ELIMINATING BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT

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.

Learn more about our current initiatives below.

Transportation

Without transportation, everything else is out of reach. That's why we lead and advocate 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 focus on three key challenges: Drivers License Suspensions, Fines and Fees, Ventra.

  • We work 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 were unable to 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.

  • We’re participating in the City of Chicago’s Fines, Fees, and Access Collaborative, a city task force aimed at reducing the unfair burden of fines and fees on low-income Chicagoans.

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

Transit Table

We address the challenge of making Transportation — one of our Policy Priorities — equitable through our work with the Transit Table.

The Transit Table is a coalition of advocacy organizations, providers, and other stakeholders dedicated to eliminating transportation barriers.

We participate in different initiatives efforts that we have been a part of in our efforts to eliminate transportation barriers that keep people out of work and in poverty. We focus our efforts focus on three key challenges: Drivers License Suspensions, Fines and Fees, Ventra.

Learn about our License To Work initiative here.

Learn more about our other policy planks: