Quad County Urban League celebrates 50 years of creating as ‘family' and ‘game-changer'
With about 40 years working for the League – and over three decades as its president and CEO — Gillespie certainly has been at the forefront of the success of this group, which since July 14, 1975, has been advancing civil rights and empowerment through community partnerships for African-Americans and other underserved populations in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties.
Over five decades, the Quad County Urban League has benefited tens of thousands through programs in job training, youth services, education, workforce development and housing advocacy.
At this open house, which drew well over 100 guests to the QCUL headquarters on Farnsworth Avenue, Gillespie used her moments at the podium in the packed room to acknowledge the 'visionary' community and business leaders who joined Wilkinson five decades ago after she reached out to the National Urban League to help launch a chapter in Aurora: Jannette Elliott, Ivan Fernandez, Elaine Hegy, John Marion and Charles Thurston.
Gillespie also gave credit to the current board of directors, who helped her present 50th anniversary awards to key collaborators, including Challenge to Change, College of DuPage, East Aurora School District, Fox Valley Park District, Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois, Kane County Health Department, Painters District Council No. 30, University of Illinois 4-H Program, Waubonsee Community College and former league president and CEO Peggy Hicks.
There are so many groups and businesses that work to enhance the mission of QCUL … all of which have 'created pathways in skilled trades, healthcare and more …' Gillespie noted. Those include the utility Nicor, which has been with Quad County Urban League since 1975, when it was then known as Northern Illinois Gas.
I got to meet a couple of QCUL students enrolled in the Nicor Gas Career Academy, who both insisted that just two weeks into the six-week program, they already realize what a 'game-changer' this opportunity has been.
The program, according to 44-year-old Randy Caruthers, is designed to 'train us to be the best employees we can be before walking in the door' as a job candidate.
In essence, he said, 'it puts us at the front of the (hiring) line,' by helping 'you be the best version of yourself. And that, he quickly points out, will help land a job in any company.
A former construction business owner, Caruthers said it was a major move from Texas to Will County that made him realize he needed a new career start. So, taking the advice of his wife's aunt, who works for Nicor, he decided to enroll in its academy at QCUL.
'I'm so glad I came to his place,' he said.
The Nicor academy class of 38 students, by far its biggest, has 'been like a family,' noted 23-year-old Artays Bailey, which has not only made him feel welcomed but has given him more confidence in all aspects of his life.
'I've been networking all day,' added Bailey, who described himself as a 'dedicated warehouser' before taking the advice of a former student now up for a promotion at Nicor. 'I just really love this place and the people.'
The open house did indeed feel more like a family reunion, with lots of smiles, hugs and plenty of lively conversation as the guests – partners and community leaders as well as past and current students and staff — toured the facility, heard about current programs and enjoyed the hundreds of photographs through the decades that were on display.
Not surprising, the poster photo that seemed to receive the most attention was that of Marie Wilkinson, whose multi-tiered legacy in this community included feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, educating the young and fighting for fair laws and equal rights for everyone.
Standing next to Marie's likeness, Gillespie knows just how fortunate she was 'to have a mentor like her,' who tirelessly worked for social justice even into her mid-90s; and who offered a young shy girl, not so long out of college, a chance to carry on a legacy that no doubt will go for at least another 50 years.
'I still feel her voice in my ear,' said Gillespie, '…telling me I can do this.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
44 minutes ago
- Politico
JD Vance's tricky sales tour
BIRTH OF A SALESMAN — Vice President JD Vance is testing out a new career path: traveling salesman. Earlier today, the VP ventured to his home state of Ohio to deliver a speech boosting Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act — or the 'megabill,' as the law has come to be known around Washington. It's the second appearance Vance has made in recent weeks to sell the bill in the Rust Belt, with his first sales trip having taken him to the small manufacturing town of West Pittston, Pa., earlier this month. It is, to say the least, a challenging assignment for the vice president. Vance has pitched himself to voters as the face of a more populist GOP, one that champions the interests of blue-collar Americans, stands up to powerful corporations and questions Republican economic orthodoxy on tax cuts and welfare reform. Yet the megabill — which delivered a massive tax cut to high earners, curtailed Medicaid and food stamps programs for low-income Americans and handed out a slew of business-friendly tax perks to large corporations — is a minimally adulterated expression of the old conservative orthodoxy that he and his allies claim to oppose. Now, it's Vance's job as VP to defend the bill to the hilt in front of the increasingly working-class, big-corporation-suspicious Republican base. The knotty nature of the assignment reflects the subtly difficult political position that Vance finds himself in six months into President Donald Trump's second term. Vance, who is the presumptive frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2028, rose to prominence as the leader of the GOP's populist 'New Right,' espousing an anti-interventionist foreign policy, a protectionist economic policy, a hardline anti-immigration agenda and a no-holds-barred approach to the culture war. Trump's selection of Vance as his running mate in 2024 was widely interpreted — including by yours truly — as a sign that Trump 2.0 was siding with New Right in the ongoing ideological skirmish within the GOP. Yet it's safe to say that that assumption has not stood the test of time. Though Trump has occasionally sided with conservative populists on issues like tariffs and immigration, he has hardly governed like a New Right ideologue. At prominent moments, he has even broken publicly with the populist right's position, most notably with his decision to bomb Iran, his move to ease certain elements of his immigration crackdown and his now-infamous about-face on releasing the Epstein files. Though less salacious and sensational than Epstein or Iran, the megabill stands as another sign of the ideological distance between the Trump administration — which Vance is a senior member of — and the populist New Right, which Vance nominally leads. Stuck in the middle, Vance has mostly managed to lay low, opting to serve as the mediator rather than as a partisan in various intra-administration factional fights. With that in mind, Trump's decision to tap Vance as the face of the administration's megabill stands out. In some respects, the decision recalls the self-effacing tests that Trump occasionally pushes on his subordinates to prove their loyalty: forcing then-press secretary Sean Spicer to lie about the size of the inauguration crowd in 2017, for instance, or more recently making FBI director Kash Patel, once a leading Epstein truther, go on TV to defend the administration's decision not to release the Epstein files. In this case, Trump has tasked the aspiring figurehead of the populist GOP with selling arguably the least populist bit of legislation to pass the president's desk so far this term. Vance, in dutiful vice-presidential fashion, has obliged, doing his best to put a populist spin on the bill. In his speech in Ohio today — delivered in front of a crowd of hard-hat-wearing workers at a steel plant in the small industrial city of Canton — he drew attention to the megabill's provisions limiting federal taxes on tips and overtime pay, while arguing that the tax cuts will increase workers' take home pay and ensure that a larger portion of each paycheck ends up in workers' pockets. In his speech in Pennsylvania earlier this month, he highlighted the bill's creation of the so-called Trump accounts, an automatic one-time deposit of $1,000 into a tax-preferred savings account for newborn babies. On the whole, he has cast the bill as part of the administration's broader effort — supported by tariff increases, tax incentives to manufacturers and a crackdown on illegal immigration — to reverse the 'stupid logic' of globalization, as Vance put it in Canton, which incentivized American companies to invest in ventures abroad rather than at home. Yet it's clear that Vance's populist talking points won't on their own overcome doubts about the bill's more plutocratic provisions. In Canton, Vance fielded two questions from reporters about the Medicaid cuts, the scope of which he suggested had been overhyped by the media. 'What I'd say to those Ohioans [worried about losing coverage] is don't believe every false media report that you hear,' Vance said. The cuts, he argued, are designed to prevent illegal immigrants and people not actively looking for work from receiving benefits but will not affect low-income Americans who are either working or actively looking for work. (Independent estimates have found that approximately 320,000 Ohioans will lose Medicaid coverage over the next decade under the new legislation.) There's reason to believe that Vance's feelings on the bill are more mixed. In Jan. 2024, Vance told POLITICO Magazine that he thought the 2017 tax bill — which created the tax cuts that new bill made permanent — was a 'good not great bill,' citing the inclusion of 'some more standard GOP tax fare,' some of which he approved of and some of which he didn't. Among the provisions in the 2017 bill that he did approve of was the cap on state and local tax deductions — which the megabill substantially raised. He also noted that cutting the top marginal rate — as the new bill does, in line with the rates from the 2017 bill — was not 'a high priority for him,' though he said that he would have voted for the bill, despite his reservations, if he had been in the Senate at the time. Now that the situation is less hypothetical — Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the legislation through the Senate — these quibbles seem to have fallen by the wayside. In this respect, Vance's megabill sales tour serves as a tidy symbol of his polysemous political position: divided between his self-professed role as the torchbearer of conservative populism on the one hand, and his current role as the dogged defender of a decidedly un-populist administration on the other. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at iward@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ianwardreports. What'd I Miss? — Trump, breaking with Netanyahu, acknowledges 'real starvation' in Gaza: President Donald Trump said today he will work with European allies to 'set up food centers' in Gaza, disagreeing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assessment that there is 'no starvation' in the war-torn strip. 'Based on television, … those children look very hungry,' Trump said. 'But we're giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up.' The president's remarks, which came during a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump's golf resort in Turnberry, were far more critical of the Netanyahu strategy than he was just a few days ago when he left for his trip to Scotland. — Trump gives Putin new '10 or 12 days' deadline to end war in Ukraine: Donald Trump said today that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has less than two weeks to bring an end to his war in Ukraine before the U.S. president hits Russia and its trading partners with up to 100 percent tariffs. 'A new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today,' Trump said. 'There's no reason waiting […] I want to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made,' he added during remarks to the media after a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Turnberry in Scotland. 'I'm disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed at him, so we're gonna have to look, and I'm gonna reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer,' Trump told reporters prior to the Starmer meeting. Trump said he would announce the change 'probably tonight or tomorrow.' — Project 2025 architect Paul Dans to challenge Lindsey Graham: Project 2025 architect Paul Dans is launching a bid to primary Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina today, joining an increasingly crowded field. 'What we've done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,' Dans told the Associated Press. 'If you look at where the chokepoint is, it's the United States Senate. That's the headwaters of the swamp.' Dans this morning also reposted the Associated Press' story announcing his South Carolina senate primary challenge, saying 'Have some news this morning.' — Alina Habba's authority as New Jersey's top prosecutor questioned in new legal filing: The clash between the Trump administration and the courts over who is leading the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey is already spilling into criminal cases. A defense attorney is trying to get charges against his client thrown out by arguing the Trump administration illegally maneuvered to keep Alina Habba as the state's top federal prosecutor, despite the expiration of her 120-day tenure. The defense filing, made on Sunday, comes after days of confusion over who is leading the office because of complex and contested rules over filling vacancies. — 'Shooting themselves in the foot': Pentagon officials outraged by DOD think tank ban: A wide swath of Defense Department officials fear that new rules banning employees from participating at think tank and research events — a key way the Pentagon delivers its message and solicits feedback — will leave the military muzzled and further isolated from allies. The move, according to more than a dozen officials and think tank leaders, hampers the department's ability to make its case both in Washington policy circles and to allies struggling to understand how they fit into President Donald Trump's worldview. That's particularly important now as the Pentagon assesses whether to end decades of U.S. policy and remove thousands of troops stationed abroad. AROUND THE WORLD NO GUARANTEE — The European Union has admitted it doesn't have the power to deliver on a promise to invest $600 billion in the United States economy, only hours after making the pledge at landmark trade talks in Scotland. That's because the cash would come entirely from private sector investment over which Brussels has no authority, two EU officials said. On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to avoid an all-out EU-U.S. trade war. The deal included a pledge to invest an extra $600 billion of EU money into the U.S. over the coming years. CYBERATTACK IN RUSSIA — A cyberattack on Russian state-owned flagship carrier Aeroflot caused a mass outage to the company's computer systems today, Russia's prosecutor's office said, forcing the airline to cancel more than 100 flights and delay others. Ukrainian hacker group Silent Crow and Belarusian hacker activist group the Belarus Cyber-Partisans, which opposes the rule of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, claimed responsibility for the cyberattack. Images shared on social media showed hundreds of delayed passengers crowding Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where Aeroflot is based. The outage also disrupted flights operated by Aeroflot's subsidiaries, Rossiya and Pobeda. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP THE FUTURE OF CLIMATE MIGRATION — Tuvalu, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean that is projected to be submerged in the next 25 years, has begun a first-of-its-kind migration program to Australia. On Friday, the country of 11,000 selected the first 280 people to take part in their planned migration with Australia. Tuvalu reached a climate visa agreement with Australia in 2023 that gives immigrated Tuvaluans the same education, employment, health and housing rights as Australians. Fernanda González reports on how this system could be the model from future climate migration efforts for WIRED. Parting Image Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Senator demands Musk's Starlink explain allegations it's being used by scammers
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on Monday demanded answers from Elon Musk about allegations that scam networks in Southeast Asia are using Starlink to facilitate fraud. The big picture: The senator in her letter cited media, UN and Treasury Department reports saying the satellite-communications network is being misused by transnational criminal groups to scam Americans. Driving the news: In a letter to Musk, the senator asked for information about SpaceX's efforts to prevent the alleged misuse of Starlink. "While SpaceX has stated that it investigates and deactivates Starlink devices in various contexts, it seemingly has not publicly acknowledged the use of Starlink for scams originating in Southeast Asia — or publicly discussed actions the company has taken in response," Hassan wrote. "Scam networks in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, however, have apparently continued to use Starlink despite service rules permitting SpaceX to terminate access for fraudulent activity." Hassan, who is on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, requested answers by Aug. 18 about whether SpaceX was aware scammers were using Starlink and if so, when they first learned about it and what they're doing about the issue.
Time Magazine
2 hours ago
- Time Magazine
Why Your Energy Bill Is So High
If it feels like your energy bills are higher than usual, it is not just a figment of your imagination. As a heat dome smothers huge parts of the United States, Americans are noticing their electricity prices skyrocket—driven up by increased demand and inflation, among other factors. More than 60% of Americans said in April that their electricity and/or gas bill had increased compared to a year ago, and nearly three-quarters are concerned that the bills will increase this year, according to a poll marketing and research specialist Ipsos conducted with PowerLines, a nonprofit working to reduce electricity prices. Just 3% said their bill had decreased. The increases appear to have only continued in the months since then, hitting Americans across the country—but especially in the Western U.S. PowerLines found in a new report that U.S. electric companies have asked for $29 billion in rate increases so far this year, more than double their requests for the first half of 2024. It notes that Western utilities are 'particularly' impacted, having asked for more than $4 billion in raised rates. 'Improvements to aging infrastructure are cited as a major driver of the increases in the region,' PowerLines says, pointing to upgrades made in response to the increase in extreme weather and climate emergencies over the past few years that it notes has 'burdened' the electric grid. Many businesses and energy industry leaders are now looking to find ways to make the U.S. power grid more sustainable for 21st century power usage. Demand for energy is also growing as the 2025 summer proves exceptionally hot, with high humidity intensifying the heat. A heat wave has been baking large swaths of the U.S. in the past week, prompting the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue major heat advisories across the country. Energy company Con Edison warned earlier this summer that it was working to meet increased demand for summer air conditioning and that prices would rise, and in June, the U.S. Department of Energy had to release an emergency order to allow Duke Energy to exceed the emissions limits laid out in its power plant permits in order 'to preserve the reliability of the bulk electric power system.' Extreme heat is only becoming more common as the climate changes. According to Climate Central, a nonprofit that works to research climate impact, the heat wave that hit much of the U.S. in late July was level five on the company's Climate Shift Index (CSI), meaning it found that 'human-caused climate change made this extreme heat at least five times more likely.' Inflation appears to be playing a role in increasing rates as well. An in-depth analysis on electricity expenses that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) also shared earlier this year, found that between 2013 and 2023, electricity prices closely mirrored inflation rates. The agency explained, however, that it expects 'increases in electricity prices to outpace inflation through 2026,' as demand continues to grow. The analysis explains that U.S. energy prices increased significantly between 2020 and 2022 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine due to disrupted supply chains and market volatility, but while gasoline prices have bounced back to more reasonable levels, electricity prices have not, as temperatures rise, and power grids remain strained. As large companies work to meet increased demand, prices are mirroring the need. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing regarding concerns about rising energy demand on July 23, where New Mexico's Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich argued that meeting the growth will require 'structural changes to how we permit and build our energy infrastructure,' including specifically clean energy projects. '[E]lectricity bills are becoming unaffordable for too many Americans,' Heinrich said, pointing to states like California and Texas where he says 'high levels of renewable energy do not compromise grid reliability—in fact, they improve it.'
