Designing An Equity-Centered Citywide Plan
We Will Chicago is Chicago’s first-in-a-generation citywide plan. Coordinating across seven research teams, an advisory committee, and dozens of community partners, MUSE led the development of Chicago’s first ever equity-driven policy framework. Working with City partners, community organizations, and the consultant team, we also included more than 100 volunteers in this important work.
Details
Client: Chicago Department of Planning + Development
Chicago, IL
September 2020 – December 2022
Scope of Work
Process design + facilitation
Bilingual community engagement
Stipend administration
Policy framework creation
Winner Of The 2023 APA-IL Daniel Burnham Award For A Comprehensive Plan
Muse Method
Partnering with artist-organizers, community partner organizations, and volunteers, MUSE managed the distribution of more than $700,000 in stipends. These partners participated in working groups and brought the planning process to their communities through arts activations, facilitating meeting-in-a-box, and sharing engagement opportunities with their networks.
Initiated by Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), MUSE was part of the strategy development for We Will Chicago beginning in Phase 1. From contributing to the creation of the plan’s guiding principles and research pillars, to designing monthly working meetings for eight concurrent working groups, to deploying a team of 10 engagement ambassadors for a summer of engagement, our team was solution-oriented while working alongside DPD and other consultants.
We Will Chicago is a novel undertaking for the City of Chicago, and its commitment to historical reckoning is reflected in the plan’s inclusion of a Harm Acknowledgement at the front of the document. This nine-page section outlines the ways that planning and policy-making in Chicago have led to the systemic injustices the citywide plan aims to address and mitigate.
PLANNING TOGETHER
We Will Chicago could be in the running for the largest group project! With more than 200 Chicagoans, community leaders, City staff, and consultants actively participating in the design and facilitation of the planning process, MUSE’s role as Facilitation Lead reflected the agile and responsive approach the task called for. From Zoom meetings in 2020 to popping up at nearly 70 festivals across the city in 2022, the process remained rooted in inclusive participation.
We Will Chicago could be in the running for the largest group project! With more than 200 Chicagoans, community leaders, City staff, and consultants actively participating in the design and facilitation of the planning process, MUSE’s role as Facilitation Lead reflected the agile and responsive approach the task called for. From Zoom meetings in 2020 to popping up at nearly 70 festivals across the city in 2022, the process remained rooted in inclusive participation.
THE POWER OF POP-UPS
The project team embraced the spirit of “summertime Chi” and brought mobile tablets with digital surveys to nearly 70 street festivals, farmers markets, and outdoor performances to invite residents to help prioritize plan objectives. Garnering more than 5,000 survey responses through in-person engagement, we saw responses from every ZIP code in Chicago. In-person engagement helped to close a participation gap that would have resulted from an online-only strategy.
The project team embraced the spirit of “summertime Chi” and brought mobile tablets with digital surveys to nearly 70 street festivals, farmers markets, and outdoor performances to invite residents to help prioritize plan objectives. Garnering more than 5,000 survey responses through in-person engagement, we saw responses from every ZIP code in Chicago. In-person engagement helped to close a participation gap that would have resulted from an online-only strategy.
