MAYOR EMANUEL, COOK COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT PRECKWINKLE AND WORLD BUSINESS CHICAGO ANNOUNCE EXPANSION OF CHICAGO ANCHORS FOR A STRONG ECONOMY PROGRAM
Program Designed to Encourage Chicago’s Leading Institutions to Support Neighborhood Small Businesses; Potential to Drive $80 Million in Additional Revenue to Small Businesses
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and World Business Chicago announced today an expansion of the Chicago Anchors for a Strong Economy (CASE) program to encourage Chicago’s leading institutions to support local small businesses growth in their neighborhoods. Over the last year, the small businesses that participated in the CASE program saw an average increase in revenue of $804,000. CASE has the potential to drive up to $80 million in additional revenue to neighborhood small businesses and create nearly 250 full-time and 125 part-time jobs annually. The expansion will increase the number of committed institutions from 11 to at least 20 and double the number of small businesses helped.
“Small businesses are the backbone of Chicago’s economy. Through this unique partnership, many of our City’s large institutions will play an active role in supporting and growing our smaller businesses, creating jobs in neighborhoods all throughout Chicago,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Expanding this program will keep our neighborhood businesses growing and create more jobs for more residents in more communities. That is a win-win for everyone.”
“CASE is strengthening the region’s economic base by helping small businesses improve their productivity and competitiveness. That’s good for our region, and it’s also good for major institutions and government agencies, like Cook County, who are always looking for qualified local suppliers to do business with,” said President Preckwinkle.
Large institutions like hospitals, universities, cultural institutions and corporations spend billions annually on contracts and procurement. Mayor Emanuel and President Preckwinkle launched CASE in March 2014 as a way to encourage these institutions to create jobs and economic opportunities in their neighborhoods. This aligns with other programs Mayor Emanuel has launched, such as the Whole Foods workshops which are supporting small business growth across Englewood, as well as the Built in Cook Loan program, started under President Preckwinkle in 2013, which offers financial assistance to small businesses located in Cook County.
CASE launched with anchors that included the City of Chicago, Cook County, ComEd, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Rush University Medical Center, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Medical Center and University of Illinois Chicago. In 2015, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), Museums in the Park and Northwestern University will join the group of anchor institutions that also includes: Advocate Health Care, BMO Harris Bank and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. CASE looks to graduate an additional 100 businesses, strengthen its partnership with local business support services, and grow the anchor network to at least 20 institutions this year.
Participants in the first round of CASE have successfully added jobs and, or increased the size of their contracts with anchor institutions. For example, Digby’s Detective & Security Agency, Inc., a 300-person detective agency that won a CTA contract after completing the program that has allowed the company to hire an additional 34 people. Another member of the first group, Inter-City Supply Co., Inc., was able to expand an existing contract it had with University of Chicago Medical Center by 50 percent by servicing new patient technologies.
“The CASE program is revolutionary, in that it gives our local businesses an opportunity to work with each other. We may not be national in scope or have fancy marketing, but local businesses can provide even better service to our anchor institutions. Chicagoans should be doing business together, and this program helps facilitate that,” said Jackie Dyess of Inter City Supply.
“Our neighborhood assets play a major role in regional economic development. Anchor institutions spend billions a year on contracting and procurement of goods and services. CASE opens this door so that anchors can focus their spending on goods and services offered by local businesses. Given an anchor’s purchasing power, even a small shift can make a large impact,” said Nitika Nautiyal, CASE Executive Director.
Mayor Emanuel has implemented a number of programs focused on spurring small business growth in neighborhoods across Chicago and ensuring that large institutions support small businesses in the neighborhoods that they serve. Examples of this include Whole Foods Englewood where approximately 150 small businesses participated in workshops to help them become Whole Foods suppliers. Whole Foods has committed to having at least 25 neighborhood businesses sell their product in the Englewood store; and the rebuilding of the Red Line’s South Branch which has created more than 1,500 jobs.
President Preckwinkle has made supporting the growth of small, minority and women-owned local businesses throughout the region a cornerstone of her administration. In December 2013, she launched a collaborative effort between the seven counties of Northeast Illinois and the City of Chicago to expand exports from local companies, streamline regional truck permitting and support local metal manufacturers. In the past year alone, the County’s Bureau of Economic Development has catalyzed $175 million in private investment by supporting 70 different projects that retain and grow local businesses.
Interested businesses can submit applications online at WorldBusinessChicago.com/CASE. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.
Both Mayor Emanuel’s Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs and Cook County’s Partnering for Prosperity, An Economic Growth Action Agenda outline economic development strategies, including fostering development of neighborhood businesses and the local supply chain, which the CASE program supports.
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