This month we’re highlighting two recent projects from our Economic Vitality platform, where we focus our efforts to contribute to the Chicago region’s long-term vitality by growing an economy that works for everyone.
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Enhancing Museum Campus as
a Global, Year-round Destination
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Civic Consulting Alliance staff are experienced in coordinating large groups of stakeholders with diverse ideas and priorities to “get big things done.” We partnered with the Mayor’s Office to support and facilitate the Museum Campus Working Group. The final report, “Where Worlds Connect,” provides recommendations to transform Museum Campus into a more accessible, relevant, and attractive public space that is activated year-round. |
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Reimagining the “Crown Jewel” of Chicago
Tourism is a major driver of Chicago’s economy. To build on the recommendations by the COVID-19 Recovery Task Force, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the formation of the Museum Campus Working Group to further revitalize the City’s recovering tourism by enhancing the Campus’ appeal as a global, year-round destination for tourists, and more culturally relevant and accessible for all residents.
Museum Campus is a 307-acre crown jewel of Chicago with premier tourist and resident-favored institutions including the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium, Soldier Field, and the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place. It also includes natural areas and parks, such as the 12th Street Beach, Northerly Island Park, and the Lakefront Trail.
The Museum Campus Working Group, announced in February 2022, included 23 distinguished civic leaders, including board members of Civic Consulting Alliance. The members were organized into thematic sub-groups to develop recommendations across four areas: open space and recreation, cultural amenities, athletic facilities, and transit access.
Setting the Course with a Large Group
Civic Consulting Alliance was asked by the Mayor's Office to be a thought partner to structure and steer the overall effort, which drew on our capabilities in strategy development, implementation planning, and management to ensure that the Museum Campus Working Group could meet its milestones and deliver a final report within a 12-week timeframe.
In leading up to the kick-off plenary session, our team, which included pro bono partner Protiviti, met with each Working Group member to gather initial ideas that would inform the start of the activities and develop an initial set of hypotheses for the Working Group to consider. These meetings helped refine the project timeline and work plan that would be driven by our team.
Following the kick-off, the team paired with each sub-group and supported the leads along a series of working sessions to develop a set of tactics for the short-term, and strategic ideas for long-term transformation. These ideas were organized and refined in monthly meetings with the full Working Group.
Facilitating Knowledge to Develop Recommendations
In addition to facilitating the Working Group’s activities and meetings, our staff dedicated time to compiling research and making it accessible to the group. “We wanted to ensure that the working group had the knowledge and context to build the report and recommendations,” explained Antonio Benecchi, Principal at Civic Consulting Alliance. “The Working Group had an ongoing appetite for information throughout the process.”
Civic Consulting Alliance set up a centralized resource library so that the Working Group and civic stakeholders could easily share information like historical documents, original plans for the park, and other public information sources. In some cases, the team generated analyses of data to complement the information that was available to support decision-making.
Through sub-group working sessions, and plenary meetings, our team facilitated, structured, and captured the Working Group’s diverse ideas and priorities to provide a final set of strategic recommendations to be included in the final report that would be delivered to the Mayor's Office.
“It’s been a pleasure to work with the Civic Consulting Alliance team on the Museum Campus project. Their expertise helped the group to formulate recommendations that have the potential to advance economic growth in the region and create a more inclusive environment for all to enjoy.”
- Richard Price
Museum Campus Working Group Chair, Executive Chairman, Mesirow
A Roadmap to Transformative Economic Development
The final report, “Where Worlds Connect,” provides a roadmap for city stakeholders to act on recommendations to heighten Museum Campus’ appeal and accessibility to both tourists and Chicagoans. The group’s vision for Museum Campus is articulated around five key themes that will drive transformative experiences for generations to come:
- An Exciting Place to Be: Transformational place-making and enhanced programming and amenities will activate underutilized spaces to enrich the visitor experience.
- An Urban Nature Retreat: The transformative power of landscaping with native species will amplify the natural beauty of Museum Campus.
- A Place Everyone Can Enjoy: New amenities, inclusive design, and coordinated programming will attract and welcome all, from each Chicago neighborhood, to visitors from across the world.
- A Connected Destination: World-class connectivity will take full advantage of all modes of mobility to connect Chicago’s neighborhoods, the Chicago region, and the world to the Campus.
- Bringing It All Together: The vision for the Campus will be pursued in a coordinated way that maximizes the mutually reinforcing aspects of individual recommendations to compound the benefits of future investment.
The report, “Where Worlds Connect” and the overview website, detail the Museum Campus Working Group’s 35 recommendations to enhance the Campus experience as a global, year-round destination that will attract and be relevant to all residents and tourists with different interests, lifestyles, and needs.
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Creating a More Equitable Recovery:
Addressing the Economic Barriers for Women in Chicago
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Civic Consulting Alliance was called on by the Chicago Mayor’s Office to support the Mayor’s Women Advisory Council to analyze the impact of the 'she-cession,' a gender gap in employment rates and pay in Chicago that was worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The final report, “Creating a More Equitable Recovery: Addressing the Economic Barriers COVID-19 Exacerbated for Women in Chicago,” provides decision-makers with recommendations to center women’s economic recovery in their planning and policies. |
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Addressing Gender Disparities in the Workforce
Women, and even more so women of color, were disproportionately negatively impacted in the workforce by the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to have an equitable recovery, policymakers, workforce development practitioners, and employers need to address the systemic inequities in our labor market. The significant resources available through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) offer an opportunity to center women in the region’s economic and workforce development recovery strategies.
To address this disparity, the Chicago Mayor’s Women’s Advisory Council formed a working group to understand the impact of the pandemic on women in the workforce, and identify initiatives and policies that the City of Chicago, employers, and workforce development organizations can undertake to facilitate financial success for women.
Meeting an Ambitious Timeline
The working group was charged with an ambitious timeline to develop recommendations, rooted in a deep data-driven analysis; socialize the findings with a number of stakeholders; and release the recommendations in a public-facing report and event.
Civic Consulting Alliance was well-versed in facilitating collaboration against tight deadlines. “Our goal in this work was to provide strong project management,” said Julie Habbert, Senior Associate at Civic Consulting Alliance. “Everyone was at the table in a meaningful way to push this work forward, but it’s helpful to have an outside person pulling the pieces together to hit milestones and deliver a timely report.”
Our team helped prepare “data walks” with over 60 stakeholders to engage in dialogue around research findings. Stakeholders included the Mayor’s Office, labor unions, partners at the State of Illinois, workforce development organizations, and nonprofits to share the data in advance of the final report. These “data walks” served two purposes: to capture ideas for recommendations that could be used in the report, and to build momentum with stakeholders who could influence change for women in the workforce.
As the report began to come together, our team assisted with the preparation of the report and the launch event to ensure that it formed a cohesive narrative that would help inform decision-makers across sectors on recommendations to improve women's workforce opportunities.
“Civic Consulting Alliance helped bring key stakeholders along for the journey to understand and act on the data. The final recommendations and solutions presented in the report will help ensure Chicago works toward an equitable economy that benefits all.”
– Darci Flynn
Director of Gender-based Violence Strategy & Policy
Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago
Decision Makers Now Have the Data to Center Women’s Economic Recovery
The report lays out data showing that working women, and especially Black and Brown women, were already economically vulnerable before COVID-19, and that the pandemic exacerbated this existing economic divide. Key takeaways include:
- Women in Chicago were more likely to be single head-of-household, and yet they were also less likely to be working in 2020.
- When they were working, women were earning much less than their male counterparts, and they were overrepresented in low-quality, low-wage jobs with fewer benefits.
- Women also experience significant economic insecurity due to caregiving responsibilities, both for their own children and for parents or extended family.
- Many industries negatively impacted by the pandemic – including healthcare, food service, hospitality, and educational services – are women-dominated.
- 36,000 women in Chicago dropped out of the labor force from 2019 to 2020, compared to just 11,000 men.
The working group’s report and recommendations will help decision-makers center women in their recovery plans, which could include: City allocation of ARPA workforce development funds; City economic recovery policy; and private businesses’ employment practices.
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Fellowship Spotlights: Yashvi Patel & Jessica Raciborska
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Yashvi Patel joined us as a fellow from Protiviti from February to June 2022
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Jessica Raciborska joined us as a fellow from KPMG from June to July 2022
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What project work were you involved in during your time at Civic Consulting Alliance?
YP: I supported two projects during my fellowship with Civic Consulting Alliance - one with the City of Chicago's new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), and a second with Cook County to build municipal capacity for infrastructure projects.
JR: During my time at Civic Consulting Alliance, I worked with Principal Kirsten Carroll to help Cook County track municipal resources and inequities and guide place-based investments.
What will you take away from your time at Civic Consulting Alliance?
YP: My fellowship has helped me become more aware of the public sector and the contributions that come from that space. I have a newfound appreciation for the complexity of critical social issues and for the care that goes into ideating solutions.
JR: The main take away from my fellowship has been the opportunity to learn the different ways inequities can be measured. I plan to take this knowledge back to KPMG in hopes of applying it to my clients when building social impact solutions.
How has your time at Civic Consulting Alliance helped you develop professionally?
YP: Through my work with Civic Consulting Alliance, I've learned how valuable it is to align stakeholders on a common vision for project deliverables, and the importance of taking the time to listen to and to learn from the communities being served by a given project.
JR: This fellowship allowed me to enforce my data literacy skills by performing data transformation to ensure consistency of all data sets utilized, analyzing data through visualizations, and creating supplemental tools to understand data trends presented.
Civic Consulting Alliance Fellowships are full-time positions that typically last between three months and a year. Fellows are integrated into project teams for a unique professional development opportunity. Please visit our Fellowships page to learn more about our range of fellowship opportunities.
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General Operating Funders |
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Civic Consulting Alliance is grateful to our general operating funders, whose support empowers us to maintain our flexible and responsive capacity to get big things done. |
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