Community leaders and residents from South Chicago launched the South Chicago Quality of Life Plan on Saturday as projects like the state’s quantum campus start to take shape in the neighborhood.
The plan drew feedback from more than a thousand residents in the South Side neighborhood to identify key areas for growth over the next five to seven years. Among them are arts and culture; economic development; education; environment and infrastructure; health; housing and safety, according to leaders of the initiative.
Those who worked on the plan say it’s the culmination of community engagement that’s been ongoing since the summer of 2024 — and an update from South Chicago’s last quality of life plan, which was published in 2007.
“As you look at the last 20 years … the resilient nature of South Chicago is pretty impressive,” said Meghan Harte, senior executive director at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation Chicago. “We are going through other challenges, politically and socially, and yet they’re still growing. That’s why these plans are super important, because it does get everybody focused on momentum and opportunity.”
The plan was a collaboration between LISC Chicago and Claretian Associates, a South Chicago nonprofit focused on affordable housing and social services.
LISC Chicago has helped Chicago neighborhoods create 30 quality of life plans to date, according to Harte.
For South Chicago, the new quality of life plan comes at a pivotal time. The state’s quantum campus, called the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, broke ground in October 2025 and will be a multibillion-dollar development. Advocate Health Care is planning a new, 52-bed hospital to the north of the quantum park.
Though projects like the IQMP were “contributory” to the new quality of life plan, Claretian Associates CEO Angela Hurlock said efforts to produce a new quality of life plan predated them.
“When suddenly IQMP came on the scene, we were like, ‘This is great. We have an opportunity to help the community speak what it needs, so then these other partners can come to the table knowing what the community has said it’s needed,’” Hurlock said.
Harte said one of the goals of the quality of life plan was to create a community-led consensus on South Chicago’s future. The organizations drew feedback from focus groups, surveys, block club meetings and more to create the plan.
What they found is that while income and education levels have grown in South Chicago, the population has been declining for decades. Since 2000, the neighborhood’s population has decreased by 24%, according to the plan.
The organization also found connected concerns about neighborhood safety and the number of vacant lots, many of which Hurlock said stem from the closure of the U.S. Steel South Works steel mill that caused many workers and their families to leave the area.
“There’s a perception of unsafety,” Hurlock said of the vacant lots. “How do you fight perception? You plan around that.”
The plan identifies seven aforementioned pillars as areas that could help combat neighborhood concerns. Those pillars trickle down into other categories that neighbors raised concern over, such as safety, vacant lots, youth education and accessibility. Each pillar has its own specific goals designed “to guide change,” according to the plan, with steering committees for each pillar tasked with implementing them.
Some of those goals include building equitable access to jobs and training, increasing access to public transportation and creating more affordable housing.
Saturday marks the start of the plan’s next phase: Steering committees kick off, with residents able to join.
Alongside that will be an effort to fund the committees’ initiatives. LISC Chicago has leveraged more than $2 billion to date toward implementing quality of life plans, according to Harte.
Jaime Arteaga, a program officer at LISC Chicago, said work does not stop once the plan is launched. South Chicago neighbors have expressed a desire to grow their population while also improving the lives of longtime residents.
Hurlock said the organizations have spoken with local aldermen and hope to see other elected officials show their support for the plan.
“We are on the epicenter of birthing something amazing,” Hurlock said. “I’ve heard some folks at the table say it’s like a phoenix rising again, and this is our opportunity to behold that and see that.”