Get to know our co-leaders - with more on the horizon!

Alyssa Vera Ramos, (she/her/ella) Transition Co-Director, December 2021 - July 2022 
Alyssa is a cultural worker, facilitator, theatre artist, and organizer dedicated to dreaming — and living into — a liberated world. She deeply believes that cultural problems demand cultural solutions: a philosophy which has guided her over seven years of youth organizing and artistic collaborations at ICAH. Since 2013, Alyssa has served as a sex educator, For Youth Inquiry (FYI) Performance Company member, actor, and later Artistic Director, Movement Building Organizer, and Arts Justice Organizer in her tenure at ICAH. Most recently, she stewarded ICAH’s culture shift work publicly and internally as Director of Cultural Strategies, working in deep collaboration with young folks, theatre artists, and close organizational partners (and winning the Repeal of PNA!). Alyssa also co-designs and co-facilitates anti-racism training for teaching artists in the Midwest, like Arts Force Iowa and Arts Ed Chi. Additionally important to her vision for self and community is her work as a bomba student at La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón and as an organizer of Swarm Artist Residency, specifically in anti-racist and healing arts programming curation. A lifelong learner, she has trained in community accountability with Just Practice and in civic engagement through performance at Sojourn Theatre Institute, Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed, Inc. (PTO), and Cardboard Citizens-UK. Alyssa is a queer, cis, Puerto Rican woman based in Chicago, IL.

Aisha Chaudhri, (no pronouns) Transition Co-Director, December 2021 - July 2022
Aisha has been a social justice activist for over 23 years and has been working in nonprofits on Reproductive Justice (RJ) issues for almost 15 years. Aisha served as the co-chair of the board of directors at ICAH from 2019-2021 and as the Education Manager from 2013-2018. Aisha has worked with immigrant survivors of gender-based violence at a domestic violence shelter and with young people around sexual health, rights, and identities to create training programs on how to provide trauma-responsive social services and health care. Most recently Aisha was the RJ Manager at EverThrive Illinois leading the Contraceptive Justice Project, a community-driven contraceptive access project rooted in the RJ framework, and RJ-centered legislative and administrative policy advocacy. Aisha is also a steering committee member of the American Society for Emergency Contraception (ASEC) and was recognized in 2015 by the Cook County Commission on Women’s Issues as the Peggy A. Montes Unsung Heroine At Large awardee. Aisha’s commitment to anti-oppression work stays rooted in the experiences of marginalized communities including Aisha’s own queer, gender nonconforming, femme, Punjabi, immigrant, and Muslim identities.

Chinyere Achebe, (she/her) Board Co-Chair, as of November 18, 2021
Chinyere Achebe (she/her) is an enthusiastic facilitator who is committed to fostering an equitable environment where individuals feel seen and heard. As an active listener and effective communicator, Chi has had the pleasure of holding space for and with some dynamic humans. Chi has had the privilege of organizing a residency for local artists with Swarm Artist Residency, led self-care and harmful bias trainings with faculty and students at the School of the Art Institute, Williams College, University of Denver, and Scattergood Friends School. She  has also facilitated conflict resolution training for the Chicago Recovery Alliance and has led professional trainings focusing on volunteer organizing and communication strategies with The American Heart Association. Chi infuses wellness, mindfulness and care in all she does and this has generated opportunities to facilitate unique circles, lead impactful trainings, sit in on panel discussions, be a guest on podcasts, curate mindful conversations, and engage youth and adults in meaningful programming. 

Jenni Kotting, (she/her) Board Co-Chair since January 2021, former staff member
Jenni served as ICAH’s Communications Director from 2012-2015 and has been a board member of ICAH since June 2018. She is now a Strategic Communications consultant and graphic designer who devotes her career to supporting culture shift and social justice. She brings more than a decade of experience in collaboratively producing values-driving messaging and documents, inclusive facilitation processes, narrative change strategy, and innovative media through a strong racial justice lens. Jenni’s organizational relationships include a range of organizations that relate strongly to ICAH’s mission, including: Liberate Abortion Campaign, National Network of Abortion Funds, We Testify, If/When/How, Access Reproductive Care-Southeast, Amplify Georgia, Movement Voter Project, BYP100, Black Lives Matter Global Network, Bold Futures New Mexico, Women’s Foundation of Oregon, Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, ANSIRH, Chicago Youth Job Center, Black Feminist Future, and more. Jenni is a white cis woman of Italian descent living in Chicago, IL.

ICAH would greatly appreciate a show of support for our organization's ability to survive, thrive, heal, and grow!

To Our Community,

A statement ON Reevaluating the harms that capitalism and productivity centered culture has had on our lives, and our bodies.

ICAH began 2020 with a new Executive Director, inspired, motivated, and energized to continue our fight for reproductive justice. Having had significant transitions in executive leadership, board membership, funding, and staff capacity in recent years, we knew 2020 would be critical to us landing with our feet planted firmly and steadily on solid ground. And though we have long been aware of the injustices that Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), Trans and Gender Non Conforming (GNC) youth face in this world, we have been overwhelmed by how often, excessive, intense, and overt these attacks have been on the lives of those with these lived identities in this year. 

Like many other non profit organizations, Team ICAH’s capacity has been significantly impacted by the worldwide pandemic, local and national assaults on Black lives, and attacks on reproductive rights evident in the forced sterilizations of immigrants, continued disparities in outcomes for Black birthing parents, barriers to accessing abortion care and other sexual and reproductive health care services. During these intense times we’ve unapologetically centered our wellness and well being. We’ve moved with patience and grace internally and have asked our external partners for the same. Rest has been our action and our resistance. 

We paused for a time in 2020 to make space to redefine for ourselves what productivity means. To reevaluate the harms that capitalism and productivity centered culture has had on our lives, and our bodies. 

This year we also:

• Transitioned our CHAT youth organizing programming virtual in Spring/Summer

• Hosted a virtual prom

• Supported young people in producing “A Time to Chat Podcast”

• Issued Reproductive Justice Is statement

• Publicly promoted rest as an action during these times

• Amplified local mutual aid efforts

• Supported youth organizers on college campuses

• Continued to serve and be present on local coalitions and councils

• Created a Sexual and Reproductive Health Resources Under COVID-19 guide

After our decision to pause programmatically for the last portion of 2020, we are back to our youth programming work. The pause lent staff and leadership much-needed time to dream, to plan, and to strategize. In our current political landscape, we know our fight for reproductive justice will be critical in the coming months and in the coming years.

We ask you, our supporters, to continue to fight for reproductive justice in your own spaces and by our sides. Continue to center your own and your families' wellbeing. Stay tuned for exciting updates about how our programs are both continuing to serve and embrace the powerful leadership of BIPOC and Trans and GNC young people, while continuing to center the capacity and wellness of our engaged and supportive board of directors; our Black, Brown, Queer, Trans and GNC team; and our Black Mama Executive Director.

Ways to get involved and support ICAH in our vision to ensure that ALL youth are safe, healthy, and affirmed: 

The best place to tune in is on our social media:

• Follow us on FB: Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health 

• Follow us on Twitter: ICAH on Twitter 

• Follow us on IG: ICAH on IG 

Your contribution will help ensure that youth receive information and build the skills they need to stay safe and lead healthy lives. Consider becoming a monthly donor to support ICAH on an ongoing basis; your predictable donation allows us to fund our programs better! ICAH is a network of empowered youth and allied adults who transform public consciousness and increase the capacity of family, school, and healthcare systems to support the sexual health, rights, and identities of youth.

In the Spirit of Progress,
Sona Smith (She/Her)

ORGANIZATIONAL PAUSE

To our community,

July 2020

We are sending ease, lightness, love, and healing to you during a time where there is so much heaviness and pain. As many workplaces, nonprofits, and businesses are preparing to return to work, as a staff of predominantly Black folks and folks who hold a multitude of privileged and oppressed identities, Team ICAH is preparing to rest.

We were inspired by the Carolina Youth Action Project (CYAP) to plan towards a collective organizational rest when we were just beginning to navigate the pandemic. We gave staff space to process, shortened our work week, and lessened our work load. In this moment as the world around us continues to show us that Black lives are not valued, our minds, bodies, and spirits have grown even more weary.

Even in our state of exhaustion, as individuals ICAH staff has continued to engage with the movement for thriving Black lives, in this uprising: honoring and grateful for the youth who have used their rage to fuel the revolution. We as a team have still created space to participate in mutual aid efforts, support grassroots organizing efforts, attend actions and protests, provide jail support, raise funds and awareness, and love on the most vulnerable amongst us: Black people, femmes, children and youth, mamas, those incarcerated, TGNC folks, and those with limited access to resources that should be a right and not a privilege.

We are here at this moment of pause largely because of two of our Black Trans staff members, darien and jireh. They challenge us to name our needs, set boundaries, and motivate us to live out our Reproductive Justice values daily, including within the structures of our organization. They inspire us all with their radical imagination.

So now, we must rest. We must rest to resist every time our value and worth has been determined solely by our level of productivity and labor. Rest is resistance. Rest is a political act. We rest because so often our identities make it hard for us to prioritize rest. We rest because Black lives matter. We rest because our Black lives matter. We rest because of our commitment to healing, wellness, and collective liberation. We rest because of our commitment to our RJ values.

What does this mean? 

• June 22 - 26, ICAH began to transition to internal work only, with a focus on ensuring that we can collectively rest without worry. 

• July 1 - 31, we will pause. This means pausing programs, operations, staff meetings, participation in coalitions, workshop facilitation, most social media posting, etc. Staff will continue to be paid throughout this pause. ICAH board members will engage in board development work during the break.

• August 3rd - 17, we will return to internal work only.

• Monday, August 17, 2020, we will return to our public-facing work, clear as ever in our mission to ensure that all youth are safe, affirmed, and healthy. As we root ourselves in our identity as a reproductive justice organization, our values are our guide. 

• If you have an urgent need or request that cannot wait until August 17, our board of directors can be reached during the pause at info@icah.org.

We encourage you to find space to prioritize rest. 

Take care,

Sona, jireh, darien, Choya, and Alyssa