlotta Koppanyi, 10 years
 
 
Read more...