Despite loss of Amazon’s HQ2, new development ‘The 78’ aims for win on diversity
Chicago’s newest community, The 78, may have lost out as a finalist for Amazon, but the 62-acre development coming to Clark Street and Roosevelt Road is now eyeing a huge win on diversity and inclusion.
Obama Foundation hires diversity consultant: Brother of former Mayor Sawyer
WASHINGTON – Ending a search launched last fall, the Obama Foundation announced Friday it hired a diversity consultant to monitor whether foundation pledges about minority hiring and contracting for the Obama Presidential Center — especially from Chicago’s South and West sides — are being met.
Hoping to ensure diverse workforce, Obama Foundation appoints firm, hires a new staffer
Months before they are set to break ground on the Obama Presidential Center, the Obama Foundation has appointed an agency and hired a staff member to ensure that the workers building the center are a reflection of the community it will sit in, officials said.
Associated Builders & Contractors IL Chapter Bridges Diversity In Construction Gap
Martin stated says that ABC, IL Chapter trains unemployed youth who earn industry-recognized, certifications. “As an organization of employers, we have a social responsibility to give back to the communities where our members live and work. I’m very excited about the work we’re doing to be a more inclusive industry for minorities and women," she concluded..
Aldermen push for minority representation in O’Hare project
While plans for the $8.5 billion O’Hare International Airport expansion are in development, City Council’s Black and Latino caucuses are pushing for increased minority representation in job contracts.
Chicago’s Black, Hispanic Caucus In Fight For Minority Participation In O’Hare Renovation
In what the Sun-Times described as "a rare show of force," Black, Latino and Progressive White Caucuses merged in August 2016, to form a coalition that voted to block Mayor Emanuel’s plan "amid concerns about minority participation" in contracts and jobs the city would issue. A month later in September, the councilors would come just a vote shy of blocking the $3.5 billion O’Hare Airport bond issue Mayor Emmanuel had requested. The efforts might have failed but the councilors had sent a message to City Hall.
Here’s How Minority Subcontractors Can Gain Work On The Obama Presidential Center
The Lakeside Alliance construction manager of the Obama Presidential Center has launched a website to ensure minority subcontractors are hired to help build the $350 million project.
Black construction companies may reap a windfall from helping build the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), a project that will cost about $350 million.
Clout team with heavy minority participation wins $210M airport contract
A clout-heavy team with 54 percent participation by minorities and women has scored a $210 million contract to oversee construction projects for the next decade at O’Hare and Midway airports.
SWEET: Obama Foundation gives local minority-owned construction firms 51% stake
WASHINGTON – The Obama Foundation divided the financial pie for managing the Obama Presidential Center construction on Friday, giving a 51 percent stake to four minority owned firms based on Chicago’s South and West sides while handing a building giant with a Loop office the remaining 49 percent.
Protesters demanding Obama sign community benefits agreement make voices heard
Black aldermen attempting to congratulate African-American contractors that won the right to help build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park were drowned out Wednesday by protesters demanding that former President Barack Obama put it in writing.
Obama Foundation Announces Lakeside Alliance as Construction Manager for Obama Presidential Center
The creation of the joint venture will ensure that minority firms from the South Side will be in significant leadership positions in the construction of the Obama Presidential Center. Not only will the Presidential Partners have 51% of the overall financial equity of the contract, key roles in the day-to-day decision making and strategy-setting will be performed by people of color and women.
Collective of diverse construction firms hired to manage Obama center construction
A collective of five construction firms — most of them owned by African- Americans — has been hired to manage the building of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Blacks get 8 percent sliver of city's $1B contracting pie
Companies owned by minorities and women are sharing a 29 percent piece of the city’s contracting pie, but African-Americans still lag behind, with an 8 percent sliver.
Obama Foundation searching for "diversity consultant"
WASHINGTON – The Obama Foundation announced on Friday a search for a “diversity consultant” to enforce minority contracting goals for the future Obama Presidential Center and to police pledges that jobs will flow to South and West Side residents.
Obama calls on architecture and tech firms to support Chicago presidential library with apprenticeship schemes
Barack Obama has urged top architecture studios and tech firms like Amazon, Google and Microsoft to take on paid apprentices from Chicago's South Side at a public consultation event for the Obama Presidential Library.
Chicago builders call new minority requirement an unfair, costly burden
A new Chicago directive that increases participation of minority- and women-owned businesses (MBEs and WBEs) and adds city residency requirements to private construction projects is at best confusing and at worst needlessly costly, industry officials say.
Black Caucus chairman wants income caps lifted from MBE program
The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus proposed Wednesday that Chicago lift the cap on gross income and personal net worth that has forced black construction companies out of the city’s minority set-aside program, only to continue to suffer “discrimination.”
OBAMA LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION BIDS MUST INCLUDE MINORITY, LOCAL ENTERPRISES
The Obama Foundation announced Thursday that the four construction management teams being considered for the Obama Presidential Center must include subcontracts to businesses owned by minorities and women, and also recruit workers from the city’s South and West Sides.
OBAMA LIBRARY TO FIRMS VYING TO BUILD LIBRARY: DIVERSITY IS ESSENTIAL
WOODLAWN — The Obama Foundation is asking the four construction teams vying to build the presidential center to set high standards for local and minority hiring.
MAYOR'S ORDER TO PUSH DEVELOPERS TO HIRE CONTRACTOR BUSINESSES OWNED BY MINORITIES, WOMEN
CHICAGO — Chicago’s Department of Planning Development and the Chicago Plan Commission will soon be operating under a new guideline that will monitor the participation and hiring of “Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises” (W/MBEs) with respect to certain complex or large proposed construction projects in the city.
CHICAGO'S BIGGEST CONSTRUCTION JOBS MUST HAVE DIVERSE WORKERS UNDER EMANUEL'S EXECUTIVE ORDER
CHICAGO, IL - From the Office of the Mayor of the City of Chicago: Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman today announced many of the city’s largest construction projects will now be required to report on their efforts to solicit and hire minority- and women-owned business (MBE/WBE). The action was taken through an executive order signed today by Mayor Emanuel.
THIS NONPROFIT WALKS THE TALK WHEN IT COMES TO DIVERSITY
The city of Chicago provided $2.5 million in tax-increment financing funds for the project, and also arranged for a 99-year closure of Fillmore Street between Central Park Avenue and Independence Boulevard. When the city participates in projects, it requires 24 percent minority-owned and 4 percent women-owned enterprise involvement in the project. Ucan decided to more than double the city's minimum, to half of the construction spend.