Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle addresses the Basic Income Guarantee Conference in Chicago on June 8, 2023. [President Toni Preckwinkle's Facebook page]

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle delivered the keynote address at the 21st annual Basic Income Guarantee Conference Thursday morning and called the county’s guaranteed basic income pilot program an example of the government's role in righting historical wrongs. This year the conference was held in Chicago’s West Loop. 

The Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot is in its seventh month of distributing monthly cash payments to more than 3,000 households, and Preckwinkle’s speech Thursday coincided with the release of an online report highlighting some of the residents who have been assisted.