Previous Initiatives Chicago TechReach Pilot The Civic Committee, in partnership with Manpower Inc., headed a local team including a few Civic Committee member companies, Instituto del Progreso Latino, Shorebank Neighborhood Institute, and the City Colleges of Chicago to pilot the TechReach program in Chicago. TechReach is a customized fast-track job training and placement program that is based on the needs of partnering companies. Funded by the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development, the program offers high-quality training and support needed by disadvantaged individuals to advance to higher levels of employment and training in the information technology (IT) field. Civic Committee staff coordinated all components of the TechReach pilot. The first class of 18 TechReach students graduated in July 2002. Graduates were placed in six-month entry-level technician mentorships with Civic Committee companies. Bank One, Tribune, CNA, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Aon, Peoples Energy and Northern Trust served as employer partners for the program. Due to continued slow demand for IT workers, the start of the program's second cycle has been delayed. Inner-City Business Development Pilot Program In the fall of 1999, the Civic Committee created a pilot program to encourage business development in the inner city of Chicago as an outgrowth of the Metropolis report. The pilot focused on 16 manufacturing and service firms located in high-poverty areas of Chicago. In particular, the program sought to promote the growth of these inner-city businesses through counseling relationships with Civic Committee member companies, to enhance their capacity to do business with large corporate customers, and to create new supplier relationships to take advantage of their new capacity. When possible, the hope was that new capacity and new business relationships facilitated by the pilot might lead to new jobs for inner-city residents. Over the pilot's two years, Civic Committee staff and member companies provided extensive support to participating inner-city firms. In addition, staff developed a five-part seminar series for the management teams of inner-city firms. Firms were first assessed by consultants to identify the subjects to be covered in the seminars. The seminars were then designed and delivered pro-bono by senior managers and consultants at Andersen, KPMG, SBC/Ameritech, ABN-AMRO, and the Northridge Group. Small business owners and other management staff attended each of these seminars; and participants rated them as having high value for their firms. As a result of the pilot, participating inner-city firms have so far received contracts totaling an estimated $6.5 million. Three Civic Committee member companies, RR Donnelley & Sons, Exelon (ComEd), and Peoples Energy have signed contracts with inner-city firms for a combined total of $4.5 million. ABN-AMRO also provided extensive mentoring to support the development of its partner supplier. ComEd's joint venture commitment with an inner-city supplier is projected to result in an additional $2 million in contracts in the coming year. A secondary purpose of the pilot project was to learn from it and better understand how to improve the program's design. The Civic Committee has prepared a paper highlighting the lessons learned from the pilot, and has shared this report with foundations and groups that have similar projects underway throughout the country. An article that discusses the pilot as an example of a demand-side, intermediary-led program appeared in the May 2003 issue of the Economic Development Quarterly. To request a copy of the article, please contact our office. Inner-City 100 Celebratory Breakfast The Civic Committee played a lead role in the City's nomination process for Inc. Magazine's prestigious annual competition that recognizes the nation's fastest growing inner-city companies. From 2000-2002, the Civic Committee organized and hosted a celebratory breakfast with Mayor Daley to announce the nominees and recognize achievements of inner-city entrepreneurs. In 2001 and 2002, Chicago had the distinction of having more inner-city businesses than any other city ranked in the Inner-City Top 100. Three of the 10 inner-city companies in 2001 — Bonaparte Corporation, DTI, and Star Security — were participants in our pilot program. On September 19, 2002, the Inner-City 100 Breakfast was co-sponsored with the City's Department of Planning and Development and World Business Chicago. The breakfast honored the eight 2002 Inner-City Top 100 winners from Chicago. Mayor Daley addressed over 100 entrepreneurs and business, civic and academic leaders on Chicago's economic future and expressed strong support for the City's entrepreneurs. The heads of several winning companies also discussed how they have managed growth and challenges they have faced as small business owners. Nearly 200 Chicago companies were nominated for Inc.'s 2003 Inner-City 100 competition. Three of these companies - Danielle Ashley Advertising, Ameriscan Designs, Inc. and Evans Food Products, Inc. - were recognized in the top 100 list. For more information on the 2004 competition, go to www.icic.org. MetroBusinessNet - Ford Foundation Learning Collaborative In January 2001, the Civic Committee was invited by the Ford Foundation to join MetroBusinessNet, a learning collaborative involving similar civic leadership groups in four other major metropolitan regions. The collaborative of corporate CEO-based civic institutions is a multi-year initiative aimed at designing and demonstrating strategies that will galvanize sustained corporate involvement in building wealth and economic opportunity in distressed parts of the participating regions. The learning collaborative focuses on "win-win" approaches that advance the business strategies of established corporations as they build new wealth and expanded opportunity in poor communities by helping to establish and grow new and existing small businesses. In addition to the Civic Committee and its sister organization, Chicago Metropolis 2020, four other civic leadership groups include the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the San Francisco Bay Area Council, the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, and the Austin Area Research Organization in partnership with the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. North Branch Redevelopment Project Beginning in 1998, a project team comprised of staff from the Civic Committee, City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development and LEED Council, Inc. launched the North Branch Industrial Redevelopment Project. The purpose of this project was to develop strategies for enhancing the industrial character of an area of the Chicago River called the North Branch Industrial Corridor and to promote the river as a recreational and aesthetic amenity. The project was created in response to the work of various groups who have identified the need for comprehensive plans and strategies for the North Branch corridor. In Phase One of the project, the team commissioned Arthur Andersen to complete a market and strategic analysis of the corridor. This analysis identified the market forces that are shaping the North Branch corridor, as well as strategies to guide future planning. In Phase Two, the team met with local businesses and key stakeholders to get their input on the recommendations and strategies. Based on this input, the team drafted an implementation plan. The plan identifies specific actions that are necessary to implement the recommendations. The City and LEED Council, Inc. continue to work together the implement a number of the recommendations. As an extension of this effort, the City with the help of the project team developed an educational brochure for the Elston Industrial Corridor, which borders the river and, when combined with the North Branch corridor, makes up part of the oldest, largest and most diverse industrial area on the City's North Side. World Business Chicago In October, 1997, the Civic Committee created an affiliated organization, called World Business Chicago (WBC) to attract foreign companies to establish their operations in the Chicago region. Since that time, World Business Chicago merged with the Chicago Partnership for Economic Development, a public-private effort created by Mayor Daley, and expanded its mission to include marketing the City and region to attract and expand new and existing businesses from other parts of the nation. Click here for WBC's website.