Published June 3, 2025 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The best path to empowerment and success, especially for poor people, is work. Work allows us to prosper while providing dignity, upward mobility, the means to support ourselves and create value for others. It’s how we become thriving members of our community. Central to this process is our education...

Published July 9, 2024 America is facing a housing affordability crisis. According to a 2022 survey, 73% of Americans said the average person could not afford a home in their area, and 69% were worried about their children and grandchildren being able to afford a home. That’s unfair. Everyone deserves a good roof over their...

In 2023, just 35.4% of Illinois public school students were proficient in reading and 27.1% in math. For low-income students in particular, the numbers were distressingly lower. 

The city of Chicago’s poverty rate is 17%. The Brookings Institution’s “success sequence” shows what city and state leaders need to focus on if we want to provide a pathway to prosperity.

Published Jan. 25, 2024