Using Social Enterprises to Survive Uncertain Times and Why Should Not-For-Profits Launch Social Enterprises?

mark-yates

Mark Yates has over two decades of experience working and teaching in the private and public sectors, after which he decided to put his financial acumen and accounting management skills to work in the nonprofit sector. He joined Safer Foundation in 2007 as Associate Vice President, Accounting. His leadership in the development and implementation of strategic plans helped guide Safer Foundation during a critical period of organizational growth.

A nationally recognized expert facilitator and instructor of accounting, Mark also has extensive experience in entrepreneurship training and development. In 2016, he was named Vice President of Social Enterprises to help identify and launch business strategies designed to create opportunities to employ Safer Foundation clients.

Mark has trained more than 600 entrepreneurs in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program and for more than a decade, has taught accounting at City Colleges of Chicago.

Prior to joining Safer, Mark was an accounting manager and controller for several law firms; a bank officer; and an accounting Instructor at Robert Morris College. He was also a financial analyst for the FBI’s White Collar Crime Squad, where he was awarded three “Letters of Accommodation” and two “On the Spot Awards” for his design of a software tracking system.

Mark earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He earned an MBA in Management Accounting from DePaul University, where his emphasis was on accounting processes and practices within organizations.

Mark holds the rank of Eagle Scout, has been honored by the Boy Scouts of America for his community service.

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For disability accommodations please contact Christiana Kinder, (312) 996-8700 or christia@uic.edu.

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Great Cities Institute Research Sparks Further Action

04-11-17-blog

When Chicagoans learned that nearly half of Chicago’s young Black men ages 20-24 were out of school and out of work in 2014, attention focused throughout the city on a long standing problem.  That finding came from the January 2016 Great Cities Institute report commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network (ASN) and released at the Chicago Urban League. The figures from a series of GCI reports complemented what the young people had been telling us, “We want to work.”  Based on the data, GCI described the problem as “chronic, concentrated and comparatively worse” than Los Angeles, New York, Illinois and the U.S. as a whole. The report called for “all hands on deck” to address the expansiveness of the problem, which it said has ramifications for all aspects of young peoples’ lives.

A year later in January 2017, Great Cities Institute released another report, also commissioned by ASN and released at the Urban League to an audience of elected officials, non-profits that work with youth, and young people themselves.  Another figure from that report highlighted the extent of Chicago’s joblessness problem.  Namely, there were 58,565 16 to 24 year olds in the city of Chicago who were neither in work, nor in school in 2015.  This group is often described as Disconnected or Opportunity Youth.

It has been our hope, that with these reports, the work of those organizations that have stood by these young people to provide support and help them find employment opportunities would be enhanced and expanded.  We also hoped that new initiatives to supplement these efforts would emerge to tackle this issue, which is tied to violence and other social and personal issues.

Of those new initiatives, Thrive Chicago, a recently formed non-profit organization, sponsored an Opportunity Youth Summit on March 14, 2017, with approximately 300 attendees including foundations, community-based organization representatives, educators, and members of the business community. After welcoming remarks and an introduction by the Mayor, Father Pfleger from Saint Sabina Church delivered a keynote speech.  Three panels followed.  Teresa Cordova, Director of GCI, opened the research panel; a youth programs panel featured Jack Wuest, Executive Director of ASN and Quiwana Bell, Chief Operations Officer of the Westside Health Authority, and a youth dialogue panel moderated by Berto Aguayo, Safety Organizer for The Resurrection Project.  Carmelo Barbaro, Executive Director of University of Chicago’s Poverty Lab announced a $3.6 million award from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to further study Opportunity Youth. The full program included additional excellent moderators and speakers.

To conclude the summit, Thrive Chicago announced general strategies developed from several months of facilitated working groups with the goal to reconnect 10,000 Opportunity Youth by 2020.

For more information on Thrive Chicago’s Opportunity Youth work, visit their website.

From ‘Policy Vacuum’ to ‘Policy Swell’: Comprehending the Changing Nature of Urban Planning in Contemporary India

ashokkumar

This presentation will illustrate how urban India has moved from a state of ‘policy vacuum’ to ‘policy swell’ in the last two decades and what it means for our understanding of the country’s approach to urban planning and development. The central government, for instance, has sponsored many planning policies and follow-up development programs ranging from the National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy to the ongoing Smart Cities Mission, Clean India, HRIDAY, AMRUT, and the recently concluded Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. It has even succeeded in replacing the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 with a brand new The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013. Adopting Amartya Sen’s framework of 3 R’s – Reach, Range and Reason (Sen, 2005), this presentation will focus upon Government of India’s two flagship policy programs – JNNURM and the Smart Cities Mission – in order to sketch out a broad outline of these ongoing changes.

Prof. Ashok Kumar is a professor of physical planning at India’s leading School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. His research interests include the Politics of inclusive city planning, collaborative planning, spatial justice, and planning education. Prof. Kumar earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool, U.K in 1992. Prof. Kumar has published extensively in academic journals, written / edited 8 books, and contributed more than 15 book chapters. Since 2002, he has served as the editor of the Journal of the Institute of Town Planners, India. His current project involves a co-authored manuscript on “City Planning in India: 1947-2017,” under contract with Routledge, to be published early 2018.

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For disability accommodations please contact Christiana Kinder, (312) 996-8700 or christia@uic.edu.

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Tourism, visitors, and fiscal impacts on a local economy in the Calumet area

dersanderson

The Calumet area at the Illinois/Indiana border is rich in world class prairie and savanna habitats, the best trail network in the region, a stretch of the 1000 mile Lake Michigan National Recreation (lake kayaking) Trail, the Pullman National Monument, the A. Philip Randolph Museum, some great microbreweries, music festivals, the best windsurfing in the region, the Little Calumet River Water Trail, a stretch of the 500 mile Grand Illinois Trail, and its intersection with the 4600 mile coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail, and the most biologically diverse BioBlitz site yet found in Illinois…..yet….you probably haven’t experienced any of these features….but you will, someday soon. And when you come down to the Calumet area, you will spend some money, and the area and its residents will benefit. That’s what eco/cultural-tourism is all about.

Ders Anderson is the Greenways Director at Openlands. He’s worked in the Calumet area on a variety of projects for over 20 years. As Greenways Director, he has developed and implemented plans related to water trails, bike/ped trails, as well as creek and river protection and restoration, throughout the Chicago Wilderness region.

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For disability accommodations please contact Christiana Kinder, (312) 996-8700 or christia@uic.edu.

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Revitalizing neighborhoods and creating jobs through high-impact initiatives

daviddoig

CNI is a not-for-profit community development corporation focused on mixed-use real estate developments on Chicago’s Far South Side and is a Community Development Entity investing New Market Tax Credits in high impact neighborhood projects.  Chicago neighborhood initiatives was formed in 2010 to coordinate resources, economic development and neighborhood revitalization efforts in chicagoland’s low-to-moderate income neighborhoods.

CNI seeks to revitalize neighborhoods and create jobs by developing high impact projects, providing financial resources to entrepreneurs and sustaining long-term community partnerships. Doig  has leads CNI and its partner US Bank in the development of Pullman Park, a 200-acre mixed-use redevelopment of a former Ryerson Steel site.  

David Doig is a seasoned professional in community development, real estate, finance, and government. Doig is President of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI). In over twenty years of living and working in the city of Chicago, David Doig has become an expert on how cities and neighborhoods work.  From real estate development to government finance, Doig has provided leadership and expertise at all levels. Doig graduated from Wheaton College and received a master’s degree in social science, with an emphasis on urban policy, from the University of Chicago.

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For disability accommodations please contact Christiana Kinder, (312) 996-8700 or christia@uic.edu.

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How the Illinois International Port District can make a SPLASH: Jobs, development, and innovation!

claytonharrisiii

This talk will focus on the five-year strategic plan for the Illinois International Port District and how the plan is designed to bring viability back to the Port with a focus on E.R.I.C. strategies (economic and environmental, recreational, industrial, and conservation).

Clayton Harris III and the Illinois International Port District are committed to developing and maintaining a world-class port that operates as a modern, strategically driven facility and is focused on generating and expanding economic activity and employment for the benefit of the City of Chicago and State of Illinois. Clayton was formerly the Director of Government Affairs for the Midwest United States with CH2M HILL, a global engineering design/build consulting firm with over 26,000 employees and on every continent.

After earning his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Technology and while working at the Pentagon in Combat Systems Engineering in the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Clayton decided to attend law school full time while continuing to work full time. Once he graduated from Howard University’s School of Law he moved to Chicago to become a Cook County Assistant States’ Attorney.  Subsequent to ascending from Appeals, through traffic and narcotics to Special Prosecutions, Clayton was tapped by Mayor Richard M. Daley to help work his legislative agenda in Springfield.  There, aptly so, he focused on crime, environment and labor.

In 2006 the State of Illinois asked Clayton to be the chief of staff for the Illinois Department of Transportation. Clayton’s previous experience at the Chicago Department of Transportation and in aerospace at ARPA was the right combination for IDOT, which was in need of a visionary leader who understood Earthly transportation issues yet had the stellar ideas to manage the complexities of this particular state agency.

Based on this success Clayton was once again wooed to come work in a larger capacity, this time the Governor’s office called and placed him over all state infrastructure as the Deputy Chief of Staff where he oversaw and managed every capital agency in the state. In addition to the work that Clayton engages in professionally, academically he enjoys lecturing at the University of Chicago which he has done for the past seven years, where he teaches Process and Policy in State and local government specifically focusing on Illinois and Chicago in the school of Public Policy.

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For disability accommodations please contact Christiana Kinder, (312) 996-8700 or christia@uic.edu.

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GCI takes on Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship

03-07-17-blog

There are many seemingly intractable, multi-sectoral and complex challenges facing our communities that present many opportunities for innovative policy responses and action. As governments continue to reduce their involvement in direct service provision, a focus on innovative approaches to addressing challenging and complex social problems has become imperative.

For Spring Semester 2017, the Great Cities Institute’s (GCI) Real Time Chicago lecture series is focused on the notions of social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

On February 8th, Marc J. Lane, of The Law Offices of Marc J. Lane, P.C., and Vice Chair of the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation opened the series with an overview of his work at the state and county level to promote mission-driven ventures as the solution to many vexing social problems. Then on February 22nd, Claudia Alcantara of the Empresarias del Futuro program at Muejeres Latinas en Acción shared her organization’s strategy for empowering women to open small businesses and create wealth for their communities.

This Wednesday, March 8th, the conversation on social innovation continues as we host Clayton Harris III. He serves as the executive director of the Illinois International Port District and will discuss the five-year strategic plan to bring viability back to the port with a focus on economic, environmental, recreational, industrial, and conservation strategies (E.R.I.C.).

March 15, GCI will host David Doig, president of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, where he will discuss the creation of CNI in 2010 to coordinate resources, economic development and neighborhood revitalization efforts for Chicagoland’s low-to-moderate income neighborhoods.

April 5, Ders Anderson, Greenways Director of Openlands, will speak on job creation surrounding Lake Calumet.

To finish the series, on April 12, Mark Yates, Vice President of Social Enterprise, will be focusing on job programming at the Safer Foundation to reduce recidivism.

As part of GCI’s work on economic development, this lecture series will translate into programmatic work to foster a diverse ecosystem of entrepreneurial activity focused on how social innovation and social entrepreneurship can address some of the country’s major economic and social challenges.

Real Time Chicago lectures begin at 12 noon in the GCI Conference Room, 4th floor of CUPPA Hall. A light lunch will be provided.

Housing Market Data in Cook County, Chicago and its Neighborhoods – November 2016 Update

Authors
Matthew D. Wilson

Abstract
In 2016, issues of affordable and accessible housing permeate the national debate on housing. While national housing policy has made strides towards making quality housing attainable for all, the current state of the housing and mortgage market require innovative policy solutions. This report was prepared for a Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) roundtable discussion with Chicagoland housing leaders and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin’s staff regarding the development of national housing policy. This report highlights that Chicago and the Chicagoland region reflect many of the national housing issues regarding affordabililty and access, and through a sptial analysis, demonstrates geographic disparities.

Full Text (PDF) »

Screening of Count Me In by Ines Sommer

countmeinflyer
Great Cities Institute is hosting a screening of Count Me In – a documentary about participatory budgeting (PB) here in Chicago. PB is a democratic process by which citizens decide how to spend public money.  To date, over $25 million have been allocated to fund projects across the city. The documentary follows PB stakeholders across Chicago as they work through the PB process. Join us for a viewing of the film, followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Ines Sommer and lead PB researcher Thea Crum as they answer your questions about one of the most exciting innovations in citizen empowerment.

Date: Friday, March 3
Time: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Location: Great Cities Institute conference room – CUPPA Hall (412 S. Peoria), 4th Floor
Documentary info: http://www.countmeinmovie.com/
Light refreshments to be served

Please direct any inquiries to Ryan at rwilso36@uic.edu.

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