Chicago City Council Chair: Collette Doyle 1 Table of Contents 3. Letter from Chair 4-5. Members of Committee 6. Committee Background 7-13. Topic A: Racial Disparities in Healthcare Access 12-18. Topic B: Violence within Schools 2 Letter from Chair: Dear Delegates, Hello and welcome to LYMUN VII! I am honored to be serving as your chair/mayor and presiding officer of the Chicago City Council. I look forward to working with each one of you to run a productive and seamless committee. My name is Collette Doyle and I am currently a senior at Lyons Township. This is my fourth year participating in LYMUN. I have been a chair for the past two years, a member of LTMUN’s Secretariat for the past three years and am currently serving as the Secretary-General of the club. This committee is slightly different from an average general assembly committee. Although it is not a crisis committee, we will be working on solving relevant and current issues in Chicago today. Each one of you will be representing an alderman that holds a current position in the real Chicago City Council. It is important to research the 3 viewpoints of your assigned alderman and their respective wards to appropriately resolve the current issues at hand in accordance to how these members would act in reality. In addition to remaining on policy with the alderman you are representing, keep in mind this committee will attempt to run in a similar fashion as the Chicago City Council. As mayor, I will act as the presiding officer and my vice chair and political officer will be acting as the secretary and city clerk. We hope to simulate the real council to further diversify your experience as a delegate in Model UN. Please keep in mind that this conference is a training conference meant to strengthen your abilities as a delegate. Feel free to ask questions about policies or parli- pro throughout committee. In order to ensure success in this committee, remember to speak as often as you can, help write resolutions and be collaborative and cooperative with other delegates. I look forward to working with each of you! If there are any questions please email me at [email protected]. Best of luck! -Collette Doyle Members in Committee: 1. Alderman Daniel La Spata 2. Alderman Brian Hopkins 3. Alderman Pat Dowell 4. Alderman Sophia King 5. Alderman Leslie Hairston 6. Alderman Roderick Sawyer 7. Alderman Gregory Mitchell 8. Alderman Michelle Harris 9. Alderman Anthony Beale 10. Alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza 11. Alderman Patrick Thompson 12. Alderman George A. Cardenas 4 13. Alderman Marty Quinn 14. Alderman Ed Burke 15. Alderman Raymond Lopez 16. Alderman Stephanie D. Coleman 17. Alderman David Moore 18. Alderman Derrick Curtis 19. Alderman Matthew O’Shea 20. Alderman Jeanette B. Taylor 21. Alderman Howard Brookins Jr. 22. Alderman Michael D. Rodriguez 23. Alderman Silvana Tabares 24. Alderman Michael Scott Jr. 25. Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez 26. Alderman Roberto Maldonado 27. Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr. 28. Alderman Jason Ervin 29. Alderman Chris Taliaferro 30. Alderman Ariel E. Reboyras 31. Alderman Felix Cardona, Jr. 32. Alderman Scott Waguespack 33. Alderman Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez 34. Alderman Carrie Austin 35. Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa 36. Alderman Gilbert Villegas 37. Alderman Emma Mitts 38. Alderman Nicholas Sposato 39. Alderman Samantha Nugent 5 40. Alderman Andre Vasquez, Jr. A Brief History of the Chicago City Council: The Chicago City Council is the legislative divide of the Chicago government. The council is composed of fifty aldermen from each of the fifty wards. The council convenes monthly to discuss social and legislative issues, ordinances and resolutions. The leaders of the council are the presiding officer and the secretary. Currently, these positions are held by Lori Lightfoot, the mayor, and Anna Valencia, the city clerk. The council was first founded in 1837 upon the creation of six wards, each of which sent two aldermen as representatives to their respective wards. Eventually, the system was amended to fifty wards, with one representative from each district. The districts, or wards, are determined by the federal census, and are adjusted according to it. However, the council prompted and continues to prompt a stigma regarding scandal and corruption, dating back to cases of bribery in 1869. In the late twentieth century and early 2000’s, nearly fifty aldermen were found guilty of official corruption. These charges dealt with inadequate written records and the acceptance of illegal campaign donations. Although aldermen are elected on a nonpartisan bias, the council is often judged for its democratic dominant presence. Forty-eight of the current aldermen are democratic 6 affiliated, one alderman is republican affiliated and the other is affiliated with an independent party. However, because of the vast amount of wards and continual alterations to ward lines, the council has worked its way to becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse. Topic A: Racial Disparities in Healthcare Access History: In 1990-1998, the progress on 17 health status indicators for five of the largest racial groups in Chicago was measured by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The results showed that disparities between black and white Chicagoans had increased for 19 of the 22 measured indicators between those years. The measured indicators included 7 mortality rates in heart disease, cancer, and accidents, as well as birth-related measures such as infant mortality rates, low-birth weight percentages and access to prenatal care. It was determined that the magnitude of disparity in many of the aforementioned measures remained high in 1998; for instance, the disparity between black and white Chicagoans regarding contraction of tuberculosis was around 39%, and the disparity The life expectancy rates from 1999-2014 for female breast cancer mortality was by race and sex (Chicago Tribune) approximately 21%. In 2005, according to the Sinai Urban Health Institutue’s study published in the American Journal of Public Health, the racial gap worsened even more for eleven of the fifteen similar indicators studied prior. Using data from city communicable disease records and Illinois birth and death records, researchers concluded factors such as disease burden, income, health literacy, and job security played a vital role in the widening gaps. The percentage gap for female breast cancer mortality equalled around 99%, an almost five fold increase of the statistic drawn in 1990. Another contributing factor to the 8 widening gaps included white Chicagoans improving their health status. The 2005 study stated overall, that if health indicators were equalized, 3,200 fewer black people in Chicago would die a year. The largest challenge remains bridging the gap between the rather racially segregated communities of Chicago. According to NYU researchers, from 2010-2015, the life expectancy for the affluent Streeterville neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago was around 90 years, yet in Englewood, the average life expectancy diminished to around 60 years. Since 2010, however, the use of Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and community member input has increased in legislative and executive bodies in The triennial cycle used by CHNA to Chicago, such as the Chicago City Council. assess community health and implementations of improvement In a cooperation with the University of strategies. (Mayo Clinic) Chicago Medicine and the Chicago City Council, the South Side Pediatric Asthma Center (SSPCA) was launched in 2017—an example of identifying marginalized children with health concerns, such as asthma, and connecting them with primary care. In conjunction with the University of Chicago Medicine, the SSPCA works with Chicago hospitals such as La Rabida Children’s 9 Hospital, St. Bernard Hospital and federally qualified health centers such as Friend Health center and Beloved Community Family Wellness Center. Partnerships such as the SSPCA have proven to Corner Children’s Hospital’s cooperation with the South Side Pediatric Asthma Center. be successful in harnessing political power to provide resources from local hospitals to struggling communities. However, many initiatives such as these are short-term in length and funding, and heavily rely upon the allocated personnel and resources of the cooperative organizations for a few months at a time, rather than permanent implementation. Current Issue: Given the current pandemic, the chasm between minorities and white Chicagoans regarding access to healthcare is evermore present. Many social determinants of health— 10 the conditions in which people live (i.e. housing, transportation and food security)—play a role in the institutionalization of racial disparities. Racial inequity in regards to COVID-19 deaths in Chicago. (CBS News) In early April of 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that early data proved around 70% of COVID-19 deaths in Chicago were comprised of black people—in a city where the black population is around 30% of the total population. Inequalities such as the 11 inability to work remotely from home and the likelihood of having pre-existing, chronic health conditions has made COVID-19 far more fatal to black people in Chicago and across the nation. There is less access to tests and medical care, given health insurance inequities, as the whtie population is twice as likely to be insured in comparison to the black population. Furthermore, the larger incarceration rates for black people has affected the current crisis, given the impact COVID-19 has had on the prison system in the U.S.. In response to the alarming toll of COVID-19 on black Chicagoans, Lightfoot and Governor J.B. Pritzker established the Racial Equity Rapid Response Team led by Candance Moore. The task force's priority is to collect data that identifies and addresses the inequities for black communities, as well as Latino communities. Additionally, Moore aims to adopt processes that set racial equality as a priority in recovery programs, track data The Racial Equity Response Team partnering with the Food on the spending of Depository to provide food security during COVID-19 pandemic.