The Community Alliance for Regional Equity (CARE) creates deeper partnerships between community-based organizations and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). It's part of CMAP's multi-year investment to make our engagement more equitable and inclusive of communities that are traditionally excluded from the planning process.

Members of CARE:

• Influence decision making that impacts their communities
• Work with a government agency to get things done
• Network and build relationships with each other
• Get compensated as experts

CARE is a group of community-based organizations that work with CMAP to make our investment processes more equitable and strengthen community collaboration. To compensate them for their time and expertise, each member organization receives a $10,000 honorarium.

CARE members contribute their expertise and lived experiences to projects co-developed with CMAP, either adding to existing CMAP work or developing new projects together. Participants also:

• Accelerate transportation and safety issues: Local, on-the-ground issues and project priorities
• Contribute to regional decision making processes: Funding priorities, large-scale infrastructure capital investments, and technical assistance support
• Collaborate in engagement and planning tools: Best practices, engagement strategies, and data sharing
• Reflect and shape the alliance's processes and outcomes: Regular exchange, feedback, and learning opportunities to improve the engagement experience

As our region's comprehensive planning organization, CMAP recognizes the past and present roles the agency and planning profession have played in harming communities through policy. CMAP is dedicated to partnering with communities to build new relationships and repair old harms.

Seek voices at the margins

We know that many people across our region have long been excluded from decisions that affect their lives. We actively center historically marginalized voices and their lived experiences.

Show up in solidarity

We start from a place of respect for our community partners, by co-defining shared outcomes and the collaborative process to achieve them, and by consistently sharing resources, keeping our promises, and learning from our mistakes.

Elevate community wisdom

We recognize that our community partners already have the wisdom, expertise, vision, and skills to drive meaningful change. We also recognize that we have much to learn from our community partners. We reduce barriers to engagement and leverage our connections, resources, and investments to amplify their power.

Invest in trust

We invest time into earning and maintaining trust with our community partners and show up with humility, candor, and transparency for these important, transformational relationships.

Listen to understand

We listen deeply and approach relationships with a learning mindset to challenge our assumptions, broaden our perspective, and invite critical feedback to change what we do.

Evolve decision making

We commit to bringing the perspectives, information, and insights of our community partners into regional decision-making processes.

Recognize the past to do better in the future

We acknowledge and reflect on past decisions that have led to inequitable outcomes in order to learn from them and do better.

Fourteen organizations form the 2024 CARE cohort.

Learn more about the inaugural 2023 CARE cohort.

Have questions or comments? Email CommunityAlliance@cmap.illinois.gov.