Safety & Justice

WE FACILITATE INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND COLLABORATIVE TRANSFORMATION TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC INEQUITIES AND MAKE THE CHICAGO REGION A SAFE AND JUST PLACE FOR ALL

OPPORTUNITY AREAS

Holistic violence reduction
Accountable, equitable, and restorative justice institutions
Community-driven alternatives to traditional justice system

Indicators

KEY PROJECTS

Building a Just and Equitable Juvenile Justice System
Chicago Police Department - Reform Pilot District
Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC)

How Does Institutional Justice Reform Build an Equitable Chicago Region?

Event Date | June 30, 2021

“Civic Consulting Alliance has provided a critical foundation for us to transform Chicago’s youth diversion model into one that is youth-led, community-based, services-oriented, and most importantly, results in legitimate positive and long-term outcomes for young people and their families.”

— John O’Malley, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, City of Chicago

2021 Safety & Justice Snapshot

Indicators

Civic Consulting Alliance evaluates long-term indicators to inform our platform visions and our mission. These indicators also help us understand how the challenges we seek to address impact people in our region inequitably, shaped by factors like race, ethnicity, gender, or neighborhood. In turn, these indicators highlight that our solutions must be equity-focused and guided by the people they most impact.

HOMICIDES, SHOOTINGS, AND RACE BY COMMUNITY AREA
City of Chicago | 2020

Chicago continues to experience higher levels of shootings and homicides than our peer cities. Moreover, gun violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx Chicagoans, a pattern that can be clearly seen on a map of our city’s neighborhoods, due to decades of policies and practices promoting segregation and concentrating resources in predominantly White neighborhoods.

SHOOTINGS & HOMICIDES (#)
City of Chicago | 2011-2021

The graph below depicts the total number of non-fatal shooting incidents and homicides per year in Chicago. Both types of violence increased dramatically in 2016, 2020, and 2021.

Avg. Daily Population (#)
Cook County Jail | 2011-2020

The graph below depicts the average number of people held in Cook County Jail per day, overall and by race/ethnicity.

Population (%) - By Race
Cook County | 2019

The graph below depicts the racial composition of Cook County in 2019.

KEY TAKEAWAY

The average daily population of the Cook County Jail has decreased since 2011, suggesting progress towards a more just and efficient pretrial system. However, while Black residents made up 24% of Cook County’s population overall, on average, 73% of Jail residents were Black, demonstrating that significant racial inequities in our criminal justice system remain.

Special Notes:

Average Daily Population, Cook County Jail—Disaggregated data by race is only available beginning in 2018.
Pretrial System and Jail—We use the terms 'pretrial system' and 'jail' throughout this Impact Report. The pretrial justice system begins when a person comes into contact with law enforcement and ends when any resulting charges are resolved—usually through a dismissal, a plea, or a trial. Jails house people who are newly arrested or awaiting trial or sentencing, whom the court has therefore not yet found guilty of committing the crime of which they are accused, as well as those serving sentences less than one year for state misdemeanors.

Building a Just and Equitable Juvenile Justice System

Youth involved in the justice system, their families, and advocates have long called for changes to Chicago’s and Illinois’ approach to juvenile justice. In recent years, public leaders have increasingly heard these calls, recognizing that our system does not promote community safety or positive youth outcomes, and it oftentimes re-traumatizes youth. Moreover, leaders recognize that the current system is unjust and inequitable—with young Black men arrested and incarcerated at significantly higher rates than other groups. Nationwide protests for racial justice in 2020 only heightened public support for rectifying the systemic failures impacting our youth.

Over the past year, Civic Consulting Alliance supported two projects focused on transforming our juvenile justice system from a punitive to a rehabilitative model.

Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC)

The Juvenile Intervention Support Center (JISC) is a multiagency youth diversion center run by the Chicago Police Department that serves 10 of the city’s 22 police districts—interfacing with about 3,200 youth in 2019.

The JISC aims to divert youth arrested for low-level offenses away from the juvenile justice system and into social service case management.

Yet, a February 2020 report from the City’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and the 2019 consent decree found that a variety of reforms were needed at the JISC.

The Mayor’s Office and Chicago Police Department (CPD) called upon Civic Consulting Alliance to support their efforts to reform the JISC and to rethink what it means to offer Chicago youth alternatives to arrest that minimize justice-system involvement and promote positive youth outcomes. From July 2020 to January 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance collaborated with the Mayor’s Office, the JISC Advisory Council, and the CPD Youth Investigations Division on two approaches to reform.

1 | Executing Short-Term Reforms

We provided project management and related support to rapidly implement short-term reforms at the JISC, including:

Development of “preferred qualifications” for particular jobs at the JISC to ensure that candidates are skilled at working with youth;
Integration of a community-based organization to provide on-site case management support to youth;
Identification of a training program to educate JISC staff on topics such as youth development, cultural competence, and trauma-informed interactions; and
Execution of data analysis of the times of day that have the most JISC arrests, and alignment of service provider presence at the JISC to those times.

2 | Envisioning a New Diversion Model

We advanced longer-term progress towards a future youth diversion model by:

Conducting best practice research—with support from an Academy Group undergraduate fellow—and more than 50 interviews with advocates, subject matter experts, key stakeholders, and peer cities to establish a fact base to inform the model’s design; and
Designing a roadmap for the Mayor’s Office and CPD to develop a community-informed model, including identifying seven key elements of this future model.

“Civic Consulting Alliance has provided a critical foundation for us to transform Chicago’s youth diversion model into one that is youth-led, community-based, services-oriented, and most importantly, results in legitimate positive and long-term outcomes for young people and their families.”

— John O’Malley, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, City of Chicago

“While our work is far from done, the planning Civic Consulting Alliance supported has set us on a path to develop a more equitable, community- and trauma-informed youth diversion model in the near future.”

— Leslie Silletti, Chief of Staff, Chicago Police Department

Equipped with this foundational work, the Mayor’s Office, CPD, and the Department of Family and Support Services plan to develop a new, city-wide youth deflection and diversion model that will: improve service of young people; incorporate community perspectives; increase public safety; and ensure compliance with consent decree requirements and recommendations from the OIG.

Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice

The Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ) serves and houses youth who are committed to state custody through juvenile court proceedings. In addition to the youth held in five secure facilities, IDJJ also provides monitoring and support services for hundreds of youth after being released through their Aftercare Department.

In July 2020, Governor JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton announced IDJJ’s intent to begin a four-year process to transform the state’s juvenile justice system in partnership with the Justice, Equity, and Opportunity Initiative (JEO). These efforts aim to reduce the harm of incarceration by transitioning youth to small, regional residential centers, investing significantly in wraparound support and intervention services for justice involved youth, and increasing financial support for victim services in communities that are disproportionately impacted by violence.

To ensure that the IDJJ’s transformation was executed with meaningful input from those most impacted by Illinois’ juvenile justice system, the IDJJ sought to form a committee of diverse stakeholders to provide recommendations. Given our expertise standing up and managing diverse collaboratives, from January 2021 to May 2021 Civic Consulting Alliance—with support from pro bono partner Protiviti—helped IDJJ get the committee off the ground.

In the months ahead, the IDJJ aims to review the committee’s final report and to consider how to incorporate its recommendations into the IDJJ’s Transformation Plan.

“I reached out to Civic Consulting Alliance given its experience both in the public safety space and as a connector across sectors. The subcommittees’ work over the past several months has given us meaningful recommendations to help us reach our goals of meaningful transformation, better youth outcomes, and increased community safety.”

— Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton

Civic Consulting Alliance Key Activities

Created the committee’s operating structure, including subcommittees that explored how the IDJJ can better support the success of youth by examining the perspectives of four key groups involved with IDJJ: youth; staff; families; and communities, systems, and partners;
Identified committee members, including current IDJJ youth and family members, IDJJ staff, juvenile justice advocates, subject matter experts, system stakeholders, and service providers;
Assisted with the launch and facilitation of subcommittee meetings, including support of subcommittee co-chairs to ensure they were empowered to lead their group; and
Compiled the committee’s recommendations of policy and process changes, potential resources, services, and partners, and other “big ideas” into a final report.

OUTPUTS

Juvenile Intervention and Support Center

Project management—to rapidly implement short-term reforms at the JISC
Roadmap—for the Mayor’s Office and Chicago Police Department to develop an evidence-based and community-informed youth deflection and diversion model

Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice

Operating structure—to ensure the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice’s transformation committee centered the voices of those most impacted by Illinois’ juvenile justice system
Final report—to incorporate committee recommendations into the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice’s Transformation Plan and facilitate meaningful reform

OUTCOMES

75% of short-term reforms to the JISC made as of July 2021, bringing some immediate improvements to the experience of youth currently in the system
Mayor’s Office, Chicago Police Department, and the Department of Family and Support Services aligned on the path to develop an equitable, community- and trauma-informed youth diversion model that ensures more positive youth outcomes
48 current IDJJ-involved youth and family members, staff, juvenile justice advocates, and subject matter experts engaged in the development of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice’s Transformation Plan
More than two dozen committee recommendations provided to the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to better support positive outcomes for youth, families, and their communities

Chicago Police Department – Reform Pilot District

In 2019, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) entered into a consent decree that aims to address past failures of the Department and build trust between Chicago’s residents and police by mandating effective, lasting reforms. Civic Consulting Alliance has supported CPD with several projects to prepare for and respond to the consent decree in recent years. With a national reckoning on the role of police, mounting pressure to meet the requirements of the consent decree, and low morale throughout the Department, the urgency to change the status quo at CPD is greater now than ever.

“Civic Consulting Alliance brought an invaluable combination of private sector change management expertise and a deep knowledge of policing in Chicago to help us understand how to achieve culture change at our large, longstanding institution—a challenge police departments across the country currently face.”

— Eve Gushes, Deputy Chief, Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, Chicago Police Department

While CPD continues to make progress complying with specific mandates, changes have been piecemeal across the Department, and there has not been intentional focus on the complementary cultural change that is needed to realize the spirit of reform.

In April 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance began a multi-phase project to accelerate the Department’s reform efforts by:

Helping CPD structure a comprehensive approach to consent decree reform implementation, which would significantly enhance coordination and increase scale of changes; and
Identifying the cultural initiatives CPD needs to undertake to augment policy changes and change mindsets across the Department.

In the first phase of this project, we:

Developed a ‘change story’ and leadership toolkit to help CPD leaders communicate about reforms in a compelling manner—as more than perfunctory matters of compliance—and build support across the Department. These products were informed by focus group interviews and best practice research, including interviews with Civic Consulting Alliance Advisory Council members from Avia Health Innovation, Bain & Company, and Deloitte specializing in change management.
Created an implementation plan to roll out seven consent decree reforms—pertaining to community policing, crisis intervention teams, performance evaluations, unity of command/span of control (i.e. supervision), officer wellness, and officer support systems—in a pilot district (District 006).
Identified cultural initiatives structured to address four elements of culture change: leadership/role modeling, communications, reinforcing mechanisms, and training. These initiatives will be implemented alongside consent decree reforms in the pilot district.

With these critical tools in place, in August 2021, CPD and Civic Consulting Alliance began the next phase of work: developing a project management structure to oversee execution of the district pilot from September through December 2021. If successful, the pilot approach will serve as a replicable model for police reform and culture change that CPD can expand citywide.

“At a time when CPD is grappling with the crises of increasing gun violence, COVID-19, and low morale, Civic Consulting Alliance lent the planning skills and extra capacity we needed to develop a smart, tactical implementation plan to accelerate vital policy reforms that will empower our members to better serve their communities.”

— Robert Boik, Executive Director, Constitutional Policing and Reform, Chicago Police Department

OUTPUTS

Change story and leadership toolkit—to help Chicago Police Department leaders communicate about and build support for reforms across the Department.
2 implementation plans—to guide the roll out of consent decree reforms and complementary cultural initiatives in the pilot district.
Project management structure—to oversee implementation of consent decree reforms and cultural initiatives in the pilot district

OUTCOMES

Rollout of 21 cultural initiatives and 7 key consent decree reforms in one pilot district by the beginning of 2022, immediately impacting ~300 CPD members and setting the stage for comprehensive, Department-wide change

Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC)

Formed in 2016, the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC) has grown to be a coalition of more than 50 funders aligning their funding on a catalytic basis to urgently and sustainably reduce gun violence in the Chicago region.

From the beginning, Civic Consulting Alliance has guided this coalition, building upon our body of Safety and Justice platform work and our experience managing complex collaboratives to provide project management, operational, strategy development, and fundraising support.

In 2020, Chicago experienced multiple, interconnected crises—namely, the COVID-19 pandemic, a spike in gun violence here and across the country, and a national reckoning with systemic racism and the role of police in society. In 2021, in the wake of these crises and as PSPC’s direct service grantees—READI Chicago and Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P)—began to receive more public funding and recognition by policymakers, PSPC members sought to reexamine their strategic direction.

Additionally, from July 2020 through May 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance—with pro bono support from a Protiviti fellow—facilitated a process to assess and update PSPC’s strategic priorities and governance structure.

Going forward, PSPC will focus on four strategic priorities:

Scaling impact through neighborhood-based approaches;
Reimagining and reforming public safety systems;
Ensuring a supportive policy environment; and
Investing in community leadership.

This process also affirmed the value PSPC brings by enabling funders to amplify their individual efforts to reduce gun violence through collective action, learning, and voice. The new governance structure will more broadly distribute leadership and accelerate funders’ momentum, including: Action Groups to facilitate aligned action around PSPC strategic priorities; a Coordinating Committee to align initiatives across PSPC; two new Coordinating Committee Co-Chairs (Jen Keeling of Chicago CRED, and Tawa Mitchell of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation); and backbone Civic Consulting Alliance staff to manage PSPC’s day-to-day activities.

“Civic Consulting Alliance is instrumental to PSPC’s sustained impact. Civic Consulting Alliance provides operational support to keep PSPC moving forward, blended with strategic support that they are uniquely qualified to provide, given their management consulting skills and expertise in Chicago’s safety and justice spheres.”

— Jen Keeling, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Chicago CRED and Co-Chair, PSPC Coordinating Committee

Approaching Year 5

As PSPC heads into its fifth year, it is entering a new phase in its growth and evolution. It is equipped with refreshed strategic tools and a strong foundation for collaboration. PSPC funders have grown their expertise, and continue to learn and act together. The initiatives in PSPC’s portfolio are catalyzing progress toward violence reduction, and are gaining traction beyond PSPC—including at the federal level.

“While the path to a safer, more equitable city without gun violence is not linear, PSPC members believe that future is possible, and we are committed to continuing our important work to make that future a reality.”

— Tawa Mitchell, Senior Program Officer, Chicago Commitment at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Co-Chair, PSPC Coordinating Committee

In April 2021, President Joe Biden called for the investment of $5 billion in community violence prevention programs via the proposed American Jobs Plan—naming READI Chicago and its Senior Director Eddie Bocanegra as an illustrative example. In June 2021, the Treasury Department issued guidance stating that community violence intervention programs are eligible uses of American Rescue Plan funding.

Yet, it remains clear that meaningfully reducing gun violence is a complex, urgent challenge without a quick fix. In 2020, homicides and shootings increased dramatically relative to 2019—by 57% and 51%, respectively. In 2021, this tragic trend has continued, with elevated levels of gun violence continuing through the first half of the year.

Moreover, the work to reimagine local and national safety and justice systems is far from over. Chicago area government officials, community leaders, residents, and advocates continue to drive forward transformative reforms, as the projects discussed elsewhere on this page attest. At this pivotal moment, PSPC and Civic Consulting Alliance remain committed to continuing to make the catalytic and foundational investments that are needed to sustain and scale strategies to substantially reduce gun violence in Chicago.

OUTPUTS

Strategic framework and governance structure—to amplify funders’ individual efforts to reduce gun violence through collective action, learning, and voice
Impactful investments—More than $95 million committed to date to support an evidence-based portfolio of strategies to reduce gun violence, which included:

- Street outreach and transitional jobs
- Police reform and community engagement
- Gun policy reform in Illinois
- Hyperlocal, community-based efforts to strengthen social cohesion

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Civic Consulting Alliance is grateful for the philanthropic support of the following PSPC members, whose generous contributions and partnership enables us to drive progress towards our mission through impactful projects like PSPC: Anonymous; Alvin H. Baum Family Fund; AT&T Illinois; The Chicago Community Trust; Chicago CRED; Crown Family Philanthropies; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; Health Care Service Corporation; The Joyce Foundation; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Robert R. McCormick Foundation; Polk Bros. Foundation; Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation; Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Michael Reese Health Trust; Steans Family Foundation; and Woods Fund Chicago.

OUTCOMES

Mid-study analysis of READI by the University of Chicago shows that participants were up to 32% less likely to be shot and killed as young men in neighborhoods with comparable conditions. The study is not complete, but if these promising results persist, READI has the potential to increase the safety and economic opportunity of residents who have been disconnected, underserved, and at grave risk of involvement in violence
CP4P partner agencies engaged nearly 3,300 participants in case management, re-entry services, and victim assistance services in the first half of 2021, as well as over 650 conflict mediations
Outreach organizations CP4P, READI Chicago, and Chicago CRED are collaborating and sharing learnings in new ways, having reached a capacity and point of development where they have the bandwidth to strategically align their efforts
Professionalization and standardization of the field of street outreach has provided a career ladder for outreach workers across the city
Public sector funding of violence prevention at the State and local level has significantly increased, growing from $6.8M in 2017 to an anticipated $54.9M in 2021
Increased federal recognition of community-based violence prevention programs as viable solutions to gun violence, due in part to the efforts of street outreach programs—including READI Chicago and CP4P, two programs PSPC was instrumental in getting up, running, and evaluated
In summer 2021, 142 organizations serving 21 neighborhoods on the South and West Sides that experience high levels of gun violence were able to host community events to build cohesion, safety and peace in the midst of the pandemic with the support of grants of up to $10,000 each from the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities

Platform Funders

In addition to the many pro bono partners acknowledged in the Safety and Justice projects described above, the following corporate and foundation partners committed philanthropic support to fuel our staff investments in our Safety and Justice platform:

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General Operating Funders

Our ability to maintain our flexible and responsive capacity to get big things done in all platforms relied on those philanthropic partners who provided general operating support for our mission:

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