Tolerance will be the topic of discussion when the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) Kewanee Life Skills Re-Entry Center hosts an event centering on the importance of leaving room for differences in a diverse society on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
According to an IDOC press release, the event is a partnership with Tolerance Means Dialogues, an organization that holds essay contests and public conversations with the hope of “bringing together students and thought leaders to find more constructive approaches to living together in a pluralistic society.” The dialogues will spotlight the two Life Skills essay contest winners, and will take place at the Kewanee Life Skills Center on Monday, Jan. 15 beginning at 1 pm.
Co-sponsoring the dialogues will be Fairness for All Initiative and the 1st Amendment Partnership. A panel, moderated by Jacquelyn Frank, professor of Human Services and Aging Studies at Eastern Illinois University, and will include Shannon Minter, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Robin Fretwell Wilson, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones chair in Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law and founder and director of Tolerance Means Dialogues.
“Both panelists will aim to understand how mutual respect is achieved in a plural society,” the media release states.
Participants from the Kewanee facility were invited to submit essays and the authors of the winning essays will be awarded a $750 scholarship. The two Kewanee Life Skills essay winners, Adisa Wheeler and Ojo A. Webb, will also participate in Monday afternoon’s event.
Prior essays and winners have been featured in publications such as Salt Lake Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor and Forbes.
