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National program boosts Chicago jobs

Posted on July 1, 2017

A new national program is helping Chicago jobs.

Chicago is one of five cities selected to participate in the Citi Foundation and Living Cities City Accelerator. The national program will help the selected cities to refine their approach to procurement to increase the diversity of municipal vendors.

In addition to a $100,000 grant, the City of Chicago will receive a combination of coaching, technical assistance and implementation resources in the coming year.

DPS was selected to participate in the program because of the innovative solutions that have been developed to help support the business community of Chicago, such as the Procurement Reform Task Force (PRTF). The PRTF was formed to develop recommendations to make procurement and contract management at the City and its Sister Agencies more uniform, efficient, and cost effective, while increasing accountability.

“Building on our efforts to provide residents an efficient and accountable procurement process is our continual focus,” said CPO Rhee. “I look forward to ongoing collaboration with the Sister Agencies and support of the City Accelerator to put the recommendations into action.”

This collaboration supports the goal of City Accelerator, to support innovative local government projects within and across cities that have a significant impact on the lives of residents, especially those with low incomes. Other cities selected for the program include Charlotte; Los Angeles; Memphis; and Milwaukee.

“By opening up the procurement process to small and diverse businesses owned by people of color, cities have an incredible opportunity to realize the publics’ vision of a thriving, vital economy,” said Ben Hecht, President and CEO of Living Cities. “Five cities were asked to lead the way, and we are excited to lift up their work as examples of how we can create a new urban practice dedicated to getting dramatically better results for low income people faster.”