CAIR-CHICAGO

Our goal is to help the American Muslim community take its rightful place as an equal partner on the social, political, and cultural tables of America, along with other faith communities and American sub-cultures. We aspire to normalize the image of Islam and Muslims in both American media and public consciousness. And we aim to help maximize the contribution of American Muslims to American civic society.

We seek to accomplish our goal through the following strategies:
1)Public Education:
-Know Your Rights: We work with Muslim community centers, mosques, and private groups to educate them on their civil rights in the United States as citizens and subjects of this nation
-Sensitivity Training; We work with employers, companies, universities, schools, law enforcement, etc., to educate them on the basics, complexities, and nuances of the Muslim community in America so they can increase their understanding and improve their working relationships.
-We run special projects like the Chicago School Project where we educate administrators on how to better increase inclusivity and understanding in schools, the Bystander Project where we train groups in methods of bystander intervention, the outreach project where we work with community partners to foster solidarity,

2)Legal Representation
-We work to represent Muslims in legal discrimination cases from arbitration to litigation

3)Policy Advocacy
-We advocate for just policies that affect religious minorities and immigrants

4)Government Outreach
-We work with government elected and appointed officials to ensure a healthy bridge between our government and our communities

5)Media Representation
-We are the main spokespersons for Muslims in the mainstream media, helping to bring a unique voice to media platforms that is often unheard or spoken on behalf of

6)Leadership Development
-Our strong Internship Program trains hundreds of college students on how to be better leaders for self, community and country; our Muslim Youth Leadership Symposium does the same with hundreds of Muslim high school students.

Our capabilities include:
- Budget: One million dollars a year raised entirely from our community. 100% local community funded.
- Work Force: 11 staff employees, 5 board members, 20 interns per quarter, and dozens of volunteers per year
- Office: 6500 square feet of prime space in the heart of downtown Chicago
- Facilities: In-house media production studio, and Azima Gallery (our in-house public functions center that can host 75 people per event)
- Websites: 4 websites that include a flagship online news and opinion website
- Access: CAIR-Chicago has unique access to all the mosques and Muslim schools and centers in the Chicagoland area, regardless of background and as such is among the most inclusive and included of Muslim representative organizations in the city and state.
- Coalitions and Partners: We are members of many important community coalitions and partnerships in the city and state, that collectively work to combat hate and encourage inclusiveness.

Over the past 15 years, CAIR-Chicago has emerged as the premiere Muslim representative community organization in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, particularly in the areas of legal defense and advocacy, community partnerships, government outreach, and public education. CAIR-Chicago receives over 75 annual letters of recognition for our work from the governor, mayor, senators, house representatives, law enforcement and other elected officials both local and federal. We have established one of the most active and successful nonprofit internship programs in the city. We have leveraged the potent power of the youth and volunteer base in our community. We have set up a powerful system to recruit and place interns and volunteers in the right place at the right time leading to maximum efficiency. We take into consideration each volunteer’s talents, set of skills, and interests and then place them accordingly in a project, so that it is simple plug-and-play. This also makes interning and volunteering with us enjoyable for them and not merely a chore. We regard them as community activists, and not simply interns or volunteers. We created clearly defined goals for each project, and set milestones so that progress is tangible and measurable. Graduates of our programs are now involved in every other major community organizations, along with the professional training they received with us. CAIR-Chicago is the primary media contact for all the major networks when it comes to community issues.

We have successfully bypassed conventional barriers that have plagued our community in the past. We have worked to dissolve the generational, class, and racial gaps by stressing the common aspirations and challenges that face us all thus creating a unique cross-generational and multi-racial support network for our work.
We have been vigilant in avoiding potential pitfalls that usually create tension and rifts in the Muslim community, such as dogmatic disagreements between religious currents or schools of thought. We are not a religious organization in that we don’t issue decrees, nor interpret religious text for the people. We are a community services organization and as such we wish to serve with integrity and professionalism any party that sees itself as Muslim. A clear and dominant theme in our work has been inclusion.

CAIR-Chicago is a different kind of organization. Its track record over its short years of operation since 2004 showcase fulfilled promises and speaks of a bright future.
Some of our numbers:
-5,000 Discrimination Cases Adjudicated
-919 Interns Graduated
-1400 Media Interviews Aired
-15 Years of consistent services
-5,000 unique donors
-15,000 annual banquet attendees