Policy & Advocacy
How We Are Reimagining The System
A good job should be within reach for everyone, regardless of where they start or where they’ve been. But it’s not that simple.
For generations, the systems and policies intended to serve us — including workforce, education, housing, and criminal justice — have created an inherent set of disadvantages for people of color.
That’s why we work with lawmakers and community leaders to redesign policies with a racially equitable and just lens. We aim to improve workforce services and skill-building programs, eliminate systemic barriers to employment, and foster employment access that benefits those who need it the most.
Employment equity serves us all
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Employment equity serves us all •
How Do We Build An Anti-Racist
Workforce Development System?
The workforce system should prioritize every worker's future financial stability, career pathway, and economic security. It must honor the humanity of all people, be inclusive, race-explicit, address the larger economic system and center those most impacted by systemic racial injustice.
In our commitment to building an anti-racist workforce development system, our work prioritizes policies that build transformative relationships between people and systems, focus on equitable access, provide quality jobs, and remove funding obstacles that inhibit progress.
Changing Systems
We focus our policy and advocacy around improving overall labor and employment issues within the workforce ecosystem. We work to improve how the various laws, policies and systems within workforce align and communicate to ultimately benefit the job seeker.
Eliminating Barriers To Employment
CJC works to improve access to good jobs, wrap around workforce and employment benefit services, improve skill-building programs, and foster quality job creation that benefits the people who need a job most.
Forging Equitable Career Pathways
A job should provide fair wages and opportunities for professional growth. We work to ensure that people seeking to expand their basic skills can access education, training, and supportive services. We work to ensure jobs specifically for economically disadvantaged groups. As we adapt our economy to a changing climate, it must also benefit those who have historically been excluded from economic growth.
Increasing Workforce System Funding
Investing in all workers, employers gain from a more educated workforce. Structuring funding at the Federal and State level that is consistent, adaptable and relevant to the changing needs of the economy safeguards everyone’s professional progress no matter what situational changes they encounter during their careers. We also believe that funding social enterprise, entrepreneurship, and worker-owned businesses creates unique opportunities for people who have trouble securing stable jobs.
Our Advocacy Approach
Convene and coalesce working groups and stakeholders to co-create an equitable, anti-racist workforce development system.
Direct systems change advocacy at the city, state, and federal level.
Educate and mobilize the community, people impacted by the policies we seek to change, and coalition members to amplify our shared agenda.
40+ Years of Policy & Advocacy
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1982
Released a review of tax-subsidized economic development and public works projects in Chicago.
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1985
Took a lead role in the passage and the implementation of The McLaughlin Ordinance.
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1997
Shaped development of the Federal Workforce Investment Act and influenced the creation of “one-stop centers” in Chicago.
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2000
Released a series of reports to inform welfare and workforce development policy implementation.
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2005
Released Big Shoulders, Big Challenges—a landmark analysis of Chicago’s public workforce development funding.
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2006
Launched the Illinois Works for the Future campaign with other Illinois advocacy organizations.
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![2014]()
2014
CJC conducts neighborhood analysis and identified 4 neighborhoods that are most disconnected from employment and resources. License suspension is a specific challenge named by community based organizations.
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![2015]()
2015
CJC writes various blog posts and hosts discussions about License Suspension.
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![2016 Transit Table]()
2016
Transit Table convened for the first time and by the end of the year Transit Table agreed to advocate for eliminating license suspension for most non-moving violations.
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![2017]()
2017
Heartland Alliance lead the Transit Table in preparing a bill to eliminate license suspension for most non-driving violations now known as the License to Work Act. (See HB3177 and SB1614)
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![2019]()
2019
License to Work Act passes ILGA
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![2020]()
2020
Governor Pritzker signs License to Work which ended suspensions for failure to pay parking tickets, impacting 75,000 Illinois driving records.
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![2021]()
2021
License to Work publishes the Shifting Suspensions in Illinois Study launching the work on Failure to Appear Legislation. More than 100,000 people with driver’s license suspensions in Illinois for “failure to appear” in traffic court.
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![2022]()
2022
CJC drafts legislative alternative to failure to appear - HB277, in partnership with the Transit Table and government leaders.
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![2024]()
2024
We celebrate the passage of HB277 with the Skills Agenda Coalition, where we partnered with the Transit Table to end license suspensions for minor traffic offenses related to failure to appear in court.
Policy Reports Archive
See the impact we’ve made through the years.
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CEJA Workforce Programs Progress
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Lessons Learned from Manifestations of Racism in the Workforce Development System and Housing System Workshops
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Illinois Skills for Good Jobs Agenda 2022 Legislative Platform
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The Third Pillar of Apprenticeship: Integrating Diversity Across Illinois' Apprenticeship System
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Pathways, Not Punishment: A Roadmap for SNAP Employment and Training in Illinois
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The Hidden Cost of Ventra: The Impact of the Ventra Fare System on Chicago Social Service Providers
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Making the Case: City of Chicago Investment in Workforce Services
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Illinois Works For The Future: Strengthening Illinois' Economy Through Investments in Workforce Funding Education and Training
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Partnerships for Job Training and Economic Development: An Evaluation of Illinois’ JTED Program
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Building Bridges: Funding Options for the Core Components of Bridge Programs
Responses to Burning Questions from the Creating Bridges in Healthcare Technical Assistance Workshop
CJC Guide to Illinois Ex-Offender Policy Advocacy Efforts 2003-2004
Ready? Set. Grow! A Starter’s Guide for Becoming Culturally Competent
The Bridge Program: An Effective Educational Approach to Meeting Employers’ Critical Skills Shortages
Making the Pieces Fit: A Plan for Ensuring a Prosperous Illinois
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From Safety Net to Self Sufficiency: A CJC Proposal for a State Mixed Strategy approach to Prepare TANF and Food Stamp Employment and Training Participants for Illinois’ Skilled Workforce
Investing, Improving, and Measuring Workplace Skills
A Summary of Workforce Development Programs in Illinois
Illinois 2003 – Workforce and Economic Development: Investing in the Future of Illinois
Manufacturing Industry Briefing for Job Developers: Industry Overview
Testimony of the Chicago Jobs Council on Welfare Reform Reauthorization, Submitted to the United States Senate Finance Committee
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Critical Issues & Initial Answers: Recommendations for TANF Reauthorization
Recommendations for a New Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program in Illinois
Expanding Employment Opportunities for Former Offenders: An Employer Roundtable Summary
Dollars Down, Poverty Up: CJC’s September 2002 Workforce Development Issues Survey
Skills Training Works: Examining the Evidence
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Feedback from the Frontlines: Testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce
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Understanding Entry-Level Health Care Employment in Chicago
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Picture of Health: Best Practices in Training & Employing Chicago’s Entry-Level Health Care Workforce