Help identify 'transformative' funding priorities

We're at a critical moment in history - and we need your help.

Cook County will receive just over $1 billion dollars in funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This funding has the potential to be transformative for our hardest hit communities. We have an opportunity to right historic inequities and build back better.

With the help of the Civic Consulting Alliance and the Cook County Board of Commissioners, we are hard at work planning how we will invest this money. As you can imagine, a great deal of work goes into a $1 billion spending plan and we want to do it right: in an open, honest and transparent manner.

This funding will support existing county policy priorities and we will center decision-making on our core values of equity, engagement and excellence. These efforts will build on the strong foundation of existing county and regional efforts including our Policy Roadmap, Equity Fund and We Rise Together.

We have our work cut out for us - but I am confident that we will be putting forward a thoughtful and comprehensive plan with some important and innovative ideas. As you can imagine, this funding will play an essential role in maintaining critical public health and public safety services, while also addressing the many crucial recovery priorities of Cook County.

Funding provided under ARPA is substantial and potentially transformative, but it will be important to use these funds sensibly. We must weigh the long-term benefits to our county and how they will impact our recovery efforts in a sustainable manner.

We look at ARPA as funding intended for all of our residents - not just for Cook County government. This means we will be looking to spend funds in an equitable manner with the largest benefit to the most people over the longest amount of time. And we are able to do this because of the big, structural changes and savings we've made over the past decade.

We are proud of our budgetary work that has placed Cook County in such a financially stable position. Because of this responsible fiscal stewardship, we will be able to not only fill gaps left by the pandemic, but also invest and infuse new funding into our communities.

But we can't do this alone. We need your help.

This week, we have launched the first step in a tiered and robust community engagement process to solicit ideas, priorities and feedback from a broad and diverse group of residents across Cook County. The first step of this process is the launch of www.engagecookcounty.com, a brand-new digital engagement platform. I encourage you to visit the website to learn more, take our surveys and share widely. Over the coming weeks, we will host a series of events to gather more input from community members and organizations.

Let's work together to build back a better, more equitable Cook County as we recover from this pandemic.

• Toni Preckwinkle, a Chicago Democrat, is president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.