Elevated Chicago’s Year in Review
Elevated Chicago had quite a busy and exciting 2019 year. Our partners led the way with advocacy (such as LSNA and LUCHA’s fight for affordable housing in Logan Square), with programming (such as our collaboration with CNT and Enterprise Community Partners on an urban planning summit for young adults), and in grant-making (such as those funds awarded by and with the Chicago Department of Public Health, CNT and Enterprise, including our $500,000 in Equity Forward grants).
It also was a year of many celebrations: the passage of an eTOD ordinance by Chicago’s City Council; our second eTOD symposium with 200 local and national leaders; the appointment of Elevated Chicago Steering Committee members to then Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s Transition Committees; and, a renewal by our largest funder Strong, Prosperous And Resilient Communities Challenge (SPARCC), to name a few.
We were proud Chicago eTOD hosts on several occasions, including welcoming an Indianapolis delegation, a site visit by Atlanta leaders, and the cohort from five other SPARCC sites (Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis, and the San Francisco Bay Area) here to connect, reflect and celebrate the first three years of SPARCC.
“For me, two key highlights were the eTOD symposium in March and the SPARCC convening in October, which expanded our family and networks locally and nationally above and beyond any expectations I had 2 years ago,” said Roberto Requejo, Elevated Chicago’s program director. “The third and constant highlight is the privilege of being invited to sit every day at tables located in neighborhoods, downtown, and out-of-town that I wouldn’t have known of, or been part of, without Elevated Chicago — from community tables, to mayoral transition committees, to national meetings. I look forward to contributing to those tables, and more, in 2020.”
Learn about Elevated Chicago’s prioritized work in 2020, and download our 2019 Year in Review here.
