Solidarity Through Sacred Work: Organizing from Hope and Healing in Divided Times
In this episode, co-host Adaku Utah sits down with Alia Bilal to explore how the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) has spent the last 30 years building a vibrant ecosystem that weaves together healthcare, housing, arts, and organizing to nurture transformation in Chicago’s inner city. Alia shares how IMAN’s work rejects the false choice between direct service and organizing, instead growing sustainable movements rooted in spiritual grounding, deep healing, and cross-cultural solidarity.
ABOUT THE EPISODE GUEST
Alia J. Bilal serves as Chief Executive Director at the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), a non-profit community organization based in Chicago that fosters health, wellness, and healing in the inner-city by organizing for social change, cultivating the arts, and operating a holistic health center. Alia co-leads and oversees the administration, strategic development, communications, and program implementation of the organization. In almost 16 years at IMAN, Alia has helped the organization grow from a small nonprofit with an operational budget under $1 million to an organization with over 100 full-time staff members, a federally qualified health center, multiple campuses in Chicago and Atlanta, and an operational budget of over $20 million.
A native of Chicago’s South Side, Alia graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in International Studies and a concentration in Islamic World Studies. She studied Arabic and Islamic history in Cairo, Egypt, and is a graduate of the Civic Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago. She sits on the boards of the Southwest Organizing Project and the Muslim Public Service Network, serves on the Steering Committee of the Black Interfaith Working Group at Interfaith America, and was an appointee of the Equity Advisory Council of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. Alia is a recipient of the 2024 Leaders for a New Chicago award granted by the MacArthur Foundation and Field Foundation of Chicago. She is a writer, public speaker, spoken word artist, and on her off-time, can usually be found hiking a trail or car camping in a national park with her husband and two young sons.
EPISODE NOTES
Episode transcript
Green ReEntry provides transitional housing, life skills education, and sustainable construction training for returning citizens and high-risk youth.
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