Cook County, Illinois, whose most populous city is Chicago, is becoming a bellwether in the fight to redress national economic woes. It’s doing so thanks to the work of organizers and residents in the newly-formed Union for Guaranteed Income (U4GI). One among them is a savvy 29-year-old Chicago native, Aurora.

Two years ago, Aurora was a young mother with a newborn son, troubled by financial stress. She was a contract employee without insurance. Because her contract ended right before she got pregnant, she didn’t have work to fall back on.

Aurora received help from her family and her fiancé with managing child care, but realizing her vulnerability changed her worldview. A guaranteed income would have helped her feel more stable, so when she saw an Instagram post about the campaign to win a permanent program in Cook County, she signed up to join.

“I was in a place where I needed to take some kind of action to help out my community. I felt like if I can use guaranteed income in my personal situation, I know there are other vulnerable people. The campaign found me. That’s when Community Change Action called,“ she said.

Aurora is on target that many Chicagoans need help. The great Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks once wrote: “What shall I give my children who are poor/ Who are adjudged the leastwise of the land?” 

According to the U.S. Census, 13.7% of Cook County residents are living below the poverty line. The recipients of federal assistance are often snared by programs that will cut off benefits when recipients exceed the poverty threshold, but before they have achieved real financial solvency. So guaranteed income programs can really help fill the gaps and offer stability.

In 2022, using public funding available during the pandemic, Cook County sponsored a guaranteed income pilot program, providing $500 a month for two years to 3,250 low-to-moderate income families, who were selected by lottery. That meant monthly cash payments, without fear of losing them due to changes in income, or other stipulations. The pilot produced positive results: Recipients overwhelmingly reported better psychological health. Recipients expressed thankfulness for having funds to mitigate unexpected emergencies. Pilot programs that have been reviewed two years after they ended have recorded a long-term impact, enabling college graduations and career opportunities that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

But the help stopped after the pilot ended. That’s when the national anti-poverty nonprofit, Community Change Action, with local partners Worker Center for Racial Justice and Equity and Transformation, formed the Union for Guaranteed Income to fight for a permanent program. After getting an overwhelmingly positive response and 6,000 pledge signatures, they organized meetings with Cook County residents to build support for restoring guaranteed income, leading to a large in-person gathering and door knocking campaign in July 2025. One of the people who joined the mission was Aurora.

She started as a volunteer, and then quickly became a leader. “I kind of took a leap of faith. I hesitated, thinking ‘Who am I to do this type of work,’ she said. “Byron told me he saw it in me.”

Community Change Action Economic Freedom Organizing Director, Byron Hobbs, says Aurora was always special. “I saw her commitment. Even when she was a volunteer, she showed up for events. She will step up to take on leadership roles. She’s a deep thinker, and very deliberate in how she connects with people. Plus she’s a young mom with lived experience who knows how the economy works for her family and her child.”

People who are directly impacted leading the charge is central to the organizing model of the Union for Guaranteed Income. 

Aurora certainly thinks deeply about the impact guaranteed income can have today. She is clear that guaranteed income is not meant to be a replacement for other income supports like SNAP, Medicaid, and other benefits.

“It’s meant to be an added support system. We know from the pilot program that people use the money to cover transportation, food bills, gas and groceries. When people have those covered, they have time to think,” she said.

The union wants to ensure people who have fallen in the cracks of the system have access to the funds — those who are not covered by disability, single parents, and people who have been let go of their jobs, for example.  

“We know which communities have been systemically harmed and disinvested in. We need to start out by helping people who are struggling,” Aurora said. But, she added that there are people who have good careers that are also struggling.  

Thanks to the organizing of people like Aurora, the children of the poor, who Gwendolyn Brooks pleaded for Chicagoans to assist, may soon sleep a little bit easier.

After listening to the voices of beneficiaries of the past pilot program and other supporters, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to allocate $7.5 million to establish guaranteed income for low-income families, making it the first permanent county-level program ever.

Aurora is one of the young organizers whose numbers are growing — and who know the work has just begun. The question in Cook County now is: Who will be eligible? How can more people receive this assistance? How can the program expand?

Cook County is a big win, and not just locally. This program will spark a dialogue over whether the existing social safety network needs the addition of a national guaranteed income program to reduce poverty across the country.