The Community Alliance for Regional Equity (CARE) creates deeper partnerships between community-based organizations and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). It is 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.

CMAP is accepting applications for the 2024 cohort from August 1 through September 19.

Members of the CARE will:

• 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 will 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 will receive a $10,000 honorarium.

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

• Accelerate transportation and safety issues: Elevate local, on-the-ground issues and project priorities
• Contribute to regional decision-making processes: Funding priorities, large-scale infrastructure capital investments, 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.

CMAP's work with CARE is guided by seven principles.

Seek voices at the margins

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

Show up in solidarity

We will 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 will reduce barriers to engagement and leverage our connections, resources, and investments to amplify their power.

Invest in trust

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

Applications open Tuesday, August 1, and close Tuesday, September 19.

Twelve organizations form the inaugural CARE cohort. Meet the 2023 CARE cohort.

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