case study
Chicago Community Trust:
Rethinking Roles to Maximize Impact
The Chicago Community Trust holds a unique position in the city, working in the space between city hall and everyday citizens, with strong connections to—and influence on—both. They were looking for a strategy to maximize the impact of this role to better benefit the people of Chicago.
Using human-centered design, we learned about the challenges and needs of individual residents, civic organizations and governmental agencies and how they believed the Trust could help them. With this understanding, we proposed that the Trust embrace a new role as a convener, using its unique position to efficiently bring together the right resources and groups at the right time. To activate this strategy, we developed a framework to aggregate resources and needs and identify opportunities for both immediate and longer-term action.
Sketch of the evergreen tool to direct action & inform strategy.
Sketch of the full ecosystem, starting with civic input on the left, organized within the aggregator, then presented via the customized dashboard options on the right.
Approach
To gain a full understanding of the context, we met with internal stakeholders to understand their perspectives and desired outcomes; we went into the communities of Chicago to experience their challenges and needs; and we spoke with experts to learn some potential directions to pursue. We then collaboratively synthesized the learnings and designed ways to act on opportunities.
Outcomes
First, we defined a strategy for the Trust to be a convener, bringing together key city stakeholders: citizens, civic organizations and government. This allowed for the exchange and connection of the right resources to the right needs at the right time and created a feedback loop where the needs of community members could be more effectively conveyed to government to inform policy decisions and solutioning.
Second, we developed a data aggregation framework to drive a clearer understanding of the context around areas of concern on a block, neighborhood, or citywide level; how successful any interventions were; and where the Trust could and should engage to connect others or apply their own time, talent and treasure. This helped the Trust prioritize and act on current state as well as identify future areas of focus to pursue.
Project conducted in collaboration with Greater Good Studio