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Illinois Disciples Foundation Sells Property,
Continues Strategic Planning Process

PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jen Tayabji, Executive Director and Campus Minister
(217) 840-8248 or tayabji@shout.net

The Illinois Disciples Foundation (IDF) has sold its campus property, including its building, located at 610 E. Springfield Ave. in Champaign. JSM Development, Inc. has purchased the property, which encompasses half of a block located on the northwest edge of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, and will assume ownership on July 1, 2008.

This sale is part of an ongoing strategic planning process at IDF begun last August. Despite the advantages of owning its own offices and meeting space, in recent years the IDF building itself had become a drain on financial and staffing resources, distracting the organization from its core goals. Freed of the burden, the IDF will be better able to serve the community and pursue its peace with justice mission.

The non-profit organization was one of the first campus ministries developed in the U.S. Founded in 1905 and chartered in 1916, the foundation originally carried out its work without its building. “We have always, and will continue to be, focused wholeheartedly on our mission work,” said Joe Miller, IDF’s Board moderator. The IDF is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Over the years, the foundation and its programs have worked on countless struggles for social change. In the 1980s, the IDF became a public sanctuary for numerous Guatemalan and Salvadoran refugees fleeing violence in Central America and seeking political asylum in the U.S. The IDF has also been involved in anti-war movements since the Vietnam War. More recently, the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative, a former program of the IDF, helped lead the anti-“Chief” movement targeting the racist symbol of U of I. Today, the IDF devotes its energy towards issues including: peace and anti-war, education, economic and worker justice, public health, and international concerns.

The Common Ground Food Co-op, currently located at the IDF, is also in the process of a dynamic transition. Moving to a new location at Lincoln Square Village later this summer, their new store will be more than twice the size of their current location, with a new deli, as well as over twice the local and organic food offerings.

For the near future, the Illinois Disciples Foundation will operate out of an office in downtown Champaign at 44 E. Main St., Suite 315. The IDF Board and staff will carry on the strategic planning process to develop new programs, devote time to strengthening its ties to the community, and ultimately elevate and uphold its peace with justice mission. Jen Tayabji, Executive Director and Campus Minister, commented, “The IDF is entering a moment of kairos, a time for history to be made and social justice to be fostered, where we can and will commit all of our energy and resources towards standing in solidarity and giving a voice to the voiceless.”

For more information about JSM Development, Inc., please contact Jill Guth, Director of Development, at (217) 359-8058 or jill@jsmdevelopment.com.

For more information about the Common Ground Food Co-op, please contact Jacqueline Hannah, General Manager, at (217) 352-2214.

For more information about the Illinois Disciples Foundation and its property sale, please contact Jen Tayabji at work at (217) 352-8721, on her cell at (217) 840-8248, or on email at tayabji@shout.net.

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PRC Website Moved To IDF Site

A message for the PRC:

Happy New Year's!

We want to inform you of some changes that will be occurring to the PRC web site, email, and list serves. As you may know, the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC) is currently not active. As part of this, we will be moving the PRC web site to the Illinois Disciples Foundation web site, where the PRC is a program. The Illinois Disciples Foundation is a peace with justice campus ministry and non-profit organization located on the University of Illinois campus. For more information on the IDF, please visit http://www.prairienet.org/idf.

You can find the new PRC site at:
http://www.prairienet.org/idf/prcweb/index.html

Please pardon our dust as we continue to move over all of the files as it has not been completed yet.

We will also no longer be using this list serve (prc-l@prairienet.org) for updates and announcements. If you are interested in getting similar emails, you can subscribe to the IDF email announcement list. It is a low-traffic list, much like this one. You can subscribe to this at:
1) http://www.prairienet.org/idf/idfmaillist.html
2) https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/listinfo/idf-l

Finally, the PRC email account (prc@prairienet.org) will no longer be active. If you would like to contact us in regards to the PRC, please send your correspondence to idf@prairienet.org.

We expect the accounts to be deactivated in the next two weeks.

In the last year, we have seen great social justice victories with the removal of "Chief Illiniwek" from the University of Illinois. And yet we have seen great struggles arise and flourish that require our constant attention and activity with the U.S.-led war in Iraq, amongst other issues.

As Howard Zinn wrote, "If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

We call on you to carry on our work for social justice and we thank you for all of your support!

In solidarity,

The PRC