Gamaliel of Illinois Action for Jobs at State Capitol - Part 1

Hundreds of faith leaders and residents from the statewide
community organization, Gamaliel Of Illinois, rallied at the State capitol on Tuesday October 25, 2011 in efforts to create local jobs for women and
minorities in Illinois. State leaders were invited to sign the Rail Community Benefits Agreement agreement in a public signing ceremony at the Capitol. State leaders did not attend and will be visited at their office by clergy and lay leaders.

State leaders invited to this rally include Governor Quinn, Senator Durbin, Senator Kirk, Rep Shock, Rep Shimkus, Rep Shilling, and Illinois Department of Transportation Interim Director, Ann Schneider.

Gamaliel of Illinois consists of Faith Coalition for the Common Good in Springfield, Quad Cities Interfaith in the Quad Cities, Gamaliel of Metro Chicago in the Chicagoland area, and United Congregations of Metro East in East Saint Louis.

The Transportation Equity Network study, "The Road to Good Jobs, Making Training Work," makes the case that coming job creation efforts must expand opportunity by opening the construction field to those hit hardest by the recession. With major highway infrastructure investments all but guaranteed as a near-term job creation strategy, the question is whether those hit hardest by the recession—minorities and women—will be able to break through their historical exclusion from the highway construction field. On-the-job training and apprenticeship programs are a proven and dramatically underutilized way to achieve that goal.

Report here: http://transportationequity.org/Making-Training-Work-final.pdf
Pastor James Hunt of New Hope Community Church said, "We can no longer carry business as usual. Our people are suffering and we can no longer sit in the side lines waiting for something to happen. The Governor promised to support the construction of a third airport in Peotone IL, and so far no one's heard anything."

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• Gamaliel of Illinois
• jobs for women and minorities
• rally
• labor
• Transportation Equity Network