Thousands of workers around Chicago have been labeled “essential” to maintaining our health, educational and economic infrastructures. We want to hear from those essential workers about what they need to keep going.

What is your biggest concern as an essential worker and what should be done bring relief?

Twenty newsrooms in Chicago are collaborating to better understand and report on important issues facing essential workers. We want our coverage to adequately reflect experiences impacting life, family and community for workers in health care, schools, transit, public safety, food service and other industries that are critical to our ability to function as a city and state. 

Fill out this survey and tell us what should be done for those who must physically show up for work during the pandemic.

By completing this survey, you agree that your message can be used as part of ongoing coverage of essential workers and that a news organization may contact you about this and related issues. Your message will be treated as confidential.

You can find the collected reporting work on chicagoessentialworkers.org. Participating newsrooms include WBEZ, Chicago Reader, La Raza, WTTW, Block Club Chicago, South Side Weekly, Austin Weekly News, Chicago Defender, Injustice Watch, Windy City Times, Borderless Magazine, Hyde Park Herald, Inside Publications, Loop North News, Chicago Music Guide, Wednesday Journal, Forest Park Review, Riverside Brookfield Landmark, Rebellious Magazine and Shaw Media.


This story is a part of the Solving for Chicago collaborative effort by newsrooms to cover the workers deemed “essential” during COVID-19 and how the pandemic is reshaping work and employment.

Essential Workers logo

It is a project of the Local Media Foundation with support from the Google News Initiative and the Solutions Journalism Network. The 19 partners span print, digital and broadcasting and include WBEZ, WTTW, the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Defender, La Raza, Shaw Media, Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, the South Side Weekly, Injustice Watch, Austin Weekly News, Wednesday Journal, Forest Park Review, Riverside Brookfield Landmark, Windy City Times, the Hyde Park Herald, Inside Publications, Loop North News and Chicago Music Guide.