VLV Development

Inner City Growth

VLV Development is proud to give back by partnering with Inner City Growth (IGC), a non-profit membership organization whose mission is to promote healthy, energy efficient building practices in Chicago. Inner City Growth also provides social services for our housing developments.

Established in 1993, we offer a comprehensive package of local government support, professional training, collaboration forums, consumer education, and green product marketing to a range of stakeholders. Four strategic objectives guide our work:

• Transitional Jobs and Career Pathway Programs - that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce. We partner with government to establish credible and accessible green building policies that promote private sector innovation and provide consistent guidelines statewide.
• Benefiting Teen Mothers in Need of a Place to Live - transitional living program for young women who are pregnant or parenting.  Our program provides young mothers and their children with a place to live for up to 18 months, while they gain the necessary skills and resources to become productive, successful, independent adults who can care for themselves and their families.

While with Inner City Growth, young mothers have access to services including:

Job readiness skills and employment support, Life skills development, Individualized case management, Positive parenting skills, Child development, Relationship/couples education and counseling, Mentor program, Workshops on topics including planning for your new home, money management, child development, baby-proofing the home, discipline techniques, planning educational and occupational goals, home preparedness and safety, planning nutritious meals, proper food storage and safe food handling, and communication with family and friends, After-care to ensure home stability and continued pursuit of goals.

• Engage Disadvantaged Youth & Create a Green Jobs Corps: we created a program to directly engage disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency opportunities to strengthen their communities, while also providing them with practical skills in this important high-growth career field.
• Reduce Crime by Providing Ex-Offender Support: we will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities.

Inner City Growth’s program development strategy has been to incubate good ideas in the Chicago land and then expand them statewide, helping to establish Chicago as a role model to other states and the nation for developing pragmatic solutions to environmental challenges. We strive to design our programs to have wide-reaching policy impacts that can positively impact many Chicagoans.

To foster collaboration and accelerate the adoption of green building practices, Inner City Growth provides a network of councils to bring together stakeholders from key building industries. The councils facilitate learning, encourage advocacy, grow leadership skills, and leverage the capacity of individuals and organizations en masse to work toward mutually beneficial goals. The councils also multiply the impacts of our other programs.