Program areas at BPI
Housing/community development - Impact for Equity has been deeply committed to housing and community development for over fifty years. Our legal and policy advocacy focuses on removing barriers and promoting authentic housing choices across the chicago region, including for families using subsidized housing resources or in need of affordable housing. We are expanding choice and access to public and affordable housing and promoting neighborhoods with those resources. Our housing work includes a focus on public housing in chicago, a county-wide economic mobility program in chicago and cook county, and efforts to expand affordable housing in the chicago metropolitan region.
Leadership development - Impact for Equity hosts law and policy summer and academic-year interns and externs, as well as recent law or policy school graduates each year through our internships, externships, and fellowship programs. These individuals help inform our work, shape the future of law and policy, and drive impactful solutions to address critical challenges across our two program areas. Many of our interns, fellows, and externs go on to work in partner organizations, government, and beyond, building on a legacy of impactful advocacy work.
Criminal legal systems - our criminal legal systems program seeks to increase public safety and promote racial justice. We are working to enact systemic police reforms, including by strengthening the police accountability system, promoting community safety, improving police practices, reimagining the roles that police departments and other entities play in producing public safety, and transforming the relationship between the police department and the communities it serves. In all our work, we are committed to ensuring that those most directly affected by the reforms play an active role in developing them.