A Spring Wrap Up from IPCE Director Joseph Hoereth
IPCE rounds out the Academic Year with the Annual Urban Forum, Research Talks, Reports, and Symposium
Friends of IPCE,
The end of the semester is always an opportunity to reflect both on our shared accomplishments and the work ahead. As we take a look ahead to summer projects, we invite you to celebrate this semester with us.
Over 350 community members, policymakers, researchers, and public intellectuals convened in-person on April 8th for the 2025 Urban Forum - The Power of Community Engagement: Building Bridges for Shared Impact. At the forum, our diverse panels discussed how the need for collaboration between anchor institutions and communities has never been more crucial, especially in an era marked by complex social, economic, and environmental challenges. Discussions revolved around how effective community engagement must evolve beyond traditional outreach to reflect reciprocal partnerships and co-created solutions seeking sustainable impacts.
This spring semester, we had four incredible presenters for our Civic Engagement Lunch Talk Series. To kick things off in February, Dr. Phillip A. Boda, from the College of Education presented “‘It’s not just how many people live there, it’s who lives there’: Supporting Racio-Spatial Sense-making using Agentic Environmental Justice Tools” and Dr. April Jackson, from the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs presented “Voorhees Gentrification Index: The Socioeconomic Change of Chicago’s Communities (1970-2020).” Then in March, Dr. Andy Clarno, from the College of Liberal Arts, presented “‘We Gotta Stop Criminalizing Mental Illness:’ Movement-Led Research on Mental Health Supports in Chicago.” To close out our sessions for the semester, Thea Crum, MUPP, from UIC’s Great Cities Institute presented “PB Chicago Lessons Learned about Civic Infrastructure and Building Trust in Government.” Thank you to all our Research Fund awardees for presenting their findings over the course of the academic year. The insights gained from their research will advance the mission of civic engagement in diverse disciplines.
The call for proposals for the Civic Engagement Research Fund Award is open. Please see our website for submission guidelines. Applications will be accepted through June 2nd. As always, IPCE commitments are contingent upon state funding.
Undergraduate fellows in the Urban Public Policy Fellowship (UPPF) Program were also hard at work this spring finalizing research projects and presenting research posters virtually at our annual Research Symposium: Analyzing Policies & Building Research Knowledge. Fellows’ projects stemmed from hands-on internship experiences on policy-related topics such as immigration reform, mental health, and community development. Fourteen students successfully completed the UPPF program this year, and I congratulate them all on behalf of IPCE. The Institute expresses immense gratitude to the community partners who hosted UPPF Fellows and served as internship sites this year.
The Independent Monitor Margaret Hickey and the Independent Monitoring Team submitted its third Community Survey Report under ¶¶645–51 of the Consent Decree on January 27, 2025. The report presents results from a community survey that asked about how Chicagoans feel about and interact with the Chicago Police Department. The survey was conducted between March and April 2024 by researchers from the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement at the University of Illinois at Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago. Click here to read the report.
Stay tuned later this summer for announcements regarding upcoming fall programs and events.
Have a rejuvenating summer!
Joseph K. Hoereth, PhD