Projects

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CPS Black Student Success Working Group

While Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has made efforts to address long-standing racial inequities in education, Black students continue to suffer from historic and persistent gaps in educational opportunities and outcomes. To address these systemic inequities that have stood in the way of Black student achievement, CPS committed to co-create a Black Student Success Plan alongside key community stakeholders.

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Cut the Tape to Speed Up the City’s Real Estate Approval Process

The City of Chicago’s current real estate development approval process, while well-intentioned, can involve a dozen departments and results in a burdensome and costly undertaking. The complex system also favors those with more time and money to navigate the lengthy planning and entitlements process, including the legal work necessary to obtain approvals.

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Cook County Property Tax System Reform

Cook County property taxes provide over $16B annually for the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the many school districts, special districts, and municipalities. The current tax system is complex and difficult to navigate. In 2023, Civic Consulting Alliance supported the creation of the Cook County Property Tax Reform Group (PTAX) to ensure that the property assessment and tax system produces predictable, accurate, fair, and equitable results in a timely and efficient manner.

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Operationalizing Community Policing

Community policing is a philosophy that emphasizes collaboration between police and the community to build trust and solve problems. The Chicago Police Department's (CPD) consent decree mandates that every CPD member – sworn officers and civilians – be responsible for making community policing a core component of its programs, training, resource deployment, and accountability systems.

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911 Alternate Response Strategy

The field of alternate response has matured significantly over the past few years, particularly within the context of a nationwide push to reimagine public safety. A recent report found that the majority of Chicago’s 911 calls are related to non-urgent matters like car accidents, mental or physical health issues, or noise complaints.

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Chicago’s Mental Health Alternate Response Expansion

Chicago’s Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program responds to 911 calls involving individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis. The City has continued to scale up operations since the first on-the-ground team was launched in September 2021. Early in his tenure, Mayor Brandon Johnson committed to expanding the CARE program for two reasons: alternate response directly supports his “Treatment Not Trauma” policy priority, and the work is an element of his “People’s Plan for Community Safety.”

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Chicago’s People’s Plan for Community Safety

Violence in Chicago is a complex issue that is a symptom of underlying challenges of systemic racism, poverty, and social disinvestment. Shootings and homicides recorded in Chicago fell by 13% in 2023 as violence rates returned to pre-pandemic levels, but the number of people killed last year was still among the city’s highest over the past two decades. Communities also continue to suffer harm that extends beyond violence and disparately affects Chicago’s West and South Side neighborhoods.

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Community Violence Intervention Public-Private One Table

Community Violence Intervention (CVI) uses multidisciplinary strategies to engage individuals and groups to prevent and disrupt cycles of violence and retaliation. It establishes relationships between individuals and community assets to deliver services that save lives, address trauma, provide opportunity, and improve physical, social, and economic conditions to prevent violence.

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CPD & CVI Professional Understanding

Starting in 2020, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois significantly increased investment in community violence intervention (CVI) services in Chicago – including street outreach – as part of a holistic and community-driven approach to violence reduction. As street outreach teams respond to more incidents, there is a need for clarity on roles and protocols between the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and CVI providers.

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Philanthropy Portfolio Review

Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC) is a coalition of funders who have been successful in building an evidence base for gun violence reduction strategies, namely Community Violence Intervention (CVI). Over the past four years, the field of CVI has expanded due to government investment and has recently become a focus of the Public Safety Task Force of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

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Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders Group

Since 2014, Civic Consulting Alliance has facilitated the Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders’ Group, tasked with promoting community safety and reducing reliance on incarceration. This includes mitigating the destabilizing effects of the system at every contact point, with a particular focus on helping those disproportionately impacted during the pretrial stages of criminal prosecution. 

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Envisioning Health Hubs for Chicago

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is organized to provide guidance, services, and strategies that make Chicago a healthier and safer city. However, the pandemic and demand for adding City-run mental health clinics have pushed the agency to increase the types of direct services provided to the public

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Illinois Children’s Adversity Index

Following the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) Whole Child Task Force in early 2022, the Illinois House passed legislation requiring the creation of “a community or district-level Children’s Adversity Index to measure community childhood trauma exposure across the population of children 3 through 18 years of age” by May 31, 2025.

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Chicago Public Library Resource Analysis

The Chicago Public Library (CPL) serves all Chicagoans with free and open places to gather, learn, connect, read, and be transformed. With 81 locations across all 77 community areas, CPL branches provide free resources and act as anchor institutions that can respond to community needs.

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Chicago Public Library Strategic Plan Prep

Chicago Public Library (CPL) celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023 and continues to evolve as a resource for Chicagoans. In recent years, CPL underwent several changes, including a new leadership team, a post-pandemic shift in how people use the library, and key planning efforts, including an equity and capital plan. CPL’s current strategic plan concludes in 2024.

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CPS Strategic Plan

In September 2023, the Chicago Board of Education announced the launch of CPS’ next Five-Year Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan will use components of the existing CPS Three-Year Blueprint, which was supported by Civic Consulting Alliance and pro bono partner Slalom.

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CPS Arts Education Plan

Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) groundbreaking citywide Arts Plan, launched in 2012, yielded tangible results, including robust arts partnerships, and recommendations around instructional minutes. In a post-COVID world, student needs have changed dramatically, putting CPS at a critical point in time to build upon the success of the previous plan while identifying opportunities to improve and expand the arts education experience and address current challenges.

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