GARFIELD PARK COMMUNITY UNVEILS SHARED VISION FOR ITS NEXT CHAPTER

LISC and GPRWC Launch New Quality of Life Plan Uniting East and West Garfield Park Around Shared Priorities to Guide Future Investment and Growth



            Community members, stakeholders, organizational leads and elected officials gather in the Sankofa YMCA Gymnasium to learn about the Garfield Park Quality of Life Plan. Photo credit Deangelo Handley

  

GARFIELD PARK COMMUNITY UNVEILS SHARED VISION FOR ITS NEXT CHAPTER

LISC and GPRWC Launch New Quality of Life Plan Uniting East and West Garfield Park Around Shared Priorities to Guide Future Investment and Growth

 

CHICAGO—After extensive community engagement and collaboration among residents, community organizations and local partners, the Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative (GPRWC) today unveiled the Garfield Park Quality of Life Plan (QLP), a community-led planning process led by GPRWC with support from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). The process created a community-driven roadmap that establishes, for the first time, a shared direction for East and West Garfield Park and alignment for future investment, partnerships and action around community priorities.

 

More than 1,500 residents, community organizations, youth leaders and local stakeholders helped shape the Garfield Park QLP through a community-led planning process, led by GPRWC, that spanned several years. The plan provides a shared framework to guide coordinated investment and action in the years ahead.

 

"For years, Garfield Park residents have been doing the work—organizing, showing up, asking hard questions and imagining what's possible together," said Drea Slaughter, Executive Director of the Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative. "This plan grew out of those conversations. It reflects the future residents created together and the direction they want Garfield Park to take. As new investment continues to come into the community, this plan gives us a clear direction for how Garfield Park grows while ensuring that growth reflects the people who call this neighborhood home."

 

The plan comes at a pivotal moment for Garfield Park. New community-led investments and initiatives, including Sankofa Village Wellness Center, the Madison Street Corridor Plan and ongoing neighborhood revitalization efforts, are creating renewed momentum across the neighborhood. At the same time, more work is needed to ensure Garfield Park residents enjoy the same quality of life as residents in other parts of Chicago. After decades of disinvestment, the neighborhood continues to face significant health and economic challenges. Life expectancy in West Garfield Park is 66.6 years, compared with Chicago's average of 78.7 years. The median household income in West Garfield Park is $29,443. Residents developed the QLP to build on that momentum and help ensure future investment continues to align with the priorities they identified throughout the planning process.

 

Built around nine focus areas—Arts, Media and Technology; Business and Economic Development; Education and Workforce Development; Health and Wellness; Housing, Real Estate and Green Space; Parent and Family Support; Public Safety; Recreation and Entertainment; and Youth Development—the QLP outlines a community vision centered on expanding economic opportunity, increasing access to quality housing, strengthening public safety, supporting youth, improving health and wellness and celebrating Garfield Park's arts and culture. It also identifies the strategies, partnerships and resources needed to turn those priorities into coordinated action and lasting progress.

 

The plan also serves as a resource for public agencies, philanthropic organizations, businesses and community partners seeking to align future investments with resident priorities and support work already underway across the neighborhood.

 

“The QLP planning process centered residents and stakeholders at the center of the projects, issues areas and strategies laid out in the plan,” said Jaime Arteaga, Senior Program Officer at LISC. “The plan itself provides a framework for investors, developers and philanthropy to align and support the on-the groundwork happening to reduce the gap in life expectancy residents in Garfield Park are faced with. This is a clear vision for those who want to invest in the people in a community and not just the buildings, and who are looking for a value centered return on investment."

 

Since 2001, LISC has helped align public, private and philanthropic investment through the development of 31 QLPs across Chicago, generating more than $2 billion in new investments aligned with neighborhood priorities. Each QLP is supported by a neighborhood-based convening organization that leads the planning process and typically continues to coordinate implementation.

 

Read the Garfield Park Quality of Life Plan here at:

https://www.chicagoqlps.org/garfield-park-2026-qlp

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