Chicago Future Fund

In 2021, Equity and Transformation (EAT) created the Chicago Future Fund (CFF), a guaranteed income program that provides direct cash payments for system-impacted individuals in Chicago. The first round provided $500/month for 30 post-incarcerated individuals living in West Garfield Park. The second round gave $500/month to 100 returning residents of Austin, Englewood, and West Garfield Park. In total, the CFF provided direct cash payments to 130 people in Chicago, totaling $870,000.00.

System-impacted individuals confront significant, ongoing barriers in their everyday lives, including exclusions from employment, housing, and education. The tangle of obstacles they face can lead to extreme poverty and, too often, to additional periods of incarceration. The CFF is an intervention into these systemic inequalities and the vicious cycle of poverty and recidivism they produce. By providing a guaranteed income of $500 per month without work requirements or restrictions on how the money can be spent, the CFF places an income floor under participants while ensuring that recipients can use the money whenever and however they need it.

The CFF is one of more than 100 guaranteed income programs implemented across the United States and one of the first to explicitly target formerly incarcerated individuals. The CFF offers an opportunity to assess the effects of a guaranteed income program on system-impacted individuals and to document lessons that can inform the development of guaranteed income programs and policies.