Help us Reimagine Chicago!

We’ve all noticed it: too many things are not working. Gridlocked government. Obstructions to civic engagement. Increases in childhood hunger and poverty. Decreases in life expectancy.

The list of our challenges is long. Or, as we like to say at Civic Exchange, we are in a moment rife with opportunity.

Problems that loom large reveal both immediate needs and the ways our systems fail us. Multiple organizations, including Civic Exchange members, have nimbly responded to the urgent needs exacerbated by the challenges of the past year. 

The greater opportunity here is to re-imagine the systems that, to be honest, were already adding stress to the social fabric of our communities. Racial inequity, wealth disparity, food insecurity, and threats to democracy existed long before they became topics of household conversation. Our existing systems perpetuate these problems. In this moment, where there is growing clarity on the need for new solutions to our current challenges, there is an opportunity to develop solutions that upend old systems and create new structures that work for all of us.

Which is why we are kicking off Re-imagining Gatherings - a collection of workshops, conversations, and networking events centered around a core question:

How might Chicago and Illinois become the most supportive, responsive and equitable places in the United States?

Our goal for 2021 is to answer that question through convening and re-imagining the sectors in which our member organizations are already deeply rooted: food security, journalism, democracy, technology access and ownership, entrepreneurship and education. 

In 2020, we created a strategy guide for this work. Now we are putting that strategy into action. If you would like to be part of these conversations, sign up using this form.

Also, if you’d like to keep tabs on our progress, sign up for our email newsletter where we will share announcements, invitations, and event summaries.

We hope you can join us as we seize this opportunity to reshape our city and state that works for us all.