New Chicago-Area Maps Show Historic Disinvestments Behind Disparate COVID-19 Impact, Seek to Guide Future Investment

CHICAGO – As Chicago works to equitably distribute vaccines amid a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted the city’s Black and Latinx neighborhoods, a collaborative of philanthropic stakeholders and researchers have unveiled the Mapping COVID-19 Recovery Project, a series of community-based maps illustrating the historic disinvestments and structural racism that drove those disparities.

The project’s findings were revealed at an April 22 Facebook Live event, “Mapping COVID-19 Recovery: Investing Where We Live — the Bold Collaboration to Rebuild BIPOC Communities,” hosted by NABJ-Chicago in partnership with more than 25 prominent Chicago philanthropic and civic entities.

Find the livestream here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=584731742443933&ref=watch_permalink

NABJ-CHICAGO was privileged to have been selected to frame this citywide discussion centered on how the region can address racial inequities moving forward out of COVID. Panelists included Angelique Power, President, The Field Foundation of Illinois; Dan Cooper, Director of Research, Metropolitan Planning Council; and Maria S. Pesqueira, President, Healthy Communities Foundation; moderated by NABJCC President Maudlyne Ihejirika.

The Mapping COVID-19 Recovery Project is a joint effort of groups including the Field Foundation, A Better Chicago, Chicago Beyond, Civic Consulting Alliance, The Chicago Community Trust, Grand Victoria Foundation, Health Communities Foundation, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, MacArthur Foundation, University of Illinois Chicago, the Chicago Office of Equity and Racial Justice, United Way, Metropolitan Planning Council, New America and the Woods Fund Chicago.

The project has standardizds data through a series of publicly accessible, downloadable maps that for the first time unveils where public, private and philanthropic sector investments have been going or not going in BIPOC communities — predominantly Black, Indigenous and People of Color — in Chicago and Cook County municipalities devastated by the pandemic.

While the vaccine will help contain the coronavirus, collective and rapid action will be required to rectify history rather than repeat it, say the groups whose groundbreaking collaboration seeks to confront the inequitable policies and historic divestment on Chicago’s South and West sides highlighted by the devastating impact of COVID-19 in Black and Latinx communities.

Drawing on new data, the maps overlay investments from the year before the pandemic with current investments, in order to guide the Chicago area’s roadmap to an equitable recovery. The findings lay out where future public, private, and philanthropic sector investments should be targeted, with the mission to help guide the region’s post-COVID-19 recovery through strategic reinvestment, elimination of historic funding gaps, and rebuilding of stronger communities.

The groups hope the research findings will be used by philanthropy, government and the public to advocate for the targeting of post-pandemic investments toward disadvantaged areas, and examine what more can be done to help BIPOC communities. To learn more and explore the maps, visit www.mappingCOVID19equity.org.