2.7m – Chicago metropolitan area is home to 9.6 million residents.
Location:
Illinois, USA
Industry:
Boeing, Sears, Jones Lang LaSalle and Motorola
Background:
The USA has traditionally been one of Birmingham’s strongest, if not leading, FDI source and US companies are now major employers in the city of Birmingham. Trade between West Midlands and the US covers several industries, such as manufacturing and non-manufacturing production, and retail trade.
Chicago serves as a global nexus for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation.
As a city of world status, Chicago is also home to many multi-national companies including: Boeing, Sears, Jones Lang LaSalle and Motorola.
Both Birmingham and Chicago have a great deal in common including: demographic profile – being super diverse and youthful, its commercial and industrial base and the relationship citizens have with their respective city government structures.
We have shared local government models of service delivery around issues of social cohesion and migration. At a broader level, city management, education, social services, sport, and culture have provided examples of practical mutual benefit to the administration of both cities.
Current key initiatives between both cities include:
Civic
2018 Chicago hosted a Mayor’s Round Table on 6th June 2018 as part of their annual “Chicago Forum on Global Cities”. The then Leader of the Council, Councillor Ian Ward attended.
2016 Birmingham leaders in business, education, public sector, and the arts participated in the Chicago Forum on Global cities for an integrated, cross-sector dialogue on the power and limitations of global cities to shape the world’s future.
Education
Global Youth Ambassadors Leadership Summit (GYALS) – an intensive leadership programme. The programme is designed to build the next generation of global leaders and is open to teenage girls, aged 14–16, from Chicago and its 28 international sister cities.
It is run jointly by Chicago Sister Cities International (CSCI) and the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC).
This programme inspired Birmingham to develop its own leadership programme, the Young Women into Leadership (You WIL) summit (2021).
Birmingham girls attend this programme.
Young Women into Leadership (You WIL) Summit – inspired by the GYALS, this programme is also for young girls aged 14-16 years old to develop their leadership skills and hear from inspiring women.
Tri-partite social work exchange with Hamburg, Germany; Chicago, USA and Birmingham
Established in 1996.
2018 Chicago and Birmingham visited, Hamburg.
October 2021 The Annual Tri-City Social Work Exchange between the cities of Birmingham, Chicago, and Hamburg convened in Hamburg. Birmingham City Council Adult Social Care and the Birmingham Children’s Trust were in attendance.
The visit explored the German approach known as Social Space Orientation. This comprised concepts from community capacity building, social work community practice, urban planning, public health, multisystemic therapy, and a strengths-based model.
