In spring 2021, the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law, providing nearly $2 billion to the City of Chicago and $1 billion to Cook County in direct, flexible funding to combat the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our region—in addition to billions more in direct funding for specific uses (e.g. vaccination programs) and to sister agencies, plus potentially billions more via competitive funding streams.

Since March 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance and our partners have committed significant resources to support the City and the County in planning for effective investment of these transformative funds to maximize their impact on the issues most critical to our region’s future. In recent months, our collaborative focus has transitioned to turning these plans into action.

Developing Strategic Foundations for Investment

In spring and summer 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance partnered with Mayer Brown, BCG, and EY to support the City to develop frameworks to guide investment of ARPA funds. This framework and accompanying research were key inputs to the City’s 2022 budget and its Chicago Recovery Plan, backed by ARPA and new municipal bond funds. At the same time, we collaborated with Cook County, its contractor Guidehouse, and our pro bono partner Slalom on a comprehensive process to identify, review, and prioritize initiatives to receive ARPA funding. This work informed the County’s 2022 budget and its Roadmap to Recovery. Read more about this work in our 2021 Impact Report.

Building Project Management Infrastructure

From November 2021 to April 2022, Civic Consulting Alliance and our pro bono partner EY helped to develop and stand up a central program management office (PMO) at the Mayor’s Office to guide implementation of the Chicago Recovery Plan initiatives. This included: outlining key milestones for 2022; developing materials to onboard new City PMO staff; and, with pro bono support from Slalom, integrating data systems to streamline reporting and track spending. In parallel to this effort, Cook County worked with its contractor Guidehouse to build and launch a PMO to guide implementation of its Roadmap to Recovery priorities.

“The resources we received from the American Rescue Plan Act were a once-in-a-generation opportunity to support our Chicago Recovery Plan and move our equitable economy forward. I’m grateful to Civic Consulting Alliance for providing immediate capacity and expertise to support the City’s decision making processes. Their invaluable partnership has helped ensure that ARPA resources are aligned with our equity-focused goals.”

– Lori E. Lightfoot, Mayor, City of Chicago

Accelerating Implementation of Priority Initiatives

Equipped with strategic roadmaps to guide their efforts, the City and the County will now focus on implementing their priority recovery initiatives. Civic Consulting Alliance will continue to invest significant staff and pro bono partner resources in this next phase of recovery work. The illustrative list of projects below is only the beginning of the critical work ahead.

Federal Grant Coordination

In January and February 2022, staff supported the Mayor’s Office in creating and launching a structure to centrally coordinate federal grant applications across City departments and agencies. Effective coordination is especially important as the City pursues significant competitive federal funding opportunities via ARPA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Investing in South and West Side Commercial Corridors

From January to April 2022, we worked with the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to strengthen commercial corridors on the South and West Sides, leveraging ARPA, Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF), and other funding sources. We provided research, analysis, and strategic frameworks to equip the City to select and implement refreshed commercial corridor activation strategies.

Municipal Capacity for Capital Improvements

In 2021, our staff and pro bono partners invested in a Cook County Bureau of Asset Management initiative to provide technical assistance to suburban municipalities for infrastructure investments. Since April 2022, we have aided a second project with the County, to design a program that will amplify its support to ensure the effective deployment of historic levels of federal and state funding for crucial capital improvements (e.g., transportation, public buildings, water/sewage infrastructure). The program integrates multiple County Bureaus, and prioritizes assistance for communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 or that are historically disinvested.

Data Visualization for Place-Based Investments

In April 2022, we launched a data visualization project to support Cook County’s multi-year effort to make transformative, place-based investments with ARPA and other funding in historically disinvested communities. With support from our pro bono partners Analytics8 and KPMG, we are developing a dashboard that visualizes measures of disinvestment across suburban Cook County municipalities, as well as existing County assets and resources. This dashboard will support the County’s selection of communities for investment.

Intergovernmental Coordination

Significant new funding for gun violence prevention is available to the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois via ARPA, creating an opportunity to substantially increase investment in community-based public health approaches to violence prevention in 2022. From August to October 2021, the City, County, and State engaged Civic Consulting Alliance to develop systems to facilitate efficient and effective intergovernmental coordination on violence prevention across funding streams. Read more about this work in our March 2022 newsletter. In April 2022, we kicked off a second phase of work to align on common evaluative metrics and an approach to sustainably build capacity in violence prevention organizations.

“Civic Consulting Alliance is a vital part of our region’s civic infrastructure, providing critical resources that Cook County and other institutions have relied upon in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis to drive forward change and to engage diverse stakeholders in shaping the path ahead.”

– Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President

A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity

The resources made available via the American Rescue Plan Act are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a more equitable Chicago region by addressing challenges—including poverty, community disinvestment, and inequitable access to opportunity—that were exacerbated by the pandemic and that must be rectified to build a better region.

At this pivotal moment for Chicago, Civic Consulting Alliance’s services are in greater demand than ever. Our nimble capacity and expertise are a critical component of Chicago’s civic infrastructure, and enhance the City of Chicago and Cook County’s ability to invest these transformative recovery funds in catalytic initiatives to make our region more just, equitable, and resilient. We are deeply grateful to our partners and our philanthropic donors, whose ongoing support enables us to sustain the staff and cross-sector relationships that make this work possible.