Advocacy

As a progressive community-based agency, UCAN continues to strategically expand our visibility and outreach in the federal arena to explore new opportunities to strengthen support our service to underserved communities and advance racial equity. Based in Chicago’s North Lawndale community, UCAN serves and impacts more than 21,000 at-risk youth, children and families with a trauma-informed approach to serving participants from a holistic standpoint.

Currently, UCAN works at the community, local and state levels with the majority of our programing based in Chicagoland. Our goal is to continue to expand our local and statewide advocacy and be recognized as an influential agency with a commitment to advocate nationally for communities that are underserved. 

Our advocacy efforts are focused on five areas:

In additional to our current local and state advocacy efforts, UCAN seeks federal support from select federal agencies with a focus on health, labor, justice, education, corrections and human services. Going forward, we will continue to hold in person and virtual meetings on critical legislative and community issues, COVID-19 relief and resources, DEI strategies, violence intervention and workforce development, among other topics, with elected officials from every level of government.

In short, we seek to engage with federal elected officials to escalate our advocacy efforts from the state to a nation platform. In the process, we will engage a growing number of national coalitions in our advocacy areas to strengthen our expansion into the federal arena. 

For more detailed information, contact Derrick Baker, Vice President, Marketing & External Affairs, at (773) 588-0180 or at Derrick.Baker@ucanchicago.org.

Community-based and community-focused, UCAN provides an array of integrated services and supports for children, youth and families through the agency’s 13 office locations throughout Chicagoland.

The scope of the agency’s programmatic footprint requires that we engage with federal elected officials. Our goal is to ensure our multi-level advocacy efforts on behalf of those we serve seamlessly transition to a national platform to influence policy, trauma-informed research and federal funding. Therefore, continuous, mutually beneficial engagement with federal elected officials is essential to the agency’s success as a positive change agent that supports our constituents in finding and unlocking the power of their potential.