Chicago Anchors for a Strong Economy launched with anchors that included the Rush University Medical Center. Photo by Srobak

Neighborhood small businesses received a boost with the announcement March 19 of the expansion of the Chicago Anchors for a Strong Economy (CASE) program to encourage Chicago’s leading institutions to support local small business growth in their neighborhoods.

Over the last year, the small businesses that participated in the CASE program saw an average increase in revenue of $804,000. CASE has the potential to drive up to $80 million in additional revenue to neighborhood small businesses and create nearly 250 full-time and 125 part-time jobs annually. The expansion will increase the number of committed institutions from 11 to at least 20 and double the number of small businesses helped.

“Small businesses are the backbone of Chicago’s economy and the beating heart of our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This essential partnership connects our larger institutions with our smaller businesses, creating jobs in neighborhoods all throughout Chicago. Expanding this program is a commonsense step we can take to leverage the purchasing power of Chicago’s anchor institutions to keep our neighborhood businesses growing and creating more jobs for more residents in more communities. That is a win-win for everyone.”

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle agrees.

“CASE is strengthening the region’s economic base by helping small businesses improve their productivity and competitiveness,” she said. “That’s good for our region, and it’s also good for major institutions and government agencies, like Cook County, who are always looking for qualified local suppliers to do business with.”

Large institutions like hospitals, universities, cultural institutions and corporations spend billions annually on contracts and procurement. Mayor Emanuel and President Preckwinkle launched CASE in March 2014 as a way to encourage these institutions to create jobs and economic opportunities in their neighborhoods. This aligns with other programs Emanuel has launched, such as the Whole Foods workshops which are supporting small business growth across Englewood, as well as the Built in Cook Loan program, started under Preckwinkle in 2013, which offers financial assistance to small businesses located in Cook County.

CASE launched with anchors that included the City of Chicago, Cook County, ComEd, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Rush University Medical Center, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Medical Center and University of Illinois Chicago. In 2015, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), Museums in the Park and Northwestern University will join the group of anchor institutions that also includes: Advocate Health Care, BMO Harris Bank and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. CASE looks to graduate an additional 100 businesses, strengthen its partnership with local business support services, and grow the anchor network to at least 20 institutions this year.

Participants in the first round of CASE have successfully added jobs and, or increased the size of their contracts with anchor institutions. For example, Digby’s Detective & Security Agency, Inc., a 300-person detective agency that won a CTA contract after completing the program that has allowed the company to hire an additional 34 people. Another member of the first group, Inter-City Supply Co., Inc., was able to expand an existing contract it had with University of Chicago Medical Center by 50 percent by servicing new patient technologies.

“The CASE program is revolutionary, in that it gives our local businesses an opportunity to work with each other,” said Jackie Dyess of Inter City Supply. “We may not be national in scope or have fancy marketing, but local businesses can provide even better service to our anchor institutions. Chicagoans should be doing business together, and this program helps facilitate that.”

Nitika Nautiyal, CASE executive director, believes the “the neighborhood assets play a major role in regional economic development.

“Anchor institutions spend billions a year on contracting and procurement of goods and services,” said Nautiyal. “CASE opens this door so that anchors can focus their spending on goods and services offered by local businesses. Given an anchor’s purchasing power, even a small shift can make a large impact,”

Interested businesses can submit applications online at WorldBusinessChicago.com/CASE. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.