Chicago business leader launches Bear Down Community Investment Group to

Chicago business leader Seretha McField-Gibbs on Thursday launched a community investment group that aims to boost economic development across the region through community partnerships, with plans to eventually scale the nonprofit nationwide.

The nonprofit, Bear Down Community Investment Group, was founded to expand housing options, construct mixed-use developments, strengthen local businesses and build a skilled workforce across Illinois. The nonprofit is based in Chicago, with an initial focus on Chicago Southland.

The Southland includes five counties in Illinois and Indiana, spanning from O’Hare and Kankakee to Valparaiso, Ind.

McField-Gibbs, who leads the nonprofit, said its role is to serve as a “missing link,” forming and facilitating partnerships that will stimulate economic growth in communities across the region. The nonprofit is backed by a multi-million dollar, self-funded investment, but McField-Gibbs declined to share the amount.

“The conversations I’m having with the municipalities is, “How can we help? What are your initiatives? What are your goals?’” McField-Gibbs said. “A lot of the municipalities don’t have the resources, don’t have the staff, so we’re coming in and partnering with those municipalities, with community stakeholders [and] organizations that are already in existence.”

McField-Gibbs founded business consulting and construction management firm McField & Associates, Inc., in 2014. The Plainfield-based company offers construction project management, regulatory compliance and operational consulting services.

McField-Gibbs said the transition to the nonprofit sector builds upon her work at McField & Associates. McField & Associates is helping fund the nonprofit as it grows, she said.

The nonprofit is partnering with Trista Crudup, founder of the nonprofit Urban Terminal, to launch registered apprenticeship programs that are federally certified. The program will help train new carpenters, plumbers, welders and other skilled-trades professionals as the trades face a growing labor crisis.

Of 205 Midwest contractors surveyed in late 2025 by the Associated General Contractors of America, more than 80% said they’re having a hard time filling open positions. Nearly 20% said their subcontractors on projects had workers who left or failed to appear because of actual or rumored immigration actions.

Bear Down will partner and collaborate with businesses and those in the construction industry to train more tradespeople and put them to work on local projects, Crudup said.

“We will be people builders, right alongside with the buildings that we erect,” Crudup said.

In addition to acquiring and rehabbing commercial, mixed-used buildings, Bear Down will focus on affordable housing acquisition and development.