As a part of GCI’s commitment to an engaged university, and its mission to improve quality of life in Chicago, and its metropolitan region, UIC Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) facilitates participatory community planning processes to give a voice to and advocate for residents’ needs and wishes for their communities. UICNI provides technical assistance for community engagement, development of community plans, and continued support for implementation.
We believe in and are committed to:
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- Recognizing and building upon the history and culture of neighborhoods.
- Sustaining neighborhoods through social and economic vitality.
- Advocating for planning processes and development policies that ensure economic equality, political self-representation, cultural preservation, and ecological conservation.
- Ensuring planning processes foster active community participation for just and effective decision making.
- Engaging in planning as multi-disciplinary, intergenerational, responsive to community needs, and developed through on-going, long-term relationships.
- Forming mutually beneficial relationships based on respect and trust that results in positive contributions.
Current and past participatory planning projects include:
Calumet Region
GCI is committed to continual engagement in the Calumet Region, including the communities of South Chicago, South Deering, East Side, Hegewisch, and Calumet City.
Pilsen Quality-of-Life Plan
The Great Cities Institute (GCI) in collaboration with the Pilsen Planning Committee (PPC) is engaged in a planning process to create a new Quality-of-Life plan for the Pilsen Neighborhood.
Other Projects
As a part of GCI’s commitment to an engaged university, GCI has produced or worked on community-based plans with communities throughout the region aimed at improving the quality-of-life for residents.