Each of the sites listed here are connected or affiliated with Project NIA and/or the Chicago PIC Teaching Collective. Both projects are based in Chicago and we are primarily volunteer-run; some of these sites are more up-to-date than others, but we are sharing them all here in order to give you a full picture of what we are up to and the resources we have to offer. Keep up to date with Project NIA’s weekly activities on our blog.
Black/Inside: A History of Captivity & Confinement in the U.S. is a travelling art show that considers how a system of criminalizing & imprisoning Black men and women has been sustained from colonial times to the present.
Chain Reaction: Alternatives to Calling Police is a participatory research and popular education project with the goal of supporting conversations about alternatives to calling police on young people.
Chicago Youth Justice Data Project attempts to bring together “current, relevant, and accessible data that could provide us with a deep understanding of the juvenile justice system and serve as a catalyst for social change.” You can find up-to-date data and information in the blog section of the site.
Close Illinois Youth Prisons is the site for Project NIA’s collaborative effort with other organizations to call for the closing of several Illinois youth prisons and the redirection of resources into community-based alternatives.
Girl Talk is a program for girls, ages 12-17, who are detained in the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center (JTDC). After it ended in 2005, the program was re-initiated in 2010 with logistical support from Project NIA.
Juvenile Injustice is the site for the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline ‘zine series created out of a collaboration between Project NIA, the Jane Addams Hull House, and the Chicago Freedom School.
The Missing describes itself as “our response to the intentional disappearing of prisoners in America. It is a community engagement and public art project that aspires to make prisoners more visible to EVERYONE in Chicago.”
Prison Culture is Mariame Kaba’s personal blog about the PIC and how it impacts our lives and a great resource for opinions, links, and information. Mariame is the founder and director of Project NIA.
Suspension Stories is a youth-led participatory action research project created to help understand the school-to-prison pipeline. The initiative is a result of a collaboration between the Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team and Project NIA.
Transform Chicago emerged from a gathering that we co-organized with some allies in August 2012 about restorative and transformative justice in Chicago. The site includes information about resources related to both approaches.
Unmarked is a campaign pushing the Illinois legislature to pass SB2777, which would help make it easier for young people in Illinois to expunge their criminal records.
Uproar Chicago (2013) is an audio collage documenting how Chicagoans feel about violence in the city.