Investing In Change

The Partnership for New Communities and its investors are collaborating in an effort to capture the huge opportunities being presented through Chicago’s plan to transform public housing.

Under the Plan for Transformation, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Housing Authority, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, are replacing severely distressed, high-rise public housing with new mixed-income neighborhoods. The Plan involves the construction or rehabilitation of more than 25,000 units of public housing, making it the most ambitious such initiative in the nation and the largest revitalization of Chicago's landscape since the Great Fire. It also offers an historic opportunity to improve the lives of thousands of Chicagoans.

The Partnership mobilizes leaders from Chicago’s private, civic and philanthropic sectors to bring their time, talent, networks and financial resources to bear on the Plan—leveraging the immense public investment in the Plan with critical private dollars.

Quick Facts

The Partnership is recognized as a national philanthropic model for its collaborative, cross-sector structure and leadership.
The Partnership makes strategic investments in workforce and neighborhood development projects that advance the Plan for Transformation’s objectives.
100% of our work supports low- and moderate-income communities in the city of Chicago.
We are supported by corporations, private foundations, the State of Illinois and two national funder collaboratives.
The Partnership is a time-limited entity working in tandem with the Plan for Transformation.

In March 2011, The Partnership announced that it will conclude its operations in Spring 2012, signaling a new phase in the city's effort to transform public housing. Neighborhoods are improving, residents are making strides with employment and earnings, and the CHA is well-positioned to move forward with the Plan. Read the full announcement.

Why invest in The Partnership?

A window of opportunity exists to affect major change in the lives of thousands of Chicagoans and to revitalize historically disinvested communities. With many in the public, private and philanthropic sectors focusing their attention and resources into public-housing transformation, The Partnership is playing an instrumental role to ensure we make the most of this major urban revitalization. Our work in Chicago has attracted interest from around the country and has significant implications for federal housing and workforce policy.

“When this work began, most business and civic leaders in Chicago did not think much about the issues of public housing at all, and if they did think about it, they were skeptical about the CHA and its Plan for Transformation. One of the most noteworthy accomplishments of The Partnership is the degree to which this has changed…The Partnership has helped change the perceptions of key leaders across the City in a positive way. It has also helped mobilize support.” - Researchers Prudence Brown and Tom Dewar in a 2008 assessment of The Partnership's work.

How can your organization support The Partnership?

Depending on their own interests and strategies, investors support The Partnership through grants dedicated to Workforce Development, Neighborhood Development, general operations or some combination of the three. Please contact us to learn more.

Results

Partnership support has been instrumental in the following:

Opportunity Chicago’s success with workforce development for public-housing residents—something neither the CHA nor the public workforce development system historically has been positioned to achieve–has attracted support from national funder collaboratives Living Cities, National Fund for Workforce Solutions and Jobs for the Future (through federal stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Labor).
Through Opportunity Chicago, more than 6,000 public-housing residents have been placed in quality employment since 2006. The five-year initiative hit its goal of 5,000 placements in February 2010, ten months ahead of schedule, despite the weakened economy.
The Near West Side’s long-dormant Chamber of Commerce was recently resurrected to support the community’s growing number of local businesses.
Pete's Fresh Market soon will break ground on the Near West Side, a community that hasn't seen a full-service grocery store in 40 years.
Cottage Grove from 37th to 51st Street is poised for redevelopment through a planned series of economic development activities recognized as a model approach.
An $87-million investment is planned at the intersection of 47th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue (“Shops and Lofts at Forty-Seven”).
Metropolitan Planning Council launched the Reconnecting Neighborhoods initiative to study transit conditions and transit-oriented development opportunities around three Plan for Transformation sites by creating actionable implementation plans.
The Bronzeville Community Market opened in Bronzeville in June 2008 and is preparing for its fourth successful season this summer.
Find Your Place in Chicago has helped nearly 90 homebuyers purchase homes in new mixed-income developments that are part of the Plan for Transformation. Through its role in Find Your Place, The Partnership offers eligible buyers $10,000 cash grants to put toward a downpayment or closing costs.

The Partnership has a “demonstrated capacity to get important things done” and an “ability to work in partnership with a range of public, private, and nonprofit actors.” - Brown & Dewar, January 2009