Our Impact.

ADF Fellows created COVID-19 relief policies affecting 5 million residents of Chicago and Cook County. Their work has supported a $56 million contact tracing program, monitored PPE usage for more than 9,000 jail workers and detainees, allocated $10 million in funds for small businesses or independent contractors, distributed $2.5 million to organizations fighting for social good, developed reports to understand economic impacts of the virus on the state, ensured thousands of Chicago residents had access to food, and protected 17,000 low income Cook County residents.

Fellows utilized data to enact policy changes that protect and serve local communities.

Chicago Mayor’s Office

The Chicago Mayor’s Office impacts all three million residents of Chicago. The office has played an integral role in responding to COVID-19 on many fronts – public health, economic development, public transportation, crime and public safety, education, and environment. The ADF Fellow has worked as a support for the Chicago Contact Tracing initiative, streamlining the organization and communication efforts while ensuring project goals are being met. The Contact Tracing program is a $56 million grant for community-based organizations to hire, train and support 600 individuals to conduct case investigations of community-based coronavirus transmission. This project will help the Chicago Mayor’s Office to continue to monitor COVID-19 and inform the office’s response as more information becomes available on how the virus spreads. 

Housing Authority of Cook County

The primary response of the Housing Authority of Cook County during the pandemic has been to ensure none of the roughly 17,000 low income tenants in Cook County are evicted because of nonpayment during the crisis. The Fellow analyzed pre-pandemic data to determine how many residents may be vulnerable to COVID-19-related unemployment while tracking economic fallout as it occurs. The projects have also led the Fellow to compiling many resources for HACC residents like a nutrition and food bank database as well as a tracker showing the number of cases in areas where HACC residents live. These projects have ensured HACC residents have access to housing, food, and resources that will protect them from COVID-19’s economic disruptions.

Cook County Office of the President

As COVID-19 took hold in Cook County, the Bureau of Economic Development immediately looked to launch an emergency relief fund for suburban businesses in anticipation of mass economic and social disruptions. The Bureau launched a $10 million Community Recovery Loan Fund for small business and independent contractors. An ADF Fellow at the Bureau developed two surveys to assess the needs of smaller businesses and created two maps to visualize the density of businesses in areas throughout Cook County. At the Department of Finance, another ADF Fellow analyzed tax revenue data to determine how industries and companies would be affected by the coronavirus lockdown, finding that there will be significant budget shortfalls. The Fellow was also part of a team that strategized the equitable distribution of $51 million in federal funds to municipalities in Cook County. The Fellow was able to help the team define eligibility and qualification criteria to ensure loans are directed to small business applicants with the greatest need.

Cook County Sheriff’s Office

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for protecting 4,250 detainees from COVID-19 infections while providing protection to its workforce of about 5,000 individuals. An ADF Fellow created an R code to track and analyze PPE usage within the jail. It helped the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to follow usage trends over time to inform the administrative workers who purchase and distribute PPE within the jail where the greatest needs lie. Another ADF Fellow project entails three daily reports to executives that summarize infection and testing rates for detainees and employees in the jail to give the organization a comprehensive view of the trends within the jail. These projects ensured people within the organization have ample information to make policies to protect inmates and employees from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago works to improve the Chicago region as a place to live, work, and do business to promote social and economic well-being in the region. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Civic Committee has worked to rebuild Illinois’ state finances to promote fiscal stability and economic growth across the state. The ADF Fellow has been working on projects to collect information and data to understand COVID-19’s impact on the economy and Illinois state budget. The analysis and research has provided the Civic Committee with information and data to better understand the impact of COVID-19 while building solutions for the long-term health of the state’s economy.

Thrive Chicago

Thrive Chicago has reached out to its 50 partners and stakeholders throughout the pandemic to provide help to children impacted by the crisis. The ADF Fellow worked on two major projects throughout the pandemic. Through the creation of a R Shiny app, the Fellow developed an interactive map allowing users to find the closest schools and food pantries to ensure vulnerable students have access to proper nutrition through the lockdown. In another project, the Fellow analyzed how COVID-19 will affect college enrollment from high school seniors in the upcoming years. These projects have directly provided aid to more than 50 organizations in need while trying to understand factors of the coronavirus beyond immediate concerns.

The Joyce Foundation

The Joyce Foundation designated $2.5 million to support rapid response initiatives in Chicago and across the state to provide financial support in the form of grants to organizations that aim to create systemic change. Twenty grantees have already been supported. The Education and Economic Mobility program contributed $2.5 million to the Chicago Education Equity COVID-19 Response Fund to help education issues in Chicago. The Joyce Foundation also raised funds for the Illinois COVID-19 Relief Fund with a $500,000 contribution. The ADF Fellow is collaborating with different groups in analyzing application data from various organizations for city and state funds. Their analysis helps determine whether the grants support the populations with the most need while identifying which relevant organizations were not funded properly in the first round of applications. These projects have ensured populations with the most need get the quality funding to protect and serve their communities.