The Chicago Regionwide Community Information Exchange® (CIE)

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development (BED) are partnering with the Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI) to develop the first ever community-centered Regionwide Community Information Exchange® (CIE).

What is a CIE?

A Community Information Exchange, or CIE, is a network of health and social service organizations and agencies that develop shared governance to support the needs of community members.

A CIE serves as a care management hub, allowing participating providers to deliver more responsive, more effective community care planning for people who face multiple, often related, challenges (for example, food insecurity, unstable housing, and access to health care).

What will the CIE do?

  • Connect community members, healthcare providers, and social services to provide a more coordinated health and social service delivery system

  • Streamline and improve public health services in marginalized communities

  • Coordinate across ongoing initiatives to address homelessness (an initial CIE pilot phase focused on the health of people experiencing homelessness will inform design and build-out of the CIE system for broader populations)

Benefits of a CIE

  • Residents, service providers, funders, and government agencies will gain a better understanding of local health and social service systems, including barriers that need to be addressed to improve services

  • Service providers will be able to work in partnership with people with lived experience to develop holistic plans for improving health and well-being

  • Improved, streamlined communication will allow for quicker, more effective referrals between organizations

  • Community members will have quicker access to a wider range of services without having to fill out multiple applications and relive the trauma of repeating their stories to multiple providers

Estimated Development Timeline

  • Winter 2023/Early 2024

    • Conduct an in-depth review of current data-sharing and service coordination capacity, focusing on homelessness services

    • Begin community outreach for input on the CIE design

    • Establish workgroups to guide the CIE design process

    • Collect information through interviews, meetings, and focus groups to begin journey mapping of those with lived experience and service providers

  • Spring/Summer 2024

    • Facilitate workgroups and continue to interview stakeholders

    • Workgroups conduct community meetings to design the various elements of the CIE, which include legal & governance frameworks, data standards & technology, journey mapping, and sustainability

    • Focus on connecting service providers, healthcare providers, and people experiencing homelessness

  • Winter 2024

    • Establish data-sharing processes with legal and technology frameworks for efficiency and security

    • Determine CIE operating costs

    • Develop a sustainability strategy

    • Begin regionwide implementation