CARE

Working closely together with communities

CARE creates deeper partnerships between community-based organizations and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). It is part of CMAP’s multiyear investment to engage with communities that are traditionally excluded from the planning process.

CARE members:

• Influence decision making that impacts their communities
• Work with a government agency to get things done
• Network and build relationships with each other
• Get compensated as experts

What is CARE?

CARE is a group of community-based organizations that work with CMAP to strengthen community collaboration. To compensate them for their time and expertise, each member organization receives a $10,000 honorarium.

CARE members contribute their expertise and lived experiences to projects co-developed with CMAP, either adding to existing CMAP work or developing new projects together. Participants:

• Accelerate transportation and safety issues: Elevate local, on-the-ground issues and prioritize projects
• Contribute to regional decision-making processes: Funding priorities, large-scale infrastructure capital investments, and technical assistance support
• Collaborate in engagement and planning tools: Best practices, engagement strategies, and data sharing
• Reflect and shape the alliance’s processes and outcomes: Regular exchange, feedback, and learning opportunities to improve the engagement experience

Meet the CARE cohort

Fourteen organizations form the 2024-2025 CARE cohort:

• Access Living
• Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County
• Batavia Community Diversity Initiative
• Elgin Community Bikes
• Evanston/North Shore NAACP
• Faith in Place
• Far South Community Development Corporation
• Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce
• Hanul Family Alliance
• Indo-American Center
• North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council
• Northwest Center
• Palenque LSNA
• Youth and Family Center of McHenry County