Marni: Hey, everyone! Welcome to "Your Family, Your Library," a podcast where we discuss the many ways our libraries here for families of all shapes and sizes. Each episode we will bring you information and resources relevant to your family and beyond. We are "Your Family, Your Library," and we're glad you're here. Last time we started a conversation with Bonnie Kahn Ognisanti. If you don't know who she is, she is the Niles Township supervisor. Bonnie talked to us all about townships, about local government. In this episode, we're going to continue that conversation and talk more about Bonnie's work to create services and resources for our community. So without further ado, let's jump right in. I want to ask a little bit too, about, what are some success stories that you've heard over the years? I don't want to put anyone's privacy at risk or anything like that, but like, if you want to share some broad stories of things that.
Bonnie: Yeah. I have a story that Ruth just shared with me actually this morning, which is about.. It's a really lovely story, and it fits in the theme because it's a story of collaboration to get somebody on their feet.
Marni: We love them.
Bonnie: So we had, woman who came into our offices. She is a Venezuelan immigrant, and, she was housing insecure, two young children. Hungry, very poorly resourced at the time. Really just doing her best, her absolute best to make it. And through conversation and collaboration with outside partners, including a Skokie resident that was willing to give them some very temporary housing while she got on her feet. We're able to get her immigration papers intact for her so she can safely in this space with her two children at a scary time when that's a real issue.
Marni: Right.
Bonnie: We're able to help her get her SNAP benefits after that. Now she has permanent housing in Niles Township, so her children are enrolled in school.
Marni: Amazing,
Bonnie: Right? She's got a five and a six year old, and they're in our school systems, and they are secure and moving forward. And that was really, truly, effort that took a village.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: Or a township.
Marni: Took a township?
Bonnie: Yeah. So that's a great story. Also, I'll share these two stories. So we have two employees at the respite center, actually, who come from lived experiences in homelessness. They were clients of ours, and now they are working for us.
Marni: Amazing.
Bonnie: I cannot overemphasize how helpful it is to have those two gentlemen in that space, because there is, you know, sometimes...
Marni: Their lived experience....
Bonnie: Their lived experience, it just gives them so much more credibility.
Marni: Yeah. People believe them a little bit.
Bonnie: They really believe them. So there are some things that are social workers will go like, one of the gentlemen is cleaning the spaces. He has started his own janitorial business. It's really...
Marni: Incredible.
Bonnie: He's so good. That places smells great all the time. It is amazing. And then the other one is cooking there in the mornings. Cooking breakfasts. So, sometimes the social workers will say, like, I've got to deliver some news. Like somebody maybe need some treatment, or they need to do something and that they don't want to do, and they're not buying it from me. So I'm going to ask Robert to go and have this conversation. And then next thing you know of the person signing up know this is....
Marni: That's amazing.
Bonnie: Yeah. It is really amazing when you see how important a lived experience is and those connections are in real time.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: I come from farm people in Michigan and I have a horticulture background. I used to, do landscape design work in the North Shore. That was our first job when I came here. Even though my background is policy, and one of the things that I could give back to my community is a gift through, design and horticulture. So even back when I was a trustee in 2017, one of the first things I did was design a pollinator garden. And, the community came in and planted it because, again, we do things with our community, not for our community.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: And that's how we're building this, interdependent and mutual philosophy and a lived...
Marni: Ownership through community.
Bonnie: That's right. So people came in. Richard has helped in the garden. We also built a community garden where we grow vegetables for our food pantry. And the whole community...
Marni: Incredible.
Bonnie: ...cares for that, including the Rotary Club, which Richard and I are both part of Rotary Club. People adopt the garden for a week, and then they take care of it, and they do the harvesting. We've got Girl Scouts out there all the time. It's super duper cute. So we were very fortunate to receive a large grant from the state to double the footprint of our food pantry. When we did that, I looked at our, our plat for the first time and found out that we owned this 4000 square foot, just nasty retention area that was swampy and full of invasive, horrible plants and an eyesore and ugly. Just ugly.
Marni: You're like, this could be way better.
Bonnie: Yeah. And my I was like, right away. I was like, oh....
Marni: The possibilities!
Bonnie: What we could do. This is a public space and it's not being utilized for the public.
Marni: It's only being used for that swamp.
Bonnie: It belongs to the public. Right. The only one using this right now are like mosquitoes. And maybe the odd and errant Skokie skunk. We can do better.
Richard: Not that there is anything wrong with skunks...
Bonnie: Noooo....
Marni: Mosquitos though, we don't need those.
Bonnie: I think that is clear. So just coincidentally, we got a call from the chief of staff, Liam Harding, from Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz's office, who is one of our state reps from this area. Who said that, her adoptive Farm Bureau...
Marni: The Farm Bureau adopted her or she adopted the Farm Bureau?
Bonnie: The Farm Bureau adopted...so...all of the, representatives and legislators in Cook County have the opportunity to be adopted by Farm Bureaus throughout the state in order to teach them policies about rural needs, that which they're going to be voting on.
Marni: That's wild. I didn't know that. That's so cool.
Bonnie: Isn't that cool? So Jennifer's is Lee County. A Lee County Farm Bureau reached out to her office and said, hey, we want to do a give-back and grant some money for a pollinator project in your district.
Marni: You're like, do I have a space for you.
Bonnie: So Liam gave me a call and he was like, they volunteer in our Provence all the time. With or with interns and other folks from her office. And I was like, hey, I thought of you first. I was like, whattttt...could not come at a better time.
Marni: Speaking of, let me tell you about my swamp.
Bonnie: Let me tell you about the swamp and so, like long story short, we were awarded the grant and then we were awarded another grant, and then we were awarded, like, five other grants. Because if you want to get something done, work with farmers man.
Marni: They're like, we'll get you the grants.
Bonnie: Oh, they're like, tell me about your dream.
Marni: We'll make it come true.
Bonnie: We'll make it come true. And have even sent farmers from Lee County to help us with manual labor.
Marni: Oh my gosh.
Bonnie: Problem solved it. So six about $60,000 later of grants. So not local taxpayer dollars, but really just grants from some from nonprofits, some from other Farm Bureaus. We're almost to the end of this project. And the project again, planted and cared for every week by somebody in the community. People are out there constantly. I invite people just to come and be with me in the mornings before work. If someone wants to get their hands in soil and have some garden therapy, I'm out there almost every single day.
Marni: Yeah, you're there, you're available.
Bonnie: And it's beautiful. And soon there will be signage explaining why, planting native plants for pollinators is important and why having native plants with deep roots in our soil to help with erosion control and, flooding mitigation in a place like Skokie that floods all the time is also really, really important.
Grace: This is "Your Family, Your Library," and it's time for a Skokie fact.
Jessica: Did you know? the Edens Expressway was opened on December 20th, 1951, after three years of construction. Easier travel between Chicago in the suburbs led directly to the construction of Old Orchard Shopping Mall, which opened in 1956. For more Skokie history, visit the library's local history page.
Richard: I'm amazed at how active you are and how...
Bonnie: Tired?
Richard: Well I'm not gonna say that.
Marni: You get it.
Richard: Just everywhere and doing so much good. Is this normal for a township or are we just. Do we just have the best township?
Marni: It's so funny.
Richard: I'm serious.
Marni: I was literally thinking earlier because I was like, this feels so different to me than other. Like I've talked to friends and family who live in different cities and things like that, and they're like, my government would could never like I tell them about some of the....
Bonnie: Their government can.
Marni: It's like, how do I tell them? Yeah...
Bonnie: They can! I actually have an answer.
Richard: Okay.
Marni: Oh, yes. Okay, great.
Bonnie: You have a cool township. This is a great cool township, but also, I feel like I'm really fortunate to be in township government right now where there is sort of a renaissance in township government. So, there's just been a big change over kind of throughout Illinois government. And generally you see this and, it's at the state level also, there's there's a big change of people who are in those seats and people who are leaving the seats and retiring or even being just, you know, asked to leave because I think, well, like me, I raised my hand and stepped into local government and service after the Women's March in 2017, and a lot of other people found themselves wanting to serve their community in a new, fresh way. And so we are getting sort of the fruits of that labor now. And when you, I'm also really active in statewide township boards and so, and organizations and when you walk into those rooms, it is new, fresh faces of people who are looking to really actively serve and improve local government.
Richard: That's exciting.
Bonnie: It is.
Marni: It is so exciting too because I was saying so exciting. I've been hearing to that. Like people are like more focused on their local government. Because it's actually giving them the differences and the support that they need.
Bonnie: And if something good comes out of this time where we really needed each other, hopefully it will be tighter bonds and...
Marni: Community serving.
Bonnie: Tightly-knit community.
Richard: So is there like a network of township supervisors and boards, and...
Bonnie: Yeah.
Richard: Talking to one another at conferences and kind of get together...
Bonnie: All of that. Just like there I'm sure the library...
Richard: The library has that too.
Bonnie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have a really close relationships with a few of the township supervisors and our surrounding townships, who are all sort of new also to township government and making big moves and changes in their townships as well. And we share ideas and we get together and excite each other and figure out best practices.
Richard: That's great, because then you don't feel like you're just on an island alone and isolated. But...
Marni: Yeah.
Richard: You're a network that you can...
Bonnie: So important, so important.
Marni: Speaking of big moves, I want to talk a little bit about writing policy and how you got into that and how it affects our township.
Bonnie: Okay, so one of the reasons why townships across the state can do more is really because of a policy that, I, I like trying not to sound too braggy, but.
Richard: It's okay that time to do.
Marni: That you wrote maybe? Is this a policy that you wrote?
Bonnie: I initiated...
Marni: Okay.
Bonnie: And wrote with our township lawyer and with, State Senator Ram Villivalam, who carried the bill, and then our township lobbyist at the state level. Shout out Taylor Anderson. I'll be sending this podcast to him.
Marni: I was like, I hope he listens to this.
Bonnie: He's going to.
Marni: Oh, he's got no choice
Bonnie: said your name your name, you have to listen to the whole thing. So we wrote a policy that greatly expanded what general assistance can do. Again, general assistance is our financial aid program that every township has to cover. But it comes with a lot of rules, and it came with a lot of rules. So as a policy nerd, when I became supervisor, which again is the only person on the board that can administer and drive policy surrounding general assistance, I took this...book. That was like the like a big...you might like this Marni. Like a big hefty rule book, history book, but it was kind of fun to read through because general assistance is so old, predating even Social Security, that it was like a rule book where people just kept adding rules that were...
Marni: Without amending others.
Bonnie: Without ever amending anything. So you go through it and you'd be like, okay, well, there was a rule in particular that really spurned, like motivated me forward that, said that if somebody came into our office and they were, eligible for general assistance, but they had a prior drug conviction, we could not award them general assistance.
Richard: Wow.
Bonnie: So you were like, "oh, war on drugs. I bet I can date this one." There were like, rules like that that just didn't make sense for the population and the time that we were serving.
Marni: Right.
Bonnie: So we went through that rule book and said, let's get rid of these. Let's expand. There are some townships that are so have like 100 people in them. They're very, very small. And so those rules were so limiting that these townships had money to spend on their population that were people in need, but couldn't spend the money. So we, thanks to State Senator Ram Villivalam and then State Representative Kevin Olickal, who carried the bill in the Senate and then the House, the State Senate in the State House. We passed that and it greatly expanded what townships can do throughout the entire state of Illinois. So really proud of that one.
Marni: That's amazing.
Bonnie: And then State Representative Olickal...not, not this session, we still have veto session to get through right now. But the session right before that carried another bill for me. I was present at an LGBTQ town hall. One of the folks in the audience raised her hand and shared a story about how difficult it was to get a name change. And so for folks in the trans community, if you want to change your name, not only was it very onerous and hard to do in the state of Illinois, you had to actually, publish your name in a newspaper for three consecutive weeks, which costs money.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: But traumatic for some populations and very, very dangerous for other populations.
Marni: Right.
Bonnie: That that was the rule. If you wanted to change your name as an adult for any reason in the state of Illinois, you had to publish your name in a newspaper for three consecutive weeks, and you had to publish your court appearances around your name.
Marni: Extremely unsafe for certain populations.
Bonnie: Yeah. So it was really born out of this LGBTQ town hall and thinking about our trans family and community. But also it quickly we were like, okay, well, what about domestic violence survivors.
Marni: Right.
Bonnie: What about adoptees? Refugees like you go down the list. There are lots of folks who change their name for security reasons that were in danger because of this harmful law, and that that bill, because it did, it did pass. It was really hard to get that bill passed.
Marni: Really. I can only imagine how hard that was based off of some pushback that has been seen for the LGBTQ community...
Bonnie: Well, it wasn't even that, because I was getting ready for it.
Marni: You were like...
Bonnie: Bring it on!
Marni: Let's go!
Bonnie: Let's have these conversations. I love to go to Springfield and testify. It was honestly, it was the publishing lobby because this is like one of the few ways that they still make a lot...
Richard: You're joking, really?
Bonnie: They've still made money.
Marni: Based off of people putting their name in the newspaper?
Bonnie: Yeah, because you have to pay for it. You have to pay for that.
Marni: That infuriates me in a way that I don't have words for.
Bonnie: But we passed it!
Marni: Okay, great. Well that's great.
Bonnie: That one is like I didn't really stretch that to be like "at townships..."
Marni: Right.
Bonnie: It says that we're supposed to care for and advocate for marginalized folks and that's what we're doing. Yeah, we put that one under there. And then this very this past session. And I'm really hoping that we get it passed in veto. And if not, we'll bring it back, in the next session. Representative Olickal again is carrying a bill that will greatly expand the homelessness bill of rights. And we are seeing, in fact, I, I, made a statement about this last night in our, at our board meeting, but the Trump administration issued an executive order saying that they would give federal dollars in federal funding to communities that criminalize homelessness and institutionalize folks who are experiencing homelessness and have mental health issues. And so when I pushed for this expansion to the Bill of Rights, it was in response to a Supreme Court case ruling that came down last summer called, Johnson v Grants Pass, Johnson v Grants Pass stripped away precedent from a long standing, decision that said criminalizing homelessness was in violation of the, of the, I'm trying to think of a...but it's a cruel and unusual punishment. I think that's, that's the Eighth Amendment.
Marni: And this is a Supreme Court case.
Bonnie: So the Supreme Court's case said, no, you know what? Municipalities can criminalize homelessness. And we're not going to look at this as a violation of cruel, unusual punishment any longer. Go ahead and since that passed in our beloved state of Illinois. Last count, 26 municipalities have passed what are called anti-camping bans that do just that and can, issue jail time and very hefty fines to people for doing things like sleeping on a bench with a pillow. So if we can get this, homelessness Bill of Rights expanded and get that passed, it will make it so that those municipalities have to rescind those ordinances and can no longer.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: Jail folks.
Marni: And you said you're waiting for the one more session for this to get passed.
Bonnie: So it didn't pass in session.
Marni: Okay.
Bonnie: So we have, a veto session where we can hope that it passes. I'm sort of hopeful that kind of in the shadow of the executive order that Trump passed that said, yeah, go ahead and we'll actually give you money if you criminalize people and lock them up for being poor. That we get it passed. If we don't get it passed and we're going to keep fighting for it. So I'm really grateful that we have such wonderful legislators. And again, you know, comes back to partners. We're willing to listen to the needs of folks and to their partners and community and push for legislation that responds to the needs of the people that we serve.
Amber: You're listening to "Your Family, Your Library," And this is a meditation moment.
Marni: So what are you hearing that the community needs and how can people get involved?
Bonnie: Yeah. Great question. That's a great question. And it's a question I get a lot on both ends of it. What, what are the needs and how can I help? Because again, we live in a community...
Marni: That wants to help.
Bonnie: That wants to help.
Marni: Which is great. And the more people get involved in your community, the more you can help your community too.
Bonnie: Like round and round and round, like it's really is. It's a circle. So, food rescue, which we talked about a little bit. We need people, drivers who are willing to go to grocery stores and pick up food for us and bring it back. There's...
Marni: Is that a uniquely, Niles Township thing. Or do any food pantries in any community sort of do that?
Bonnie: Well, not any food pantries or food pantries that are involved in this sort of program...
Marni: Got it.
Bonnie: But there are lots there are lots. It's a there's a sort of a, even under sustainability efforts. So in like green community like efforts and green volunteerism and more of like a climate, motivation, people are doing this kind of works. They just want to keep food out of the landfill. But then also the hunger piece. So that's a that's something that's almost like cool to do right now.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: But also super duper helpful.
Marni: Let's save some food from the landfills.
Bonnie: Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. So that's a big one. And definitely contact me and I can plug people into it. We've got some wonderful volunteers doing that work already, but we could do it all day long. There's always more. Our food pantry needs volunteers to operate. Most of our volunteer slots are filled through relationship, again with, not for profit, and schools like the BRIDGES program that are working with older teens and adults with cognitive disabilities. And so those are most of our volunteers. But our Thursdays are open to the general public to get people in to volunteer. So we are that which is new for us. We could fill all of our slots with these wonderful other organizations. Again, back to Richard's point of how well resourced we are. We work with the Douglass Center and BRIDGES, Orchard Academy. Like, I think there's 12 different organizations that are working and getting some meaning out of that work in the space. But it's also important to us that we bring the broader community in, so we've availed Thursdays for that opportunity. So if people want hands on work being in the food pantry, I've got it. If you all want to help cook a meal and our respite center and not just cook the meal, but share a meal with folks who are who, who need to share conversation and meals with other people and have their humanity recognized. We've got opportunities for that.
Marni: Making those human connections.
Bonnie: Yep, exactly. And then the prairie and our gardens. So we've got, we got a little bit of something for everybody.
Marni: Wow. Amazing. This has been great.
Bonnie: Thank you all for engaging in this conversation, for inviting me here, for being curious and interested.
Marni: We are just so happy that you wanted to be here and talk with us about it. These are resources that we have definitely shared through the library community, and I think it's so important that the township knows about this as well. So thank you for coming here today, Bonnie, and thank you, Richard, for joining us for this conversation as well.
Richard: Thank you, Bonnie, for all the work that you do and for the energy and the passion that you bring to the community. It's, it's really inspiring. I honestly mean that.
Marni: Yeah.
Bonnie: Likewise...
Marni: I know we're in the, the hard times of times, but I feel like having these conversations and figuring out what you can get involved in, what your community can do for you, what you can do for your community is so important from a local, smaller level. When you get when you zoom out too much and get overwhelmed by the big stuff.
Bonnie: That's right. I mean, I want to add to that, if people are feeling despair right now, there are, there is hope, and there is hope at the local level, and there is hope in each other. And we can plug into each other and we can find ways to intentionally live and build the community that we want here in Skokie and in the township. And reach out, reach out, do not be in despair.
Marni: I feel that on a very personal level, I feel like I've since I've started working here, I've become sort of a missionary about libraries. I'm like, when's the last time you've got, you asked about your library for resources. You're like, oh, my library doesn't have that. And I was like, when's the last time you were at your library? And they were like five years. And I was like, go to your library, get your library card renewed, go help...
Richard: Shaming people into...
Marni: A little bit, but in a good way.
Bonnie: I, I'm totally the same. I love it like, all politicians and all government's bad.
Marni: And you're like, I'm a politician. But anyways, thank you so much for joining us here today. This was a really wonderful conversation. I'm so excited for people to listen to it. And we hope you can share this with other people as well.
Bonnie: For sure.
Marni: That's it for us this month. Remember to keep in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you. Email us at podcast at Skokie library.info. And if you are interested in any of the volunteer opportunities, will have those links in our show notes that you can click on and access as well. And don't forget if you've enjoyed this episode, our previous episodes, rating reviews on your favorite podcatcher.
- Illinois Farm Bureau
- Skokie History
- Lawmakers ease requirements for those seeking to change their name (Capital News Illinois)
- Bill of Rights-Homeless (Illinois General Assembly)
- Volunteer Opportunities in Niles Township
We wrap up our conversation with Niles Township Supervisor Bonnie Kahn Ognisanti. We explore her background in policy writing, what's new in Springfield, and how the community can give back.