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Millions of people in Illinois experience poverty or are living on the brink. That societal position keeps opportunities out of reach and nearly guarantees worse outcomes in every quality of life domain—making ALL of us worse off. The poverty rate for the United States was 11.8% in 2018, a decline of 0.5 percentage points from 2017. There were 38.1 million people in poverty nationwide. In 2018, 1.5 million Illinoisans were in poverty—a rate of 12.1%. Additionally, 2.0 million Illinoisans are near poor and economically insecure with incomes between 100% and 199% of the federal poverty threshold. This year marks the first time that the U.S.poverty rate is below pre-recession levels; Illinois lags behind this trend,with its poverty rate just returning to pre-recession levels.
Illinois is among the first states in the nation to pass retirement savings legislation in the form of Secure Choice. With the implementation of Secure Choice, workers in Illinois at qualifying businesses without access to an employment-based retirement plan will be automatically enrolled in a retirement savings program. An estimated 1.3 million Illinoisans who currently do not have access to workplace retirement plans will be potentially impacted by Secure Choice. As Illinois moves toward Secure Choice implementation, however, there are a number of key questions that should be answered to help ensure that the program is addressing barriers to participation, especially among low-income workers, women, immigrants, and workers of color. This research is aimed at better understanding these barriers.
Comments in response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Employment andTraining Opportunities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program RIN 0584-AE68
For individuals experiencing housing insecurity—and other hardships associated with poverty, such as low rates of health literacy, food insecurity, lack of transportation, and restricted access to quality health care—an HIV diagnosis exacerbates an already burdened quality of life. These larger structural barriers may inhibit HIV+ participants from feeling able to change individual-level behaviors which may complicate their HIV status. One counseling intervention that addresses obstacles to change is Motivational Interviewing (MI). MI is a collaborative, client centered approach that fosters communication between a service provider and their recipient with the goal of identifying and resolving the change goals identified during the counseling session. Studies on healthcare outcomes for chronically ill individuals who received MI interventions indicate that, when followed properly, MI can effect long-term, positive behavior changes. This paper defines MI, explores it's applications among HIV+ participants, describes an MI fidelity monitoring tool, and situates MI relevance while acknowledging the influence of social determinants of health.
Chicago is in so many ways a thriving global city. But far too many of us face the daily reality of financialinsecurity caused by jobs that don't pay enough to live on, that have unstable hours, and that don't providebenefits that many in the workforce a generation ago enjoyed. Both as a city and as a people, economicresilience in the face of change is critical to create a thriving metropolis, yet strong forces are pushing us awayfrom this, not towards it: deep racial and gender inequity; steadily widening income inequality; the erosion ofthe middle class; the rise in contingent work and looming automation of jobs. The result? Work is unreliableand income is precarious for those living in deep poverty and all the way up into the middle class.In response to these realities, last summer the Chicago City Council passed a resolution to create the ChicagoResilient Families Initiative Task Force to assess and determine the scope of a guaranteed income pilot aswell as solutions to modernize the Earned Income Tax Credit. Since then, at the behest of Mayor Emanuel,the task force has met, learned, dug deep and explored different paths to economic security and resiliencyfor Chicagoans. We sought advice from community residents and national experts who have been engageddeeply in these questions for years
New Moms (www.newmoms.org) is a non-profit organization based in the Austin neighborhood in Chicago and in Oak Park, IL that provides wraparound health, housing, and social services to young moms. New Moms utilizes an integrated, participant (and woman)-centered approach to interrupt the two-generation cycle of poverty, by focusing on critical life services both for moms and children. The current program structure is built on a three-pronged approach of housing, family support services, and job training, with over arching support and referral services infused throughout all programming.The New Moms SROI study encompassed October 2015 - September 2017, and included all young women who exited any of the three New Moms program areas during this time and who fell below 138% of the Federal Poverty Line.The findings show that investing in New Moms generates nearly a 4-fold return for every dollar invested. This SROI clearly makes the case that transitional supportive housing, paired with holistic wrap around services, is a critical intervention, specifically for young moms. If, as a society, we believe in investing in breaking the two-generation cycle of poverty, then the value provided by this model should serve as a clear call to investment.
Illinois es uno de los primeros estados en la nación que aprueba la legislación de ahorro para la jubilación utilizando Secure Choice. Con la implementación de Secure Choice, los trabajadores en Illinois en empresas calificadas sin acceso a un plan de jubilación basado en el empleo serán automáticamente inscritos en un programa de ahorro para la jubilación. Se estima que 1,3 millones de personas de Illinois que actualmente no tienen acceso a planes de jubilación en el lugar de trabajo se verán potencialmente impactados por Secure Choice. Sin embargo, a medida que Illinois avanza hacia la implementación de Secure Choice, hay una serie de preguntas clave que deben responderse para ayudar a garantizar que el programa aborde las barreras que impiden la participación, especialmente entre trabajadores de bajos ingresos, mujeres, inmigrantes y trabajadores de color. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo entender mejor estos obstáculos.
This report is the final outcome evaluation of Harvest Commons, a supportive housing program on the near west side of Chicago that offers an enhanced, health-focused model of supportive services. Along with typical services such as case management and employment support services, residents of Harvest Commons -- virtually all of whom had been homeless -- have the opportunity to participate in on-site urban farming, nutritional counseling, and cooking classes. Through surveying and interviewing staff and residents and analyzing program data, IMPACT learned that Harvest Commons has had a positive impact in many different areas of residents' lives. The enhanced, health-focused model appears to have led to more positive health outcomes, and the collaborative model of service provision has created both special opportunities and challenges in creating cohesive, seamless, and impactful programming for residents. Read more about the findings and IMPACT's recommendations in the full report.
Key statistics for Chicago neighborhoods from the 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.
The employment estimates in this databook come from the ACS and thereforereflect the 5-year timeframe of 2011-2015; they are not directly comparable withthe more timely Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, which are released with amuch shorter lag time. Since the BLS does not release local community areaemployment estimates, the ACS is the only source for this information. The sum of all the Chicago Community Areas may not exactly match ACS totalsfor the City of Chicago because Community Area estimates must be of themethods used to allocate census tracts into community areas.
Since 2013, IMPACT has been working with the Altgeld-Riverdale Consortium (ARC) to evaluate their impact on safety in the community. The ARC consists of a variety of community partners -- nonprofits, schools, service providers, and local leaders -- whose collective goals include improving and strengthening community safety, creating vehicles for consistent communication, and increasing utilization of community resources. In 2014, IMPACT documented the collaborative work and key accomplishments of the ARC in the Altgeld-Riverdale Consortium: Evaluation Findings report. In the second chapter of the evaluation, Altgeld-Riverdale Consortium: Outcome Findings, IMPACT dives into local crime data to investigate the ARC's impact on community safety. Read the reports to find out what we learned!
October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. The Social IMPACT Research Center took a look at infant mortality rates and low birth weight rates in Chicago Community Areas and compared these data to the public health goals as outlined in the Chicago Department of Public Health's Healthy Chicago 2020 agenda, to see how Chicago babies are faring on these health indicators.
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