Community Wealth Building Ecosystem

Chicago CWB Grantee graphic
Artwork by Cori Lin

The Mayor’s Office for Economic and Racial Justice has made a $15M 2-year investment in Community Wealth Building (CWB) which they have defined as an approach to economic development that promotes the local, democratic, and shared ownership and control of community assets.

The CWB Initiative will invest in the ecosystem, organizations that start, sustain, and scale CWB models. The CWB Initiative will fund an interconnected network of advisors to provide high-quality, specialized, and culturally relevant technical assistance, research and communication services for worker cooperatives, limited-equity housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and community investment vehicles.

The Solidarity Economy Research Policy & Law Project will serve as the Research & Convening Hub for Chicago’s Community Wealth Building Initiative.

Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem Heading link

4 models of community wealth building

The Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem (CCWBE) is the ‘hub’ for Research & Convening for worker-owned cooperatives, community land trusts, limited equity housing cooperatives, community investment vehicles, and other ecosystem partners. CCWBE aims to advance models of local, democratic, and shared ownership and control throughout Chicago but especially on the south and west sides of our city. The CCWBE hub does this by convening community wealth building (CWB) working groups, developing tools and other resources, connecting and building the capacity of ecosystem partners, conducting research and communicating the impact of community wealth building. CCWBE is currently being incubated at the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) at the University of Illinois Chicago.

The CCWBE Hub supports the broad CWB ecosystem (both grantees and non-grantees) in four primary ways:

  • Convening & facilitating working groups for each CWB model
  • Developing & disseminating tools and other resources
  • Brokering relationships & making referrals that build the capacity of ecosystem partners
  • Conducting research, disseminating reports & communicating the impact of CWB