Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot today released the advisory report compiled by the COVID-19 Recovery Task Force, which was established in April to advise city government as recovery planning efforts were underway amidst COVID-19.
The Task Force was co-chaired by Mayor Lightfoot and former White House Chief of Staff Samuel Skinner and involved a group of more than 200 industry experts, regional government leaders, community-based partners, and policymakers.
Over the past ten weeks, the Task Force members assembled a change study and an advisory report to provide critical insights to help Mayor Lightfoot as her administration works to balance a robust health response with a strategic economic and social response that addresses the unique challenges presented by COVID-19 – many of which underscore the challenges the city faces in the form of structural inequities.
The Task Force developed a set of 17 recommendations and four existing initiatives to advance a targeted set of outcomes for Chicago.
Outcome #1: Address new and old traumas
- Create the most advanced healing-centered region in the country
- Increase access to mental and emotional health resources and services in communities
- Create a culturally sensitive, diverse mental health workforce
- Reimagine the region’s workforce infrastructure and create a plan to invest in displaced and young workers
- Increase ownership and employment for Black and brown residents in the regions’ contracting and construction industries
- Create the most vibrant small and medium-sized business and Black- and brown-owned business community in America
- Expand relief programs and pilot innovative approaches to improve and strengthen the social safety net
- Expand the region’s transportation, distribution and logistics sector by leveraging new trends in the localization of supply chains
- Strengthen Chicago’s healthcare and life-sciences ecosystem
- Build on the region’s assets in food and agriculture
- Build on the region’s historic strength in manufacturing
- Prepare the region to capture HQ2s and corporate development and specialty centers
- Capture film and TV production opportunities given the lack of studio space in California
- Introduce Chicago’s master brand
- Lead the re-imagination of regional tourism, travel, and hospitality
- Develop new and existing community hubs to encourage tourism in neighborhoods
- Show the world Chicago is open for business
- INVEST South/West
- Solutions Toward Ending Poverty (STEP)
- We Will Chicago / Citywide Plan
- Chicago Connected
Please click here to download the full report (104 pages)
EXTRA CONTENT: Economic & Social Change Study
Uncovering the impact of COVID-19 on Chicago’s economic and social fabric to aid RTF recommendations across Committees
Co-Chairs
- Ben Harris, Executive Director, Kellogg Public-Private Initiative at Northwestern University
- Ai-Jen Poo, Co-Founder, National Domestic Worker’s Alliance