Co-Designing with Community on Chicago's Cumulative Impact Assessment

Course Details

With leadership and strategic guidance from community-led environmental justice organizations, Chicago's citywide Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) provided data on how environmental burdens and other stressors vary. This course will discuss tips and tools that support community co-design and leadership within the project structure, including approaches within the scoping phase and community outreach to understand community context.

This course will also share considerations for planners, including the role of land use and public health in facilitating equitable outcomes as well as how a planner could move forward on a spectrum of community engagement.

Learning Outcomes

  • Consider how to (or continue to) build trust and share power between government, nonprofit, and community partners
  • Learn best practices for co-designing a cumulative impact assessment with community partners
  • Understand how approaches centering health equity can support community decision-making power