With the help of $15 million in funding from Cook County, United Way of Metro Chicago is expanding its Neighborhood Network Initiative into more south suburbs, including Chicago Heights and Richton Park, with a goal of addressing affordable housing, economic development and job opportunities.
The expansion of United Way’s program, started in 2013 and already including Blue Island and Robbins, was announced last week.
The $15 million from Cook County is spread over three years, and the Nicor Gas Foundation has also committed $1 million over four years, according to United Way.
“This partnership is more than an expansion of our Neighborhood Network Initiative in suburban Cook County. It is an example of how partners from government, nonprofit, business and the community can learn from each other to improve systems, strengthen economic development and build thriving communities,” said Sean Garrett, United Way’s president and chief executive.
The network taps into local nonprofits that already have a keen sense of needs in their communities, according to Kimberlee Guenther, United Way’s chief impact officer.
Those organizations are referred to as “community quarterbacks,” she said.
“They have a trusted reputation with the community and a good track record” of providing services, Guenther said.
Among the quarterbacks involved in the expansion of the network initiative are Cornerstone Community Development Corp. in Ford Heights, Restoration Ministries in Harvey and OAI Chicago Southland in Park Forest.
Cornerstone works to abate problems of homelessness, hunger and poverty in low-income communities in the south suburbs, according to its website. Restoration offers programs for at-risk youth and adults with histories of poverty and substance addiction, according to its website, and OAI provided education and job training.
The funding from Cook County comes from the county’s Transforming Places Program, with the county and United Way announcing a partnership last year for building on Neighborhood Networks in place in some of Chicago’s south and southwest communities.
The investment demonstrates “our commitment to create more inclusive, sustainable, responsive and vital communities,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said at the news conference announcing the new push into more south suburbs. “Building up communities that have been historically left behind will require sustained, catalytic investments in people, businesses and the built environment.”
Guenther said Blue Island and Robbins were the first Chicago suburbs included in the Neighborhood Network Initiative, and that United Way identified other suburbs — Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Harvey, Park Forest and Richton Park — “that have a variety of different needs, but are communities that have the capacity to grow.”
United Way will work with those community organizations to bolster and expand existing services aimed at creating more affordable housing, economic development and job opportunities, Guenther said.
That can involve “establishing career pathways in middle schools and high schools,” such as for jobs in the building trades, she said.
The next steps will involve meetings with community organizations and residents to identify assets and needs, Guenther said.
“We want to make sure people live in a community that has both what they want and what they need” as far as access to education, housing and jobs, she said. “To be financially successful but also happy and thriving.”
United Way also has neighborhood programs in Cicero and Evanston, and Chicago communities including Brighton Park, Bronzeville, Englewood and South Chicago.