Mayor-Elect Johnson's Commitments to One Chicago for All

One Chicago for All was excited to host Mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas on March 25, 2023 and hear Mayor-Elect Johnson's commitments to:

1. Jobs & Inclusive Hiring: Adopt more inclusive hiring practices and remove barriers for all City Departments and sister agencies, including for people with arrest and conviction records, so that all levels of the City's workforce have equitable representation from all of Chicago's communities.

2. Small Business Support: Identify and advocate for low- or no-interest capital for small business borrowers in our communities, fund community organizations to train and support them, and remove City barriers to their growth.

3. Housing & Homeownership: Fund a flexible homebuyer pool of $60,000 each for at least 3,000 families, fund organizations to train and counsel the homebuyers, and remove City barriers to home ownership for communities of color. [see link below for additional commitments on affordable rental housing]

4. Investing in existing community plans and coalitions: From building the initial team in the transition and throughout this administration, to invest at least 3% of the City's annual budget towards existing comprehensive approaches and projects local organizations have already built community support for, such as through Quality-of-Life Plans.

5. Immigration: Engaging One Chicago for All and our members before making decisions that will affect immigrant residents within our communities, including: CityKey and other City identification offerings, eligibility for City resources and programs remain open regardless of documentation status, sharing of information with law enforcement, and services, housing or other resources for recent immigrants.

6. Education: Engaging One Chicago for All and our members before this administration and CPS make decisions that will affect our communities, including decisions on funding, use of facilities, how you engage parents, and instruction.

7. Public Safety & Youth: Engaging One Chicago for All and our members, including our youth leaders, before making decisions that will affect the safety of our communities, including decisions on: current and new funding for youth programming and safe spaces in our communities, funding for police and mental health services, and policing strategies and reform.

See a full list of commitments Mayor-Elect Johnson made in 1Chi4All’s candidate questionnaire here.

1Chi4All launched in May 2018 with a call to action from Chicago neighborhoods. Across six topics, community leaders made the case for a goal of meaningful investment in neighborhoods, and residents in our communities connecting to sustained, living wage job opportunities at scale. 1Chi4All's first actions were major candidate forums during the 2018 Mayoral election, seeking specific commitments to increase the community-directed flow of private, public, and philanthropic capital in Black and Latinx communities that have experienced decades of disinvestment.

Many community-based leaders from 1Chi4All helped lead committees for Mayor-Elect Lightfoot's transition, during which she named Chicago’s first Chief Equity Officer - a key part of 1Chi4All's Call to Action. The forums also led to regional conversations 1Chi4All hosted with Mayor Lightfoot during her transition and helped influence the Mayor's vision for aligning City resources to communities on the South and West Sides that had or were creating Quality-of-Life Plans.