Projects

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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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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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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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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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Cook County’s Digital Equity Plan Implementation

In October 2023, Cook County released the first Digital Equity Action Plan, a crucial step to address the digital divide that impacts communities in suburban Cook County, which results in barriers to economic opportunities, social connections, and community wellbeing. The plan identifies Cook County’s path to digital equity through accessibility, confidence, safety and security, and affordability.

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West Side United Food Access Strategy

In 2017, Civic Consulting Alliance provided foundational support to bring together a collaborative of healthcare providers to build West Side United (WSU), an organization committed to eradicating the 16-year life expectancy gap between residents on Chicago’s West Side and the Loop. One of WSU’s primary strategies is to address the social determinants of health by removing barriers to accessing healthy food.

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City Workforce Strategy Alignment

Meaningful employment and career opportunities are foundational to the Johnson Administration’s ambition to invest in and create pathways to wealth for marginalized populations and underserved communities. While the private sector is responsible for most of the employment base, the City of Chicago government plays a multi-faceted role in the workforce space through the resources deployed by its Departments and Sister Agencies, policy activities, and the power of its influence.

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