Join us in our first meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities May 7th at 6:30 pm!

Restorative Justice (RJ) is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behavior, identifying disparities in the judicial system and supporting returning citizens back into the community.

After paying the price for their crime, many returning citizens go on to face job discrimination, loss of voting rights, and, very often, poverty.
Quad Cities Interfaith wants to break this crippling cycle. Join us for our first Restorative Justice issue session to discuss options of how to create quantitative change in our community on these issues.

Upcoming Conference to Address  Iowan's Racial  Disparity in Sentencing: 
"Mobilizing to End Mass Incarceration: An Action  Conference."
Saturday, May 2, 2015. Gerard Hall, Allen College of Nursing. Waterloo, IA. 8:30 am - 4:00pm.
Keynote speaker David Liners is the Executive Director of our sister Gamaliel affiliate, WISDOM ( Wisconsin) who will speak on their 11X15 Campaign to reduce incarceration rates in WI. . The conference will expand our knowledge about mass incarceration, restorative justice, and, most importantly, what we can DO.

QC Interfaith & Illinois Department of Labor Host Worker's Rights & Jobs Summit Saturday, February, 22, 2014 at Second Baptist Church, Rock Island

On Saturday, February 22, Quad Cities Interfaith, the Illinois Department of Labor, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Tri City Building Trades Council, and Black Hawk College are working together to hold a day long summit on Jobs and Worker Rights at Second Baptist Church - 919 6th Avenue in Rock Island.

Workshops will include : worker's rights information, including wage theft issues, Information about careers in construction trades and pre apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, Information from the State of Illinois about construction projects coming to the Quad Cities
Black Hawk College will share information about the new Highway Construction Careers Training Program (HCCTP) at Black Hawk College.

QCl leaders will talk about our 100 Ready Workers Campaign, which is designed to create a pipeline of workers from our community who are  trained and ready to be hired for the jobs coming our way through the rail and 1-74 bridge projects. 

If you or someone in your congregation is concerned about bringing good paying jobs to our community, and working for more minorities and women to get jobs in the area's workforce, Join us!  
Participants will receive a binder of  information  on job training opportunities and other helpful resources.

Highway Construction Careers Training Program Begins at Black Hawk College 

The Highway Construction Careers Training Program (HCCTP) of the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Community College Board begins at Black Hawk College in Moline.
The HCCTP program is designed to increase the number of minorities, women, and disadvantaged individuals working on IDOT highway construction projects.   Black Hawk College is enrolling for classes in beginning March 31, 2014. The course  goes until June 2014.  These class is 36 hours per week and is an intensive program addressing skills for working in the  highway construction trades: enrollees will learn math, job readiness skills, safety, technical construction skills, tool use, fork lift, and machine operation.  The classes are open to Iowa and Illinois residents.

The QC Interfaith Jobs Equity leaders worked with Illinois Dept of Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider to specifically bring this program to the Quad Cities to address the need for job training to get our workers ready for the good paying jobs coming our way  as part of the  I- 74 bridge and the rail project. Job training is one aspect of QCI's 100 Ready Workers campaign. 

Orientation dates for the March session are as follows: Tuesday, Feb 18th through Friday, February 21. For more information and to register for orientation, contact Susan Llewllyn at 309-796-5716 or llewellyns@bhc.edu

QC Interfaith Leadership Assembly meets the second Tuesday of every month! 
Our meetings have a new location
Tuesday,  March 11, 2014 and Tuesday, April 8th at 6:30pm 
15th Avenue Christian Church, 3600 15th Avenue, Rock Island.                      http://15thavechristianchurch.org/

QCI Fire of Faith Leadership Meeting Oct. 25th

Join lay and clergy leaders on October 25th, 2012 at 6:30 pm at Sacret Heart Catheral Parish Center (422 E 10th Street, Davenport, IA) for our 2012 Fire of Faith Meeting.The theme this year is Fire of Faith- rekindling our congregations, rekindling our economy, rekindling our democracy. Local congregations will be gathering to discuss local issues, to plan and develop strategies on ways to work together to rejuvenate our congregations. This Fire of Faith campaign is a kick off of our strategic vision and plan for the next three years- a fresh way to look at faith-based community organizing. Congregations have always been the backbone of Gamaliel and QCI. We recognize the congregation, the central place of faith in all religions. We will use the skills of community organizing to build our congregations in membership, in public presence and in financial strength. When our congregations are strong, QCI is strong and our work for Justice is strong. We invite your congregations to find out more about this campaign and join us for this exciting campaign. Materials and more information will be available this week on our website.

Reserve your place at this year's  QCI Fundraising Breakfast- "Honoring Our Founders, Embracing Our Future"

Join Quad Cities Interfaith on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 for QC Interfaith's Annual Fund-raising Breakfast at the St. Ambrose Rogalski Center from 7:30-8:30am. This year's theme is honoring QCI's founders. We encourage indificuals, corganizations and congregations to take an ad in our Ad Book. If you would like to place an ad with us, Pricing is as follows: Breakfast sponsor (Includes 2 tickets) $500.00, Full page (Includes 2 tickets) $350.00, Half page (Includes 2 tickets) $200.00, and Business Card (Includes 1 ticket) $100.00. To place your Ad, please call Beth at QCI 563-322-4910.  Plan on being there to celebrate another year and to raise money to build a strong 2013!

What's New at QCI

September Clergy Prayer Vigil Built Community,
Raised Awareness for Jobs Equity

Local faith leaders led a prayer vigil for local jobs, equitable access to jobs and social inclusion for the proposed QC Passenger Rail Project on Sunday September 23rd . The vigil brought together leaders and clergy from the Christian , Muslim and Jewish and Unitarian Faith community -- Lay leaders, clergy, community leaders,  elected officials and candidates joined in prayer to lift up the economnc equity issue and use the rail project as an opportunies to change "business as usual." As Reverened Dave Geenen stated,  "We believe that how the QC Passenger Rail  Project is crafted and administered should reflect our moral concern that all in our community should benefit from this project?especially those living in poverty and are often at a disadvantage to gain access to this great economic development opportunity." Thanks to all who made this happen.

QCI Issue Updates

Transportation and Jobs Equity

As part of  Gamaliel of Illinois, the task force is working to secure a State wide Project Labor Agreement (PLA) from the contractors,unions and Department of Transportation that will include requirements for diversity in the work force on all transportation projects in Illinois. The Task Force is also looking to build a local monitoring committee in early 2013, that will hold accountable IL DOT on the Community Benefits Agreement principles it agreed to. Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 17th at 10:00am at Church of Peace-12th and 12th in Rock Island. Join us! For information, please contact Reverend David Geenen, Task Force Chairman at daveg@15thavenuechristainchurch.org

Immigration

The task force will be meeting at 5:30pm on Tuesday, October 30th at the Village Inn on Harrison Street in Davenport.

QCI is in the process of developing a round table on education and is looking for cleregy and community leaders to join together. If  you are interested please email us at qcinterfaith@gmail.com

Community Events

Continuing Series -Race Matters at St. Ambrose
October 18th-Figge Art Museum, Reception 6pm & Lecture 7pm
October 25th-Rogalski Center, workshops 9:25 & 10:50 am. Film and Discussion 1:30-2:45 pm. Workshop 7 pm
November 9th, 7:30 pm Concert  
For more info and Race Mattters updates visit: www.sau.edu

Rock Island County NAACP will hold the annual mutlicultural Harvest Fest from 11 am to 4 pm on October 13th at Hereford Park, 4th Avenue & 13th Street, East Moline. There will be Celtic sports, community choir, and ethnic, dance, crafts, and food. Call 309-236-2581 or 309-788-6573 for details.


Upcoming Dates

Tuesday, November 13th - 6:30pm 
QCI Leadership Assembly 
St Mary's Church , 516 Fillmore, Davenport 

Welcome to Quad Cities Interfaith Newsletter

Hi, we are hoping you are enjoying our newsletter. Please take some time and check out our new website. It's the same web address, but a whole new look. We'd  love to hear any feedback from you about our newsletter and our website at www.qcinterfaith.org. QCI welcomes information about faith-based activities to post to our newsletter. We reserve the right to edit for space and content.  If you like this, please forward to your friends. Have a Blessed Day!