Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson only had six weeks to set his new administration up to effectively govern 2.7 million Chicagoans. With the help of more than 19 partners and approximately 50 members of our staff and our partners’ staff, we provided $2.8 million in pro bono services to support Mayor-elect Johnson as he prepared to take the helm of the City at a time of great challenges and change.

Civic Consulting Alliance recently completed several collaborative projects with local and state governments to meet the urgent needs of asylum seekers, and prepare long-term, sustainable strategies for future influxes of new arrivals to Chicago. Clients featured below include Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), and the Johnson transition team.

Since Mayor Harold Washington asked the business community for pro bono help analyzing the City budget, we have proudly served the Mayor’s Office to advance its most important and timely initiatives. Beginning with supporting the mayoral transition in 2019, we have worked closely with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Office to advance initiatives aligned with our mission and to support projects where Civic Consulting Alliance was uniquely positioned to make an impact.

ince summer 2020, Civic Consulting Alliance has devoted considerable staff resources to support the City of Chicago, Cook County, and other public and social sector clients across our three platforms in working towards an equitable recovery that results in enduring change. This work amplified our initial collaborative COVID-19 crisis response management—which you can read about in our 2020 Impact Report—and relied on our unique institutional knowledge and our deep public and private sector relationships.

In March 2019, Civic Consulting Alliance answered calls from the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois, and the philanthropic community to mobilize rapidly for a comprehensive and inclusive approach to COVID-19 crisis response and recovery. Between mid-March and the end of June, we redeployed about 75 percent of our staff and secured 16 pro bono teams to serve these units of government and engage non-government stakeholders through nearly 20 projects, organized into 10 distinct workstreams.

Over the past century, Chicago has only had four Mayoral elections without an incumbent on the ballot. Given this history, the 2019 Mayoral transition was a rare transfer of leadership—and an exciting opportunity to accelerate progress in addressing our city’s most pressing challenges and captures exciting opportunities.

But the transition was also a strategic and logistical challenge, as it was the first time that a newly elected Mayor had to prepare to lead the City in less than seven weeks, between the runoff election on April 2nd and the inauguration on May 20th.