Winnebago County Planning Process
Boosting Upward Mobility in Winnebago County is a planning process to boost upward mobility from poverty and reduce racial inequities in our community. This planning process utilizes data from Urban Institute's Boosting Upward Mobility from Poverty and Advancing Equity project to identify key racial and ethnic disparities and barriers to boosting upward mobility from poverty in our community.
We launched this process because Winnebago County is falling behind on indicators that demonstrate how likely someone in our community is to advance out of poverty. We are using this opportunity to assess systems in our community against Urban Institute’s Mobility Metrics and identify weaknesses or gaps. This project will not duplicate planning already being done by our local government.
Working with nonprofit, business, philanthropic, anchor institutions, and faith-based leaders in our community, we will publish a Mobility Action Plan that plots a new course forward and addresses the systems and barriers to advancement in our community.
We have obtained the full support of Winnebago County Chairman Joe Chiarelli and City of Rockford Mayor Thomas McNamara to create our Mobility Action Plan. Both have also pledged support, partnership and advocacy in this effort, as well as staff members to serve on the Team and sub-committee. Additionally, our recommendations will be championed through the appropriate staff members and committees at the City and County level to implementation.
Local communities aspiring to boost upward mobility and narrow equity gaps should focus on building or bolstering five essential and interconnected pillars of support that families and individuals need to achieve economic success, power, and dignity. These include: Opportunity Rich & Inclusive Neighborhoods, High-Quality Education, Rewarding Work, Healthy Environment & Access to Good Healthcare, Responsive and Just Governance.
We have created Working Groups around each of the pillars. Our Working Groups will champion the use of both quantitative and qualitative data because it can help our Mobility Coalition prioritize areas that most need support, highlight interconnections across policy domains, set targets for improvement, and monitor progress over time.