Join City Bureau for the release of the People's Guide to Community Benefits Agreements & Alternatives zine, and a discussion on how communities can organize around developments.
Who gets to have input when a big developer moves into your neighborhood? What is a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) and how can your community get one? City Bureau is releasing the People's Guide to Community Benefits Agreements & Alternatives, a new resource guide to inform and equip Chicagoans to advocate for themselves and their communities in the city's development process.
Join us for the launch party and a panel of experts, including lawyers, organizers and community advocates, who will share key context and their own experiences in organizing CBAs and fighting for their communities with the arrival of big developments. Tune in to hear tips on how to mobilize your own community.
We're inviting all attendees to bring/share their own resources around development and coalition-building, and we'll also lead a mapping activity to help us distribute the zine across Chicago and gather your questions on the development process in Chicago.
Panelists include:
Cliff Helm is a lawyer with Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights who has worked on CBAs with community groups and coalitions
Dixon Romeo is an organizer with the Not Me We & Obama CBA Coalition pressing for a protective housing ordinance in South Shore
Amalia NietoGomez is the executive director and lead organizer with the Alliance of the Southeast who organized the Coalition for a South Works CBA on the Southeast Side
Jordan Bailly is a zoning and land use specialist at Metropolitan Planning Council
Anthony Moser is an organizer with Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ) who has organized around the impacts of the MAT Asphalt plant in McKinley Park
Note: This event will be primarily in English with live Spanish-language interpretation and closed captions. The virtual event will be hosted on Zoom and livestreamed on social media. Register via the form below and you'll receive updates on how to access the event.