This study focuses on the Wal-Mart store that opened on the West Side of Chicago in September 2006. The research team conducted a series of three surveys of retail businesses in an area within a four-mile radius of the Wal-Mart location at 4650 W. North Ave, Chicago IL 60639. The surveys were administered in the summers of 2006 (before the Wal-Mart opening), 2007 and 2008. The basic sample follows 306 enterprises 82 of which went out of business over the study period.
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This international project was an effort to document existing successful alternatives to the reinvestment and displacement cycle in communities. We developed a curriculum that can be used either by faculty and students in the university classroom or by community leaders and residents in city and suburban neighborhoods.
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The project documented existing local, community-based projects in an effort to include these voices in the larger smart growth development discussion. It examined how the benefits of regional economic growth might be used more effectively to address pressing social problems in these communities and the broader region.
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This paper reviewed the literature that assesses the incidence of severe impairments among parents and children receiving AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and projected that analysis to estimate the number of persons eligible for, but not receiving SSI (Supplemental Security Income) in the Illinois TANF case load.
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Persistent racial and ethnic segregation has continuing implications for the social, political, cultural, and economic vitality of Chicago region. This report demonstrates the reality of such concentrations, and analyzes why they persist. We are particularly interested in assessing the impact of housing discrimination on job and wealth opportunities for people of color. Findings and recommendations are drawn from reports on this subject written since the last series of reports commissioned by the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago in 1990.
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STRIVE (Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees) Chicago Employment Service, Inc., and the Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Urban research and Learning (CURL) collaborated on a participatory evaluation of STRIVE’s Career Path Project (CPP). STRIVE is a non-profit organization with a mission to help chronically unemployed, low-income adults enter the workforce and develop stable work histories.
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This participatory evaluation research documented the two-year School-to-Work program. The program was organized around four career clusters--transportation, build environment, computer information systems, and metal works. Each career cluster was based on an integrated curriculum with core academics, exposure to career exploration activities, and off-site learning experience.
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Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), and Policy Research Action Group (PRAG), joined in collaboration with two community-based organizations, Howard Area Community Center (HACC) and Organization of the NorthEast (ONE), to study the potential adverse impact of welfare policy changes on different types of public benefit recipients in the Chicago neighborhoods of Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park. This collaboration was motivated by the partners' grave concerns over how low-income individuals and families would survive when faced with the termination of life-sustaining public benefits, and how the communities would cope with increased impoverishment and diminished funds.
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