Heartland Alliance’s Research & Policy Division provides expert consultation and technical assistance to subsidized employment and transitional jobs initiatives across the country. Our work ranges from helping to design and deliver large-scale federal subsidized employment demonstrations to providing one-on-one support to organizations looking to enhance their service offerings. Our program implementation tools reflect what we’ve learned as a direct service provider and in partnership with providers across the country about how to fund, design, and implement effective and equitable subsidized employment and transitional jobs approaches.
Heartland Alliance believes that access to economic opportunity is critical to building safe and equitable communities, and we are encouraged by the City’s newest ordinance that eliminates several fees associated with non-driving violations. This ordinance is a crucial first step towards the reform our city and state needs to help assist the thousands of people entrenched in a system that penalizes them for their poverty through punishments such as license suspension, outrageous fines, and unaffordable ticket fees.
With today’s announcement, we applaud Mayor Lightfoot, City Clerk Anna Valencia, and City Council, for joining us in supporting the License to Work Act, and we look forward to working with City leaders, partners, and community members, as we continue to push for change and the passage of the License to Work Act.
Learn more about the License to Work Act at https://www.license2work.org/ and learn more about the work Heartland Alliance is doing to advance economic opportunity at www.heartlandalliance.org/assetbuilding
Mayor Lori Lightfoot kicked off Grounds for Peace, the city’s new vacant lot beautification pilot program, focused on restoring 50 vacant lots in the North Lawndale, Woodlawn, and Englewood neighborhoods, in partnership with READI Chicago and employer partner Urban Growers Collective.
Before commencing a press conference announcing the launch of the program, Mayor Lightfoot took time to greet and chat with each READI Chicago participant who will be working on the lots. Throughout the remainder of the year, work crews from each READI Chicago community will beautify and maintain lots while learning and practicing planting, landscaping, and property maintenance skills.
Each of the 50 lots, located in high-crime areas, was chosen in part based on an analysis conducted by the University of Chicago Urban Labs. The pilot program is based on research showing that beautifying and greening vacant lots can decrease violent crime.
“We have a lot of hard work to do to reclaim our neighborhoods from violence,” Mayor Lightfoot said. “Ultimately, that responsibility lies with us. We all have to be in this together, and I’m grateful to see all this hard work.”
Michael, a READI Chicago Englewood participant who will be working on Grounds for Peace, introduced the mayor during the press conference and shared some of his personal story, telling the audience how READI Chicago has impacted his life.
“I never knew that cleaning up trash would help me in the future,” Michael said. “I know how to resolve situations I get into. I know how to turn the other cheek. I know how to lead.”
Marlon Chamberlain, Englewood community project manager for READI Chicago, stressed the importance of employer partners believing in READI Chicago participants, as well as the value meaningful work brings to participants, allowing them to build up their communities from the inside out.
“Violence can only be solved with the help of employers like Urban Growers Collective, who are committed and invested in this population, to remove obstacles for people who are formerly incarcerated,” Chamberlain said. “This collaboration really represents a model to the city of what violence solutions can look like.”
Participants, the Bears, and youth spent the morning painting and decorating the former site of Banner Academy, transforming the former classrooms into vibrant new spaces for men to gather for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However, HHCS’ Director of Workforce Development Larry Alexander emphasized that this was not just about painting — rather, the focus of the morning was to give participants and Bears staffers a chance to talk, learn from one another, and forge relationships.
“READI really saved my life,” Dominic, a READI Chicago participant, told a group of Bears staffers as they painted side by side. “These times — the mornings, afternoons — these are the most dangerous times of my life, and being able to be here every day at those times really saves me. It’s making a difference.”
As barriers dissolved, creating a sense of solidarity between staffers and participants, the West Side Hub was transformed into freshly painted CBT classrooms, adorned with READI Chicago banners and values. Participants played music and danced in the bright new classrooms, relaxed and comfortable in their new READI Chicago home.
“These young men have real values about life and want to move forward with their lives and be a part of the American dream,” Larry said. “We have to find a way to eliminate the barriers. These young men simply deserve an opportunity, because I think that’s what’s missing.”
Heartland Alliance and READI Chicago staff regularly discuss the importance of civil rights with participants by uplifting the ability to make themselves heard through voting, while also acknowledging the work still to come.
Civil rights ensure that every individual has the opportunity to participate in civil and political life without discrimination or repression. These rights have been fought hard for throughout our nation’s history, but truly culminated in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which finally brought communities of color, who had been historically disenfranchised, a voice.
While the Voting Rights Act was enacted to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting and promote equal opportunity for every citizen, regardless of race, we still see disparities when it comes to truly being able to take part in the voting process. In almost every state in the nation, citizens cannot vote while incarcerated. And because our prison system disproportionately impacts communities of color, the very populations meant to be protected by the Voting Rights Act are denied the opportunity to exercise their civil rights due to the strict policies excluding people who are incarcerated or have criminal justice involvement.
In Illinois, people can vote upon release from prison, but in many states people cannot vote while on probation or parole, and a handful of states do not allow anyone with a felony conviction to vote without submitting an individual petition or application to the government.
“These are people who will one day be released, and if these individuals are excluded from the process to help shape what our communities look like, you’ve basically taken a huge part of the population and said, ‘You’re no longer a citizen and can’t take part in what I would call a human right,'” Englewood Community Project Manager Marlon Chamberlain said. “That removes millions of voices from being able to say what they need and what they think their community should look like.”
DeSean, a READI Chicago Englewood participant, said he feels like individuals like him, and those within his community, are discouraged from voting and that many don’t even realize the importance of voting.
“We’re still citizens, and we’re still working for this country,” DeSean said. “We need to exercise our voting rights and exercise them wisely.”
Marlon said it is vital to keep discussing civil rights within READI Chicago and to focus on solutions and root causes to empower communities from within.
“We’re human beings, regardless of the mistakes we make,” Marlon said. “You still need to participate in civic engagement — it shapes our policies, our laws, and if you exclude people, you exclude their voice. The more people we can engage in the process, it helps, giving them a way to think in terms of solutions.”
The atmosphere around the former site of Banner Academy in Austin is welcoming and vibrant. This is a true community, where men greet each other and embrace after a long weekend, ask staff when they can play basketball in the old school’s gymnasium, and chat comfortably in a space they’re making their own.
This old school is now the site of Heartland Human Care Services’ (HHCS) new West Side Hub, which is the permanent site of READI Chicago’s Austin community. The West Side Hub now houses the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) outreach team and HHCS transitional jobs team for READI Chicago, allowing the teams to better coordinate their efforts to address safety and quality of services for participants, all in one centralized location.
“There’s also been a big difference in the participants, in how they see their engagement in services at this location,” said Larry Alexander, HHCS’ director of workforce development. “They feel that this is their space. There’s a sense of ownership and belonging, and there’s consistency in where they’re going to meet daily, where they’re going to go, how they’re going to transition for services. That’s very important for their development.”
While the West Side Hub currently houses the INVC and HHCS READI Chicago teams, it will eventually house several other HHCS programs, in addition to serving as a community gathering space for the Austin neighborhood.
“The vision is to work with the community to address the concerns of local residents and stakeholders, and of course to support our participants who we work with to address poverty and lack of access to services that help create a more equitable society,” Larry said.
Larry said while the site’s primary focus is currently on violence reduction and employment, HHCS hopes to eventually offer community adult GED services, in addition to expanded work and training opportunities.
“We’re just happy to be here,” Larry said. “I think staff and participants are both excited to be in this space and can envision the impact it will have on so many lives. That’s the real opportunity here.”
Members of READI Chicago traveled to Los Angeles last month for the L.A. Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference. The conference is focused on how communities are impacted by violence, assembling experts and practitioners to collaborate on best practices and data-driven models to enhance violence reduction services, policies, and practices.
READI Chicago staff attended various self-care, skills, and best practice sessions, learning from other organizations across the country while sharing learnings from READI Chicago.
“We all have something to share in this field, and we learned a lot from each other and shared thoughts,” Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) Outreach Supervisor Sam Castro said. “A lot of people told us they would love to have a program like READI Chicago in their area.”
Jackie Summerville-White, former Austin READI Chicago community project manager and the new director of Heartland Alliance’s Onboard Chicago initiative, hosted a panel at the conference, where Senior Director Eddie Bocanegra, University of Chicago Urban Labs’ Monica Bhatt, and INVC’s Sam Castro gave an overview of READI Chicago, as well as program opportunities and lessons learned.
“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to connect with other people who are doing some amazing work, both nationally and internationally,” Eddie said. “It gave us an opportunity to see how we measure up with other organizations, and what we can learn from them and share with them.”
The panel allowed the team to highlight some of the most unique components of READI Chicago, such as the emphasis on cognitive behavioral therapy and relentless engagement. The idea of meeting people where they are without terminating their employment was new to many organizations, and Eddie said people were shocked at the level of support for READI Chicago through both philanthropy and coalitions.
“My biggest takeaway is violence is violence,” Sam said. “No matter where you are, trauma is trauma, and we really need to focus on going deeper to treat the root cause.”
This month, READI Chicago participated in Thrive Chicago’s Opportunity for Youth Summit, along with other community organizations and more than 75 youth leaders, after being featured in Thrive’s annual impact report as a promising solution to the city’s violence.
Thrive Chicago is a nonprofit dedicated to connecting and strengthening organizations serving Chicago’s young people, and the event, hosted in collaboration with the Obama Foundation, focused on how the city is collaboratively improving outcomes for young people not engaged in school or work.
Lawndale Christian Legal Center Outreach Supervisor Maurice Harris and a READI Chicago participant spoke on a youth representatives panel, discussing their experiences in the program and sharing opinions on how to better support opportunity youth.
“To be your brother’s keeper, you just have to stay committed and consistent with the youth we serve,” Maurice said.
Later in the morning, another READI Chicago participant spoke on a youth voices panel, allowing the audience to hear directly from opportunity youth about the issues that affect them most. The READI Chicago participant used the opportunity to urge employers to reform background checks and hiring barriers.
“Just take off some of the limitations and let us try to reach our goals,” he said.
This month as part of the inVEST campaign, staff and participants from all four READI Chicago communities traveled to Springfield to lobby Illinois lawmakers to dedicate revenue toward the campaign’s goal of reducing gun violence in Chicago by 80 percent in the next five years.
“[Participants] got to talk to legislators about the importance of READI Chicago, the tools they have learned since joining the program, and how legislators could support this work throughout the state,” said Quintin Williams, Heartland Alliance’s field building manager. “It was an impactful day, and we’re grateful to all the leaders and legislators we met with!”
Participants and staff shared with lawmakers the impact of READI Chicago on their lives, after which they joined hundreds of other members of inVEST in a rally outside the State Capitol. Senior Director Eddie Bocanegra joined legislators on the steps, urging Illinois to set aside a portion of revenue from marijuana sales to fund programs dedicated to reducing violence and reinvesting in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of low-level drug offenses.
Just weeks after the READI Chicago lobby day, the Illinois legislature sent a recreational cannabis legislation proposal to Gov. J.B. Pritzker that would set aside 25 percent of tax revenue from marijuana sales for community reinvestment. Gov. Pritzker has already indicated that he looks forward to signing the legislation, which would potentially result in more than $40 million next year for communities served by READI Chicago, and more than double that in subsequent years. The Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program, a provision of the legislation, will direct public resources to proven gun violence prevention programs, a pivotal move considering the vast majority of violence prevention programs in Chicago are supported primarily through private resources, while the ability to coordinate and scale this work will require sustained public funding.
“The idea of leveraging resources from the marijuana bill is critical,” Eddie told the Chicago Tribune. “It’s natural that the revenue should benefit communities disproportionately affected by lower-level drug convictions. We have to address root causes.”
Centers for New Horizons (CNH) hosted a formal dinner this month for Stage 2 READI Chicago Englewood participants.
Prior to the dinner, crew chiefs and outreach workers accompanied the participants to K&G Fashion Superstore during a professional development session to help each participant pick out two suits—one business and one casual. Staff discussed with participants appropriate attire for formal events, how to coordinate a couple of staple pieces, and how to maintain professional attire on a limited budget, as part of their professional development.
“Many of the participants had never purchased a suit before, so it was an exciting but intimidating experience for many,” said Christa Hamilton, executive director of CNH.
Participants rode in a stretch limousine to Wildfire Chicago for a four-course meal, where members of the CNH board of directors, Heartland Alliance, and several guest speakers discussed how to network. Restaurant staff gave participants a brief etiquette training, covering meal choices, formal place settings, and table manners.
“It is a priority for us to expose the participants to environments beyond what their community can offer them,” Christa said. “It was clear that the suits held power for our young men, because they stood a little taller, smiled a lot brighter, and exuded a sense of confidence that I had not seen in most over the last year.”
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Heartland Alliance’s Research & Policy Division provides expert consultation and technical assistance to subsidized employment and transitional jobs initiatives across the country. Our work ranges from helping to design and deliver large-scale federal subsidized employment demonstrations to providing one-on-one support to organizations looking to enhance their service offerings. Our program implementation tools reflect what we’ve learned as a direct service provider and in partnership with providers across the country about how to fund, design, and implement effective and equitable subsidized employment and transitional jobs approaches.
