CHICAGO – Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Office of Budget and Management (OBM) announced the dates and locations for the City’s annual Budget Engagement Round Tables, where residents and community leaders will be invited to share their priorities regarding City services and engage in conversations with the Mayor, Budget Director, and City department leaders on key programs. Like last year, the Johnson administration has expanded upon previous engagement events to include a fourth event focused on youth ages 13-24. 

 

"Last year, our Budget Engagement Roundtables led to significant investments in youth employment, climate resilience, and mental health services, demonstrating the power of community input in driving meaningful change. We are excited for our 2025 Budget Engagement Roundtables, which will continue to foster deeper conversations and increase community participation in shaping our city's future," said Mayor Brandon Johnson. "By co-designing these events with community stakeholders, we are ensuring that the voices of all Chicagoans, including our youth, are heard and reflected in our budget priorities." 

 

Today’s release is the culmination of a comprehensive three-phase approach to public engagement for the City’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget. This innovative approach, led by the Mayor’s Office of Community Engagement in collaboration with the Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois Chicago, was designed with a framework of Participation, Equity, Education, Transparency and Accountability. It incorporates feedback from previous years, which has consistently reflected a desire for deeper, more focused discussions. This year’s budget engagement was co-designed with community stakeholders, underscoring the Johnson Administration’s commitment to inclusivity and collaborative decision-making. 

 

"Creating a balanced budget that is responsive to the needs of Chicagoans involves direct engagement with a variety of stakeholders.” said Budget Director Annette Guzman. “We at OBM are excited for the opportunity to participate in and bring this process, co-designed with community representatives, to the broader public.” 

 

To prepare for more focused conversations, departments put forth a series of existing and potential programs focused on five topic areas: Affordable Housing & Homelessness Services, Community Safety, Environmental Justice & Infrastructure, Neighborhood, Community Development & Arts and Culture, and Mental Health & Public Health.  In Phase I, the City conducted four virtual meetings with members of over 100 existing City Engagement Councils, Advisory Councils, and other community groups to provide additional education on the City’s budget, and to have participants select which programs put forth by City departments are most important to their communities. More information is available in the Phase I Interim Report by the Great Cities Institute University of Illinois Chicago.   

 

Phase II involved engaging with a diverse array of stakeholders to co-design elements of the engagement process for this year’s Budget Engagement Round Tables, including the schedule for each event, the parameters for discussion, and which priority programs will be the focus for each topic area. 

 

"It was an eye-opening process. I felt like I was let into something that most residents have been left out of, and it was nice to work with other community members who care deeply. This is the first time that I have been seen as a stakeholder and I felt the responsibility to speak up for my community,” said Matthew Harvey, Researcher and Community Storyteller at Equity and Transformation, and a member of the Stakeholder Co-Design group. “Contributing to the functioning of the City was an empowering feeling. I want to extend that feeling to more people in my community.”   

 

The roundtable events that make up Phase III of this process will for the second year in a row take place prior to departments submitting their budget requests to OBM, allowing departments the opportunity to incorporate feedback from the roundtables into their requests.  

 

During last year’s budget engagement round tables, participants identified youth employment expansion, climate responsiveness and climate resilient infrastructure strategies, and public health investments to be among their top priorities. The Johnson administration responded with investments in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget focused on employing an additional 4,000 young people this summer, re-establishing the Department of Environment, and expanding mental health services across the city, including re-opening the Roseland Mental Health Clinic. 

 

Following this year’s roundtable events the City, in collaboration with Great Cities Institute at the University of Chicago, will issue a public report on the findings of the engagement process in conjunction with the release of the Mayor’s FY2025 Executive Budget Recommendation. Afterwards, the Mayor will hold a Lakeside Chat discussion to answer questions from the community about his plans for the FY2025 budget.   

 

Residents interested in participating in the budget engagement process are encouraged to watch the Budget 101 Video and share their ideas and feedback via the public comment link on the City’s FY2025 Budget Engagement website. 

 

Doors open an hour before the Round Tables begin to allow participants time to attend the City Resource Fair where representatives from the City’s departments will be available to answer questions and provide information on City services and programs. 

 

The Budget Engagement Round Tables will be live-streamed on the City of Chicago’s social media channels. For residents unable to attend an in-person round table event, an online version of the roundtable exercise will be made available on the FY2025 Budget Engagement website. 

 

BUDGET ENGAGEMENT ROUND TABLE I 

Monday July 22 | 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm 

Malcolm X College 

1900 West Jackson Boulevard 

REGISTRATION 

 

BUDGET ENGAGEMENT ROUND TABLE II 

Thursday, July 25 | 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm 

Harry S. Truman College 

1145 West Wilson Avenue 

REGISTRATION 

 

BUDGET ENGEGEMENT ROUND TABLE III 

Saturday, July 27 | 10:00 am - 12:30 pm 

Kennedy King College 

6301 S. Halsted St  

REGISTRATION 

 

BUDGET ENGEGEMENT ROUND TABLE IV – YOUTH EVENT 

Tuesday, July 30 | 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm 

Harold Washington Library  

400 S. State St.  

(Youth 13-24 only) 

 

To register for the round tables, please access links above or go to the FY2025 Budget Engagement website. Pre-registration is requested to assist with planning but is not required. ASL and live-captioning will be available. If you require language interpretation or any other accommodation, please contact communityengagement@cityofchicago.org  by Friday, July 19, 2024. 

 

###