Live Free Illinois

Live Free Illinois Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Live Free Illinois, Nonprofit Organization, 2150 S. Canalport Suite 2A-1, Chicago, IL.

We believe that a social justice revival within our faith institutions would transform our nation’s hearts and minds, and ultimately, the policies and practices that perpetuate these evils.

At 10:00AM today, we’re organizing a holy intervention to demand Chicago’s investment in an Office of Gun Violence Reduc...
06/02/2026

At 10:00AM today, we’re organizing a holy intervention to demand Chicago’s investment in an Office of Gun Violence Reduction to tackle gun violence from the ground up. That means $100M minimum invested to deliver peace for our families.

Join the Zoom meeting here: https://bit.ly/endgvnow

We are trending in the wrong direction, family. So far this year in Chicago, there have been 158 homicides. Last year, b...
05/29/2026

We are trending in the wrong direction, family. So far this year in Chicago, there have been 158 homicides. Last year, by May 29, 2025, there had been 152 homicides.

What we don’t need is a mere replacement of the Deputy Mayor of Public Safety. We need a permanent city office to tackle gun violence from the ground up.

That means $100M minimum invested in the Office of Gun Violence Reduction. Our families are worthy of peace.

On June 2nd, we’re organizing a holy intervention to demand this city’s investment. Pull up.

In 5 days, Illinois makes history.On June 1, 2026, the Illinois Clean Slate Act begins to take real, tangible effect. An...
05/28/2026

In 5 days, Illinois makes history.

On June 1, 2026, the Illinois Clean Slate Act begins to take real, tangible effect. And for 2.2 million people who have been carrying the invisible weight of an old record, that date cannot come fast enough.

The sealing rules change. The automated system goes live. And the Task Force assembled to oversee this transformation gets to work.

This law is a promise fulfilled to our people that grace, not permanent punishment, gets the final say.

This is it. The last week of the Illinois State Legislative Session, and everything is on the line.Right now, your repre...
05/27/2026

This is it. The last week of the Illinois State Legislative Session, and everything is on the line.

Right now, your representatives are in Springfield making decisions that will shape the safety, freedom, and future of Black and Brown communities across this state, and the next 7 days will determine what makes it across the finish line and what gets left behind.

Live Free Illinois is on the ground in Springfield, pushing hard for the policies our communities need — from gun violence prevention to decarceration to community healing resources — because we know what happens when directly impacted people go unheard in that building.

This is the time to make your voice loud. Sign our policy petitions right now and tell your representatives what matters to you. Link in bio.

05/27/2026

After more than 30 years of incarceration, Tyrone had to walk into rooms full of children who only knew him as an image, a ghost, a man who had become lifelike. And he had to meet them for the very first time as a stranger who shared their blood.

The anguish was real. The disrespect was earned. And instead of running from it, Tyrone did the hardest thing a man can do: he humbled himself and met his family in grace. Not because it was easy. Because it was necessary. Because he finally understood that the barriers between him and the people he loved would only come down when he was willing to speak his innermost scars out loud, and trust that the truth would do what pride never could.

"It's been challenging, but it's been beautiful. 'Cause the things I'm not only learning about them, but I'm learning about myself."

This is what a second chance actually costs. And this is what it produces. A father finding his way home, one honest conversation at a time.

The Clean Slate Act is law, effective June 1st. If forgiveness is something we practice, and not just preach, 2.2 million people deserve this second chance for redemption.

In 6 days, Illinois makes history.On June 1, 2026, the Illinois Clean Slate Act begins real, tangible implementation. An...
05/26/2026

In 6 days, Illinois makes history.

On June 1, 2026, the Illinois Clean Slate Act begins real, tangible implementation. And for 2.2 million people who have been carrying the invisible weight of an old record, that date cannot come fast enough.

The sealing rules change. The automated system goes live. And the Task Force assembled to oversee this transformation gets to work.

This law is a promise fulfilled to our people that grace, not permanent punishment, gets the final say.

05/22/2026

Nobody gave him a blueprint. Marvin Treadwell decided to build a space anyway.

"How can I be better today than I was yesterday on this journey of manhood?"

That is the question at the heart of the Live Free Illinois CHRC Men's Group — and it is the question that Marvin Treadwell, formerly incarcerated, Decarceration Fellowship graduate, organizing leader, and community healer, brings into the room every single time the brothers gather.

Because Marvin knows what too many of us know and too few of us say out loud: that Black men are carrying enormous weight with almost nowhere to put it down. Not because we are weak — but because the world has never built us a real container for our pain, our grief, our growth, or our humanity. So Marvin built one.

An hour and a half where you don't know exactly what you're going to get — but you are guaranteed to get something. A spiritual cleansing. An emotional exhale. The relief of hearing another brother say "I needed that." The radical realization that whatever you are going through, you are not the only one.

This is what the Decarceration Fellowship produces: policy advocates, legislative leaders, and community healers who go back to their neighborhoods and build the thing that's needed.

If you are a man who needs a space, Marvin's door is open.

To every person who showed up for themselves and their community at the 2026 CHRC Mental Health Symposium — thank you.Yo...
05/21/2026

To every person who showed up for themselves and their community at the 2026 CHRC Mental Health Symposium — thank you.

You are proof that healing happens when we stop carrying our pain alone and start trusting community to hold us. And we want you to know that Live Free Illinois and the Community Healing Resource Center Network are not a one-day experience, but a lifelong commitment to walking with you, step by step, on your healing journey.

Family, let me tell you what happened in that room earlier today. Belly laughs, bear hugs, unmasked tears, full plates a...
05/20/2026

Family, let me tell you what happened in that room earlier today. Belly laughs, bear hugs, unmasked tears, full plates and fuller hearts.

Zeke Locke reminded us that our songs have always been medicine. Gina Breedlove helped us remember where we from-from, called our grief by its name, and then showed us how to grieve together, with ritual, with rhythm, and with the kind of ancient knowing that no oppressor has ever been able to steal from us. Elder Lanyaird Smith and Ruben Gerena let the drums speak what words could not. Pastor Glover planted seeds of healing in the ground. Panelists Yolanda Simmons Battles, Rev. Anthony Spener and Dr. David Rivers told the truth about what trauma, violence, and oppressive systems have done to our minds, our bodies, and our babies — and then showed us the way through.

As Dr. Obari Carman said, and we cannot forget it: "As much as there is trauma in our DNA, there is brilliance in our DNA.”

Today, the Live Free Illinois CHRC Mental Health Symposium proved it, because a room full of Black and Brown people chose healing, chose community, and chose to rise together. To all those who pulled up, THANK YOU for your attendance and your presence!

05/20/2026

After 35 years, the biggest walls Tyrone faced weren't outside of him. They were within.

"I know I'm broken. So I seek out mental health."

That is one of the most courageous sentences a man can say — and Tyrone Delaney said it out loud, on camera, for every formerly incarcerated person who has ever come home carrying decades of internalized pain with nowhere to put it.

After 3 and a half decades of incarceration, Tyrone walked out of prison toward healing, toward accountability, and toward a version of himself he had never been given the space to become. Today, he is a graduate of the Live Free Illinois Decarceration Fellowship and an organizing leader who takes that story all the way to the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield — sitting across from legislators, advocating for justice policies, and proving that when we invest in people, they transform the systems that once held them.

This is what a second chance looks like. This is what the Live Free Illinois Decarceration Fellowship makes possible.

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2150 S. Canalport Suite 2A-1
Chicago, IL
60608

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