CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, is highlighting the upcoming application period for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps eligible working families pay for utility services.

“Even though we’ve just entered fall, Chicagoans know that winter is always just around the corner,” Harper said. “Unfortunately, when temperatures drop suddenly, far too many families in Chicago cannot afford to adequately heat their homes.”

In Illinois, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) assists eligible working families by helping subsidize winter heating bills. This program also helps families with crisis assistance, energy-related home repairs, summer cooling bills and weatherization. The program’s 2019-2020 application period opens on Oct. 1 and continues until May 31, 2020, or until funding is exhausted. Residents are encouraged to visit LIHEAPIllinois.com or to call the state’s LIHEAP toll-free hotline at 877-411-WARM (877-411-9276) for information on income eligibility and how to apply for assistance.

“LIHEAP is a lifeline for thousands of people in Illinois, helping them stay warm through the cold months,” Harper said. “Families shouldn’t be forced to choose between putting food on their tables and staying warm in their homes. Thankfully, LIHEAP is a great resource available to local families and seniors.”

Harper represents the 6th District, which includes all or portions of Armour Square, Bridgeport, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, Back of the Yards, Canaryville, New City, West Englewood, Marquette Park, South Loop and River North.

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, recently welcomed Illinois Department of Agriculture Director John Sullivan to Chicago to tour Growing Home, an urban farming organization in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.

“Urban agriculture works to provide people with the opportunity for healthy living, meaningful economic growth and jobs and environmentally-friendly communities,” Harper said. “As a longtime urban agriculture advocate, I was proud to welcome Director Sullivan to Chicago’s South Side to see these goals in action through the incredible work of the Growing Home farm.”

Harper is the first African American woman to serve as the chairperson of the Illinois House Agriculture & Conservation Committee, where she has focused on efforts to expand urban agriculture to reduce food deserts. Sullivan was appointed as Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture in January 2019 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and served in the Illinois State Senate from 2003 to 2017, leading the Senate Agriculture Committee. Harper and Sullivan served together on Pritzker’s Growing Our Agricultural Economy Transition Committee.

Harper represents the 6th District, which includes all or portions of Armour Square, Bridgeport, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, Back of the Yards, Canaryville, New City, West Englewood, Marquette Park, South Loop and River North.

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, is encouraging residents to participate in the 7th annual Greater Englewood Unity Day on April 27th, an event to bring the Greater Englewood community together to clean up debris and litter and celebrate building stronger neighborhoods.

“Cleaning up and beautifying our communities is one way to show how much we care for them,” said Harper. “But a community clean up is not just about beautification, it’s also about decreasing the health and safety risks of improperly disposed of items.”

The 7th Annual Greater Englewood Unity Day takes place on Saturday, April 27 beginning at 9 a.m. with breakfast and supply pick up at the Jean Carter-Hill Community Garden located in front of Nicholson STEM Academy, 6006 S. Peoria Street. At 10 a.m. teams will dispatch throughout Greater Englewood to clean up debris and litter. Following the neighborhood clean up at 1 p.m., a unity celebration will take place at the Jean Carter-Hill Community Garden. Residents can order their own brooms, rakes and shovels from the city of Chicago by calling 3-1-1 by April 22. For more information, residents can contact Imagine Englewood If at info@imagineenglewoodif.org or 773-488-6704.

“We can celebrate our cherished communities by coming together to make sure the look of our neighborhoods reflects how much we care about them,” Harper added. “I highly encourage residents in Englewood to join family, friends and neighbors to help clean up our communities and then celebrate the building of stronger neighborhoods.”

CHICAGO – Following the announcement from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to close four high schools in the city’s South Side, state Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, is demanding that more resources and attention be paid to black communities who have been needlessly struggled as a result of failed CPS leadership.

“The decision by Chicago Public Schools to close its doors on our vulnerable students is an outright attack on our community,” Harper said. “Our high schools and students should have never been placed in this situation in the first place, and promises that were made to us were not kept. Once again, it is children of color paying the price for a school board that only answers to the mayor.”

CPS unilaterally moved forward in closing Hope, Harper, Team Englewood and Robeson High Schools recently, all of which are located in the Englewood community, displacing students without any real hope for their future. Harper has been a leading voice in calling on an elected school board for CPS in order to have accountability for reckless actions like these.

“Through actions like these, it’s clear that the CPS board does not care about the fate of these students and families who have to suffer the consequences,” Harper said. “Above all, students and parents should know that I will continue fighting until CPS adopts a comprehensive strategy to accommodate the needs of students affected by these school closings.”

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, released the following statement Friday after CPS announced a proposal to close all of the public high schools in West Englewood and Englewood in June of 2018:

“This is more than a blow to the education of our city’s most vulnerable children, it is a direct attack on the livelihood of black communities across the city of Chicago. Our community is already struggling with the highest rates of unemployment, crime, food insecurity and a lack of affordable housing for families. Closing down our four public high schools will only add to that instability.

“In the Englewood community, we experienced six elementary school closings at once just a few years ago. Now those buildings are sitting empty while our kids are forced to commute long distances every day just to get to school. This has had a devastating impact on families in our neighborhoods, and now the city wants to shut down our entire stock of high schools.

“The proposal for a new high school in the South Loop is simply not enough to make up for the loss of public neighborhood high schools for the children in Englewood. This is yet another example of Chicago’s unelected, unaccountable school board answering only to insiders, and turning its back on communities of color. I am fighting to pass an elected school board that will answer to our families, and I’m also calling on CPS’ leaders to reject these closings and put our children’s futures first for a change.”

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, and Dr. Mamta Swaroop, Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Critical Care Surgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, hosted a Chicago Trauma First Responder Course recently to teach community residents how to assist victims of gun violence while emergency services arrive.

“Incidents of violence require more than just emergency services to save someone who is in need of immediate care,” said Harper. “This event was designed to teach ordinary people to be prepared to assist victims of gun violence when these crimes take place in order to increase the victim’s chance of survival.”

Harper and Dr. Swaroop offered a Chicago Trauma First Responder Course to teach attendees how they can potentially save a victim of gun violence. Dr. Swaroop highlighted the steps a bystander can take so that victims can receive immediate attention while an ambulance arrives. While Chicago’s crime rate increases, Harper feels that it is important that local community residents are equipped to handle a situation when someone falls victim to gun violence.

“I have been offering this course for some time now to show how people can be life-savers themselves,” said Swaroop. “It is so important that people be ready at any moment to step into a highly stressful situation to help save a fellow resident’s life. I want to thank Rep. Harper for helping me offer this course throughout Chicago.”

Harper represents the 6th District which includes all or portions of Armour Square, Bridgeport, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, Marquette Park, Canaryville, Back of the Yards, New City and West Englewood in the city of Chicago. To stay up to date with Rep. Harper for local and legislative updates, please visit her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/repsonyaharper/.

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, is fighting to keep the Wood Street Community Garden open for residents to access healthy foods and local jobs.

“The Wood Street Community Garden has given local families access to nutritious foods and provided children with summer jobs,” said Harper. “This garden should not be closed because many neighborhood families rely on it.”

Harper is working diligently to maintain the Wood Street Community Garden from being sold and closed off from the public. The garden was opened in 2012, and is a site for the One Summer Chicago jobs program for Black and Latino youth in West Englewood. The garden unifies neighbors and allows them to look out and support one another in times of need. Harper wants to make sure the community garden is not closed or moved, and is asking her residents to sign her online petition at http://bit.ly/HarperWoodStreetGarden.

“My neighbors have spent the last five years dedicating their time, work and money maintaining our community garden,” Harper said. “Closing this garden will force families to start from scratch and put them at a disadvantage. I will do everything I can do keep it open.”

Harper represents the 6th District, which includes all or portions of Armour Square, Bridgeport, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, Back of the Yards, Canaryville, New City, West Englewood, and Marquette Park.

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, recently toured Englewood’s Whole Foods Market to highlight the importance of increasing access to healthy foods for low-income communities.

“It is heart-warming to work with community partners to encourage people to shop at local stores like Whole Foods Market rather than at a convenience store,” Harper said. “I am grateful for the enterprise choosing our neighborhood and providing our families with nutritious foods and groceries.”

One of Harper’s top priorities is to increase urban agriculture initiatives and make healthy foods more accessible to low-income families. She recently passed a new law that helps municipalities actively track food deserts. The Chicago Democrat wants to continue working with local community groups, like Grow Greater Englewood, and businesses to eliminate food deserts in Chicago and throughout Illinois.

“It is my hope other businesses will look to this example and begin to invest in the people and neighborhoods I represent,” said Harper. “I have been living in a food desert for nearly 40 years, and I will not stop encouraging supermarkets to open their doors on the South Side and help my friends and neighbors.”