Applications for the 2026 Seeding the Future Program are now LIVE! Click here and apply today.

Seeding the Future Leadership Development Program invests in activists and community leaders who have ideas that express, inspire, and build toward Black liberation at the community level. This is done by investing in the financial and social futures of on-the-ground experts who are organizing and fighting for their neighborhoods. During the program, participants receive a stipend and develop their leadership skills through coaching, experience, and workshops.

The goal of this program is to bring people together to explore new opportunities for their neighborhoods and sow seeds that could result in increased community and civic engagement, improved relationships with neighbors, and other elements of social change. The leader’s projects have a long-term goal of creating stronger communities and getting people more involved in the decisions that are made about their neighborhoods.

Reparations are defined as the making of amends for a wrong that one has done; by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged, and are given to horrifically oppressed groups of people by their oppressive nations, states, institutions, and/or complicit corporations. Occurring after the harm has been done, these offerings are intended to serve as an apology and often come alongside one. They should also begin to repair the damage caused and present a plan to address structural inequities. 

Conversations about reparations have been happening since the end of slavery. There must be multiple paths to reparations because Black people are not all the same. Our partner Equity and Transformation (EAT), are working on reparations for the War on Drugs. We encourage all Black people to imagine what reparations for slavery, and the systems predicated upon slavery, might look like for their communities.   

Black Americans, haven't received reparations for any of the continued state-enabled Black oppression, including Jim Crow, redlining/residential segregation, voter suppression, environmental racism, and mass incarceration. A significant body of research has provided frameworks and proposals for federal reparations. HR-40, the bill designed to create a federal study and task force to examine what reparations would look contemporarily, hasn't been brought to the floor for an official vote. Though history was made in 2021 when this bill made it past a subcommittee of the House of Representatives.

Everyone in Chicago deserves access to affordable, equitable, transparent, democratic, and just water service. The water for all ordinance can make this a reality. This ordinance creates a Water for All program that will provide financial relief for low-income households. It will prevent corporations from capitalizing on a human need by prohibiting water privatization. It also requires a plan to ensure equitable implementation of capital improvements. The city has not done a great job with keeping track of shutoff data. This ordinance will lead to improvements in transparency on shutoffs, liens, and water debt. Lastly, but certainly not least, it will ban water shutoffs and tax foreclosures to collect household water bills. Water for All can make a huge impact on our communities and treat water like the human right it is.

To sign the petition calling for Mayor Johnson to bring the water for all ordinance to a vote before City Council start here.

For more information about the ordinance or the Water For All Coalition please contact Oliver Ciciora, Organizer and Environmental Justice Coordinator, at SOUL.