Peter Contos Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Since the Coalition's establishment as a 501(c)3 & 501(c)4 organization, I work in a variety of roles to expand our impact, including:- Facilitating the Coalition's policy research working groups. Tasked with managing research teams focused on expanding social equity licensing, decarceration & expungement of criminal records, investing into most-impacted people & communities, and more. Working with community members, faith communities, and more, to ensure community priorities are advanced through research. - Lead lobbyist for the Coalition, representing CEIC in the State Capitol in Springfield and City Hall in Chicago. Also representing CEIC as part of mission-aligned campaigns, including Clean Slate IL, Reducing Barriers to Recovery, Unlock Civics, and more.- Since 2020, I have been the Coalition’s Lead Grant Writer. I identify funding sources and apply for grants. Since 2020, we have raised more than $900,000 for Coalition programming.- In 2024, I began managing student interns from Adler & DePaul University, who are providing support for our policy, reentry, and communications programming. - Supporting the creation, development, and implementation of the Coalition's Cannabis Community Benefits Agreements with existing operators, to ensure that new cannabis businesses are supporting communities impacted by the War on Drugs.- Supporting the Coalition's expungement programming in Chicago, including, record clearing events and community reentry resource fairs, promoting education on the record clearing process, and connecting individuals with wraparound services. - Organizing Know Your Rights educational programming so community members can protect themselves post-legalization.- Organizing & facilitating Political Education programming to support community members build power locally.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

In transitioning away from my role at GPEC-ICHV, I'll be supporting the Coalition on its advocacy and expungement programming, along with building out a sustainable funding structure as a way to support a full-time fully staffed organization. Other roles include: -Organizing with community members, faith communities, drug policy reform organizations and lawmakers, to ensure our priorities, including social equity licensing, expungement of criminal records, and investing revenues into most-impacted communities, are prioritized by the Illinois' legislature. - Supporting the creation, development, and implementation of the Coalition's Cannabis Community Benefits Agreements with existing operators, to ensure that new cannabis dispensaries are supporting communities impacted by the War on Drugs. - Coordinating the Coalition's expungement programming in Chicago, including, promoting education on the record clearing process, advocating to make the RAP Sheet process more accessible, connecting individuals with wraparound services, and advocating for broader legislation to make expungement more accessible across the state.

Chicago, Il

Responsible for the coordination of Speak for Safety IL, a public education campaign to support the implementation of Illinois' recently-enacted Firearm Restraining Order law, including: -Engaging stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and locales in Illinois on the FRO law, including healthcare organizations, domestic violence survivor advocates, faith communities, veterans groups, mental health service providers, gun violence prevention groups, law enforcement, among many others. -Partnering with organizations in hosting community education forums and organizational training, to promote understanding about the law, and empowering community members to use this tool as a way to keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe. - Developed a series of resources, including a website, bi-lingual one-pagers, and a template presentation, to promote information about the new law.- Cultivated a partnership with the Illinois Attorney General's Office, where we provided support in developing statewide training curriculum for law enforcement.

Washington D.C.

• In the policy department of the nation’s largest disability advocacy organization, we work alongside chapters in every state to address policy issues both locally and nationally• Written reports analyzing the current administration’s plans to increase security capabilities of teachers and school resource officers, and assessed the impact of the potential addition of a balanced budget amendment in the Constitution• Coordinating with the policy, marketing, and outreach teams to organize the Disability Policy Seminar, the largest disability conference and lobbying effort in the country

Chicago, Il

• Collecting publicly available health and demographic data from 10 cities across the U.S., Canada, and England, with an emphasis on garnering community level data• Generated models of regression to identify and illustrate the inequities that exist in birth outcomes across demographic groups, with an emphasis on racial/ethnic groups and socioeconomic indicators• This dataset has been used by professors at DePaul, Rush University, and various policy thinktanks in the city

West Humboldt Park, Chicago, Illinois

• Volunteer coordinator for an after-school tutoring and mentoring program at the Kelly Hall YMCA on Chicago’s West Side• Organized family nights, dances, basketball games, and Thanksgiving dinners to build on the cohesion of the community• Our service program was awarded the Community Partner Award in November 2016, commemorating our years of service and commitment to Kelly Hall, and the West Humboldt Park neighborhood

Chicago, Il

• Reviewed existing research and literature regarding Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Safe Injection Facilities to write policy recommendations. Reports were utilized to advocate for providing local health departments greater access to PDMP data, and adoption of harm reduction practices at local and state levels• Transcribed and created reports based on resident feedback from the Healthy Chicago Kids townhall series throughout the summer. A final report was presented to the Mayor and City Council to garner support of policy changes to improve the health of Chicago’s youth

River North

Bussing, Food Running and Hosting at Lou Malnati's busiest location in Chicago. Prior to leaving Lou's, I was in charge of training new employees along with my regular Bussing and Running duties.

32 Ward Chicago Illinois

• Managed and cataloged constituent concerns and service requests using the city’s 311 system. • Reviewed policies to determine which would best serve the needs of the ward and the city, from better regulating the assignment of tax revenues to policy accountability• Used input from constituent town halls to improve community relations with the police department and helped design more effective use-of-force policies• Created and distributed a brochure including all the relevant information of resources and services a person would need if they are new to the 32nd Ward or the City of Chicago.

Livonia, Michigan

Spent the Summer as an Intern for a medical supply company, serving the greater Metro-Detroit area. I maintained and installed equipment at the office and on location in retirement communities, Hospice, and in private homes. In the office I filed and recorded sales data into Intuit QuickBooks, while also fulfilling basic filing and organizational duties.

Plymouth, Mi

Operated a range of machines in the finishing department and performed production inventories with the Shopfloor computer program. Worked with representation from the United Steel Workers union.

Plymouth-Canton, Mi

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Public Health, Public Policy, Senior

Activities and Societies: DePaul Community Service Organization, Hoops for Hope at Kelly YMCA-West Humboldt Park, Students for Sensible.

Education record