Serving UIC's Great Cities Commitment: Solutions for Today's Urban Challenges
Executive Summary: This groundbreaking study, commissioned by Grand Victoria Foundation (GVF) and the Great Cities Institute (GCI), seeks to shed light on the challenges faced by Black communities across Illinois, with a specific focus on 81 “Black population centers” throughout the state where 30% or more of the residents identify […]
Executive Summary: This study identifies demographic and socio-economic changes in the Lower West Side and its subareas.
Chalkbeat Chicago reporter Mila Koumpilova wrote on the GCI report titled Data Brief: Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth and Young Adult Employment in Chicago, Illinois, and the U.S. The article noted: Matthew Wilson, an associate director at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois and one of the […]
Executive Summary: As previously documented, youth joblessness and disconnection from school and work are ongoing systemic issues in Chicago, with higher rates of violence in areas of concentrated youth joblessness (Córdova and Wilson, 2017a). In this data brief, we seek to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted those rates […]
WBEZ Chicago discusses the need for job availability among teens and references an upcoming study from the Great Cities Institute. “The need is high. The jobless rate for 16- to 19-year-olds in Chicago outpaced the national rate in 2021 by nearly 15%, and is higher for Black teens in that […]
Executive Summary: The Immigrant Impact Task Force (IITF) is a statewide effort to review, assess, and recommend a vision for the future of immigrant, refugee, and LEP communities in Illinois, created via SB 2665 the Immigrant Impact Task Force Act. The Immigrant Impact Task Force consists of 27 members representing […]
Great Cities Institute participated in the advisory committee for Metropolitan Planning Council's Reconnecting Communities: Mitigating Community Harms of Transportation Infrastructure Report. The goal of the committee was to identify the historic impact that expressways have had on Chicago, and to begin conversations on how to reconnect fractured communities.
Executive Summary: Through the concerted focus of the Puerto Rican Agenda, on August 27, 2021, Senate Bill 1833 was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker. The bill, introduced by Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, not only made such a cultural district possible for Puerto Rican Town, but also for other communities […]
On February 8, 2023, Director Teresa Córdova, Ph.D, gave a presentation on "Mayoral Forum on a New Industrial Vision in Chicago."
Rob Paral, senior research specialist at the Great Cities Institute, commented in the Economist in its story, "Chicago's Woes Are Over-Hyped."