Bureau of Economic Development

Go to: https://www.cookcountyil.gov/census [2]

Mission

Spearheads the County’s regional economic development initiatives. Leverages resources, ensures cooperation and collaboration across departments.

Strategic collaboration - sector and place driven
Further racial equity and inclusion
Leverage additional public and private resources

Key Initiatives

The Chicago Regional Growth Corporation (CRGC) launched in 2018, drives collaboration across the seven county Chicago region, including the City of Chicago, to generate inclusive growth and prosperity . It has assisted 155 companies increase their export sales by $45.7 million and create 165 jobs since 2015. In 2019, we increased participation by firms in the South Suburbs by 75%. Please visit their website for more information at: https://www.chicagoregionalgrowth.com/ [3]

South Suburban Economic Growth Initiative (SSEGI) provides an opportunity for the County to scale, amplify and leverage regional programs, resources and investments in the South Suburbs. In 2019 SSEGI catalyzed establishment of a new Small Business Development Center to serve the Southland, and targeted infrastructure investments to support business retention and expansion. Southland political, business and civic leaders are creating new institutional and financial capacity to collaboratively undertake coordinated, large-scale and long-term economic development in the form of the Southland Development Authority launched on November 13, 2019. For more information, please visit their website: https://www.ssegi.com/ [4]

Sector Partnerships: Cook and Will Counties launched the industry driven Will/Cook Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Partnership to leverage the opportunities and challenges facing this growth sector. This effort represents the launch of the Calumet Manufacturing Industry Sector Partnership.

2020 Census - Cook County, in conjunction with the Complete Count Commission, will champion the importance of maximizing full participation in the census throughout the county. In 2019 Cook County issued an RFP to design and implement an aggressive outreach program (utilizing multi-channels of communication, media and technology) to improve the response rate in-hard-to-count communities. The County expects Board approval of a recommended consultant in September 2019 with work beginning in October 2019 and continuing through August 2020.

Departments

BED has three departments within its umbrella:

Disaster Recovery

DPD was awarded Federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding related to severe flooding that occurred in the Spring of 2013 in suburban Cook County. For more information, and to download our application for the CDBG-DR Design/Engineering Grant Program, please go to the Disaster Recovery and Resilience site [8].