ELIMINATING BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT

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What’s in the way of a good job?

Lots of things — like lack of reliable public transportation, systemic poverty, and decades of structural racism. CJC works to improve job access, provide wraparound workforce and employment benefit services, improve skill-building programs, and foster quality job creation that benefits those who need it the most.

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Transportation

Without transportation, everything else is out of reach. That's why we have led and advocated for initiatives to reduce transportation barriers that affect vulnerable residents in Chicago and across Illinois through Transit Table, a coalition of advocacy organizations, providers, and other stakeholders. Our efforts focused on three key challenges: Driver's License Suspensions, Fines and Fees, and Ventra.

  • We have worked to eliminate driver’s license suspension as a burdensome penalty on low-income and disadvantaged Illinoisans. We worked with legislators to pass the License to Work Act, which ended license suspensions for those who could not pay parking ticket fines or fees and cleared suspensions from the driving records of nearly 75,000 Illinois drivers. Learn about the License to Work Act.

  • After the passing of HB277, we are shifting our focus to a larger Fines & Fees table led by Shriver.

  • We’ve worked with the CTA, our members, and other advocates to make the Ventra fare system more accessible and affordable. Read the report here. 

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Transit Table

In partnership with Shriver Law Center and other organizations, CJC led the Transit Table for five years. Together, we addressed the challenge of eliminating transportation barriers that keep people out of work and in poverty. 

It was convened by the Chicago Jobs Council and partners starting in 2016 in response to issues workforce development providers were having with the new Ventra fare system for CTA, and later began work to reduce the issue of driver’s license suspension as an employment barrier.

Since then, stemming from community-driven research and organizing from COFI/POWER-PAC and Woodstock Institute, vehicle fines and fees have emerged as a third area of work, related to driver’s license suspensions, because of the huge cost burden they add to vehicle ownership for low-income people.

Learn about our License To Work initiative here. The Transit Table has transitioned to a broader Fines & Fees Table. Read more here.

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Homelessness

Employment services often don't align well with the needs of people experiencing homelessness. We work with Chicago's homeless-response system to make jobs more accessible.

  • With Heartland Alliance, Inspiration Corporation, and Center for Changing Lives, we co-lead the Employment Task Force of the Chicago Continuum of Care.

  • We advocate for both the workforce and homeless-response systems to collect better information about both the housing and employment status of the people that they provide services to.

  • We are working to create navigators for individuals in housing programs who need assistance getting workforce services.

  • We develop new tools and resources for frontline staff of the homeless response system to better work with their job seeking participants.

Learn more about our other policy planks: