What We're Working On
The campaigns, policies, and civic tools we're building across three areas — fair taxation, a dignified life, and a democracy that money can't buy.
Our work spans three main areas. Together they fund the public good fairly, raise the standard of living for working-class people, and put democratic power back in residents' hands.
Fair Taxation
Funding our governments and services through a fair distribution of taxation — so those who have more, and have benefitted more, contribute more to the services that lift up working-class communities.
02Dignified Life
Building and implementing the policies, programs, and services that raise the standard of living for all people, with a focus on the needs of poor and working-class people.
03Democracy Integrity & Reform
Making our democracy representative — reforming it so money cannot buy elections or votes, and individuals hold the power to shape and transform their government.
Funding the public good, fairly
Ensuring our governments and services are funded by a fair distribution of taxation — so those who have benefitted most contribute the most to the services that lift up working-class communities.
People's Unity Platform — Raising Progressive City Revenue
We are embedded within this campaign, running the research working group, where we organize both individual and institutional researchers to develop revenue policies the city can implement — enough progressive tax revenue to fund life-affirming services for working-class Chicagoans.
We are currently building a joint state–city strategy, demanding the state allow the city to tax things like income, or measures tied to income such as a payroll tax.
ILRA — State Progressive Revenue
IPG supports the work of the Illinois Revenue Alliance, which is fighting for a package of bills that would create progressive revenue streams by taxing corporations and high earners.
City Budget Mid-Year Review
We are building an independent review of the city's budget — measuring the new revenue streams proposed for 2026 implementation, how they have performed, and why they have performed the way they have.
Raising the standard of living
Building and implementing the policies, programs, and services that increase the standard of living for all people, with a focus on lifting up the needs of poor and working-class people.
Treatment Not Trauma
A campaign to reopen and expand mental health centers across the city and to scale non-police crisis response to mental health crises citywide, 24 hours a day. We are embedded within the coalition to support and drive implementation inside and outside the City.
The campaign is anchored by Black- and brown-led organizations — Southside Together and Brighton Park Neighborhood Council — alongside a broader steering committee of base-building groups. IPG leads inside engagement with the Mayor's office and department leaders to expand CARE implementation.
Sealing & Expungement Advocacy
Legal service providers in Cook County hit barriers to getting record-sealing and expungement petitions granted — barriers that either don't appear to comply with the law or sit in a grey area. The same cases see different outcomes in the collar counties, creating a disparate impact on Cook County clients, who are more likely to be Black and brown.
We are running a statewide survey to gather data on these disparities by county, and will work with legal service providers to advocate for systemic fixes.
Green Social Housing
Permanently affordable, publicly owned, mixed-income housing. In May 2025, IPG worked with the Illinois Green New Deal to pass an ordinance creating a new public development corporation to build it.
The coalition is now working with IPG to implement the ordinance with strong tenant protections, deeply affordable units in every development, tenant governance, citywide equity, and real sustainability standards — and has drafted a comprehensive set of policy recommendations now moving toward adoption by the board.
Community Land Trusts
A model that provides permanently affordable homes through community ownership of the land. IPG is working with a coalition of land trusts to pass state legislation providing property-tax relief to CLTs, plus a dedicated state funding stream through a tax on short-term rentals.
Protecting Renters Ordinance
A large tenant-protections ordinance that would expand tenant rights, add just-cause eviction protections, ban junk fees, provide legal services in eviction court, and create a Bureau of Housing Services to enforce tenant protections. IPG is part of the coalition working to pass it, supporting through narrative and policy work.
Child Care for All
A campaign fighting for universal child care in Illinois. IPG translates the lived experiences and demands of workers and families into policy language, legislative analysis, and public research that can move at the state level — developing the evidentiary case (economic modeling, wage data, access-gap analysis) that equips members and allied legislators to advocate effectively.
Autonomous Vehicles Just Transition
IPG has built a framework for protecting rideshare workers and taxi drivers — those whose work is directly impacted by autonomous vehicles — and transitioning them with dignity, while funding public transit, road safety, and a guaranteed income fund for the state.
Working Class Survey
IPG is partnering with Cathy Cohen (University of Chicago) and GenForward on a survey of 2,000 working-class Chicagoans, oversampling Black and Latine residents. It spans housing, education, health care, public safety and policing, child care, jobs and the workforce, and climate justice.
Questions are generated by partner community-organizing groups based on the data they need to focus and sharpen the movement's fights and drive a winning narrative — refined down to a priority list of about 60 questions for the final survey.
Power back in residents' hands
Ensuring our democracy is representative — reforming it so money cannot buy elections or votes, and so individuals hold the power to engage, shape, and transform their government.
Tools for residents, journalists, and researchers to better understand local government — a transparent view of how candidates and electeds are funded, how they vote, and how to reach them. We're starting with three (not all released yet):
Alder Voting & Finance Tool
A first-of-its-kind tool that lets people see how their alders vote on key legislation, combined with who is funding those alders.
Find Your Rep Tool
Lets individuals see who their elected representatives are across every major elected office in the city and state.
Candidate Campaign Finance Transparency Tool
Shows who is actively funding current candidates, what industries they come from, and the main funders of a given race — inclusive of independent-expenditure spend. It starts with school board elections, then expands to city council and mayoral races.
Public Financing of Elections + Ranked-Choice Voting
We lead a coalitional effort to visibilize and organize resident and organizational support for representatives who are beholden to the people, not big money — while building a more representative electoral mechanism through publicly financed elections and ranked-choice voting.
Illinois Constitutional Convention
Determining the feasibility of a rewrite
The constitutional convention is the tool, constitutionally provisioned, to rewrite or amend the Illinois Constitution. Every 20 years, the question appears on Illinois ballots: whether the general electorate would like a convention held to amend it.
We are currently in the process of determining the feasibility of rewriting the Illinois Constitution, alongside other organizations in the democracy space.