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DCEO Illinois Towards Equity: Building Our Future, Grounded in History

DCEO’s Illinois Towards Equity (ITE) Strategic Plan reflects a commitment to advancing equity across workforce practices and economic development programs statewide. This work is grounded in a clear acknowledgment of Illinois’ historical and ongoing disparities across race, gender, geography, disability, and identity that continue to shape access to opportunity.

In 2024, DCEO conducted a comprehensive assessment to inform its ITE Strategic Plan, incorporating leadership perspectives, staff input, and review of prior efforts. This assessment resulted in six strategic goals and thirteen objectives designed to strengthen internal practices and enhance programmatic impact.

Implementation is currently underway. Early efforts have focused on building foundational infrastructure, coordinating across teams, reviewing data, and establishing governance structures to support transparency and accountability.

DCEO will continue to share progress through regular updates and an annual public report as this work advances.

Our Illinois Towards Equity (ITE) Strategic Plan saw an important shift from planning to implementation.

In 2026, we launched the I-TEAM, introduced a new quarterly Towards Equity Workshop Series, piloted equity analysis tools with teams across the department, and advanced work across the plan’s goals and objectives. 

These efforts are helping build the infrastructure, shared learning, and practical tools needed to integrate equity into departmental practices and decision-making.