Spring 2020 Message from CEO Maria Wynne

May 1, 2020

Dear LGC Community,

Spring is here! Even from a distance, we can't help but notice the budding trees, the early blooms of tulips and daffodils, and the hostas emerging from the ground. If you listen closely, you will hear the chirping of busy birds building their new homes. The signs of spring and HOPE are everywhere!

It has been a busy seven weeks since our LGC team left our office and entered the virtual world of work. A lot has changed. Just as quickly as we closed the office door behind us on March 12, our attention was captured by the work of our Fellows directly responding to the COVID-19 crisis. We have watched in awe and admiration as many LGC and Daniel Burnham Fellows lead on the frontlines by serving and caring for our citizens and communities, and by addressing the surge in demand for services from those significantly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

On March 23, we launched a social media series called Fellows on the Front Line to showcase the critical efforts our Fellows are leading, to keep you informed of community needs, and to connect you to opportunities to help.​ Today we will share our 40th consecutive story of leadership, service, and sacrifice. Please follow along with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you've missed some of these posts, you can read all of them on our website here.

If you are a Fellow working on the front line or know a Fellow who is, please email us at info@lgcchicago.org to be included.

We also quickly created and launched the NEW LGC Leadership Library, a virtual treasure trove of work produced by our Fellows including books, podcasts, and TED Talks. Our 24/7 library, which is open to the public, welcomes you to many sources of inspiration, knowledge, and wisdom. Even our Cristo Rey Student Intern Edwin, who is a junior in high school, has found the library to be helpful, especially in this time of remote learning. I hope you, and any teens or young adults in your home, will stop by and explore the galleries. Come READ, WATCH, and LISTEN with us today! If you know a Fellow whose work should be included, please email us at info@lgcchicago.org.

As nothing stands still these days, we are looking ahead to the Class of 2021. With your help, and the help of more than 40 LGC Fellows from all Class years, we have conducted virtual interviews with 104 candidates for our 2021 Signature Fellows Program. We have enjoyed some great moments and heard great stories while getting to know these amazing individuals. We have also been witness to their resourcefulness. One of them, not being able to get a reliable WiFi signal while his kids schooled online, drove to the parking lot of a local retailer, surfed off their WiFi signal, and conducted the interview by Zoom from his car. How's that for ingenuity! We have also enjoyed the cameo appearances of children, cats, and the occasional opinions offered by a dog or two in the background.

Having just finished interviews on Wednesday, we will spend the next two weeks on the selection stage of the process. Stay tuned as we announce the  Class of 2021 in early June. A huge "THANK YOU" to our interviewers for your time, participation, and input!

In the meantime, the LGC Fellows Class of 2020 has continued its Program Year. While it would have been easy to accept this interruption and indefinitely postpone any continuation of the year, our 2020 Fellows have forged on. Having three sessions left in their Program Year—Public Safety, Leadership in Action, Closing Retreat—this group has risen to the occasion and continued First Friday on a virtual basis, turning its attention to the current Public Safety issue of public health.

With the help of our great partners from the IIT School of Design, the 2020 Fellows are applying Human Centered Design to tackle problems that matter in response to the COVID-19 crisis. These year-end projects have a very real call to action focused on four key areas, which may eventually offer an opportunity for the larger LGC Fellowship to join in response:

1. Addressing blood supply needs
2. Addressing the challenges of food insecurity and food distribution
3. Helping eligible businesses navigate the CARE Act
4. Continuing to work on violence prevention while much attention and resources pivot to the COVID-19 response

I applaud the work of the Class of 2020. While we would love nothing more than to conclude the year with our traditional in-person Closing Retreat, we will conduct part of it virtually in June with the hope of bringing everyone together for a retreat and celebration when we are able to convene safely. Every Class has a story, and this one will surely never be forgotten. 

The current and inaugural cohorts of The Daniel Burnham Fellowship have also been on the frontlines as the leaders and creators of significant initiatives such as the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund, while also leading their organizations in support of state and city responses. The current cohort is actively helping us design the road forward, as they had barely started their Fellowship journey when the stay-at-home order went into effect. We look forward to the role they will play as we rebuild Chicago's communities and decipher the workforce landscape ahead.  

As you know, in the midst of all this, we yearned to be with you at our Celebrate Leaders event on April 2. We want to thank our generous corporate sponsors for their continued support despite the circumstances.

We also want to thank those Classes that accepted the invitation to celebrate that night or around that time and "Zoomed" together to bring the LGC spirit into their homes.

As we look ahead to our extended stay-at-home order, we encourage Classes to come together to support and enjoy each other's company. Connection at this moment is so important.

We want to thank our boards for their support. On March 12, and without hesitation, the LGC Board of Directors supported the decision to send our employees home and keep them safe—thank you! We want to thank the LFA Board for helping us to reimagine Fellow engagement as we are catapulted into a virtual world of connections. 

We are living through an unprecedented moment in time—a shared experience at the global level unequaled in modern history. As a city, the fissures and chasms of disparities and lack of equity are more salient and more widely acknowledged than ever before. A bright light shines on the work ahead, the work of equity. 

While we wait for the moment when we can return to a semblance of what we once considered normal, let's take this moment to pause, to look around and ask ourselves "What more can I do?". To help you get started, our team has curated an extensive list of opportunities to #LeadGreat in this moment. Whether it's donating blood, food, and supplies, volunteering, or supporting a relief fund, we can all play a role in helping our neighbors and our community. Get started here! This list will be updated regularly. If you know of an opportunity we should add, please email us at info@lgcchicago.org.

There is no doubt that as individuals and as a city, we will emerge from this experience changed and transformed. I hope as civic leaders we emerge united more than ever to be the civic leaders to rebuild Chicago. Remember that seared in our DNA we carry a memory—we are the product of the city that rose from the ashes in 1871, rebuilt itself in just 22 years to claim the World's Fair: Columbian Exposition for all the world to behold. That civic spirit calls upon us once again to rebuild Chicago—the Chicago we all want: an inclusive Chicago where our disinvested communities are the focus of attention and where in time, with investment and care, we become the city with potential for all. 

Spring is here! We are invited to take part in a renewal that comes every year. This year, that beginning goes beyond the freshness of nature and the cycle of life. There is real reason to hope we will re-emerge stronger following the naked truth of the work ahead. We will rise together out of this pandemic. The words of Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda remind us that renewal is an indomitable force:

So, let's welcome the new beginning!

Until we meet again, HOPE is everywhere!

Best,

Maria Wynne,
Chief Executive Officer
Founding Daniel Burnham Fellow

Support LGC Today