Search Results
Journal Article
Tools (Lessons and Strategies) Toward Market Restoration: A Conference Summary
Community development post-recession takes place in an environment that is greatly changed in terms of both demand for and capacity to deliver services. While no community was immune, the places that were most deeply affected by the Great Recession ? and continue to feel its effects ? are often those places that had suffered from disinvestment for decades leading up to it. The tools and strategies that have been developed and relied on by investors, practitioners and advocates ? in some cases for decades ? need to be adapted to the changes, while continuing to meet ever growing demand.
Journal Article
Small business access to capital: alternative resources bridging the gap
Nationwide in the U.S. over the past 15 years, small businesses generated 64 percent of the net new job growth. Small businesses with fewer than 500 employees, a definition used by the Small Business Administration (SBA), represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms, and employ more than half of private sector employees in the United States. Firms with fewer than 50 employees represent 95 percent of all employer firms. Since the recession that began in late 2007, large bank lending to small businesses has fallen by more than 50 percent.
Journal Article
Introducing, Understanding, and Using the ICI 300 Peer Cities Identification Tool
Municipalities, especially those that are mid-sized or smaller, often face significant challenges in providing services and amenities to meet the needs of their diverse and changing populations. Solutions are usually context-specific and must factor in larger demographic and economic trends, in order to be effective. And, yet, in spite of contextual differences, cities frequently have meaningful similarities. However, identifying peer cities is often informed more by conversation than by data or evidence.
Journal Article
Recently certified CDFI banks and the CDFI banking sector
The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund came into existence in 1995 with the mission to "expand the capacity of financial institutions to provide credit, capital and financial services to underserved populations and communities in the United States" Since the recent economic crisis, CDFIs have been a vehicle for the implementation of several new policy initiatives designe to direct capital to the nation's underserved communities, businesses, and home owners. Though few in number, CDFI banks hold the majority of capital among certified CDFIs.
Journal Article
Preliminary Findings from Focus Groups on Economic Inclusion in Smaller Cities
A growing body of work by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and partners points to challenges that "legacy cities" face in extending economic opportunity to all residents. This article reports findings from a series of focus groups conducted around the 7th District to better understand what city leaders are doing to advance positive labor market outcomes for residents.
Journal Article
Suburban housing collaborative: a case for interjurisdictional collaboration
More than 280 municipalities surround the city of Chicago, with more than 120 in Cook County alone. The metropolitan region?s seven counties also include 123 townships, 307 school districts, 136 fire districts, 173 park districts, and 108 library districts. (GO TO 2040 2010) In recent years, some suburban communities have recorded foreclosure rates exceeding those of the most distressed inner city neighborhoods. In other towns, home values have fallen to 1990s levels. In still others, less than 10 percent of the local workforce can afford to live near where they work. Layered over all of ...
Journal Article
Measuring Small Business Financial Health
Throughout the Great Recession and continuing into the recovery, small businesses have played an important role in creating jobs and stabilizing communities. Stories of small business owners overcoming obstacles to provide valuable services and employment are highlighted regularly by pundits, politicians and policymakers alike. However, little attention has focused on the question of what drives the financial health of these often young, often very small businesses.
Journal Article
Investing in Healthy Communities: Ideas to Action for Healthy People, Places, and Planet - A Conference Summary
The Wisconsin Rapids event was the third in a Wisconsin series and built on earlier events in Milwaukee (December 2014)2 and Platteville (July 2015)3. Co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and local leaders, the earlier conferences highlighted the connections between health, community development, and economic development in urban and rural communities, as well as the opportunities for these fields to improve outcomes by working together. This third conference focused on the role of investing to build healthy communities, including how financial investments by banks and socially ...
Journal Article
Financial Well-being: At the Convergence of People and Place – Reflections from a Chicago Conversation
This brief collection of writings is based on a convening, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, to have a local conversation about financial well-being. This gathering was motivated by ?What It?s Worth,? a joint publication of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, collecting insights from thought leaders across the country on the topic of financial capacity for families and communities.
How Is the Challenge of Finding Childcare Affecting Labor Force Participation? Perspectives from Employers Across the Seventh District
Through the Chicago Fed Survey of Economic Conditions (CFSEC) and during roundtable discussions with business, nonprofit, and government leaders, the Chicago Fed asked employers from a variety of sectors for their perspectives on how childcare access has affected labor force availability.1 These survey and roundtable findings contribute to the Chicago Fed’s Spotlight on Childcare—an effort to increase our understanding of how the lack of access to childcare impedes labor force participation in the Seventh Federal Reserve District. In this article, we summarize the responses from over 100 ...