3C Community Profile: Humboldt Park
Take a stroll down the Paseo Boricua corridor on Division Street and it’s easy to see why Humboldt Park is one of Chicago’s most vibrant…
Grants
Featured
Our Grantmaking Strategy
For more than 100 years, The Chicago Community Trust has convened, supported, funded, and accelerated the work of community members and changemakers committed to strengthening the Chicago region. From building up our civic infrastructure to spearheading our response to the Great Recession, the Trust has brought our community together to face pressing challenges and seize our greatest opportunities. Today, that means confronting the racial and ethnic wealth gap.
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Grant Recipient
Kids Off The Block, Inc.
Kids off the Block (KOB) was founded in 2003, and is a 501(c)(3) organization. As a community-based organization, KOB is dedicated to affecting positive change for young people and the areas where they live. Our programs serve some of Chicago’s most at-risk youth afterschool, and during the summer months. The organization provides youth services (to include violence prevention services) to those who are between the ages 10-24 with the major goals of helping them to avoid violence, succeed academically, become self-sufficient, and avoid self-defeating behaviors to include gang and gun violence. Last year, KOB served more than 1,850 young people and their families.
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Grant Recipient
Pullman Hotel Group, LLC
The majority Black-owned Pullman Hotel Group, LLC is planning a nationally branded, upper midscale limited services hotel with 95-100 guest rooms. The hotel will feature a lobby with seating and a check-in area, a business center, an exercise room, an indoor pool, a market store or gift shop and will offer complimentary breakfast service. The proposed hotel will provide adequate on-site surface parking to operate at full occupancy. The hotel design will comply with all brand standards and local building codes. The anticipated date for the start of hotel infrastructure development is the December of 2022 with construction to be completed and operational by the Spring of 2024. The subject site has adequate accessibility and excellent visibility from Interstate 94, which connects City of Chicago and south suburban communities in Illinois and Indiana via Interstate 80, Interstate 57 and Illinois Route 394. The site is located approximately 18 miles south of downtown Chicago, 15 miles southeast of Chicago Midway International Airport and approximately 15 miles south of McCormick Place Convention Center. The surrounding communities suffer from a limited presence of major nationally branded hotels. Adjacent to the Pullman Park industrial development, the hotel will be built on a four-plus acre site on the north end of the Historic Pullman neighborhood, recently designated as a National Park by the federal government. The Pullman National Park is expected to draw more than 300,000 visitors annually by 2023. The hotel site is also positioned less than one mile from a recently developed regional mall, new restaurants and other retail businesses and directly adjacent to the Pullman Park Industrial Park, a rapidly developing home to warehousing and distribution facilities, including: * a 140,000 square-foot regional distribution center for Whole Foods, * a LEED certified manufacturing plant for Method Home Products along with; * a rooftop greenhouse that sources lettuce for pre-packaged salads by Gotham Greens * a 150,000 square-foot Pullman Community Center, with an indoor amateur sports facility Other recent developments in the area include Harborside Golf Center, a new world-class indoor track and field center, a new state-if-the-art job training center for transportation and logistics career opportunities at the City Colleges of Chicago's Olive Harvey College and a new bicycling park at Big Marsh, amid an outdoor conservation area less than two miles from the proposed hotel site. Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, a non-profit community development organization based in the Pullman area, has played a leading role in much of the commercial retail and industrial development in the area and will serve as the fiscal agent for PHG if a Pre-Development Fund Grant is awarded for this project. In the event of a funding award, PHG would use the grant to prioritize: (a) complete the process of securing a major hotel brand franchise (b) completing engineering, environmental and architectural work (c) engage professional services necessary to procure the necessary zoning and building approvals
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Grant Recipient
Englewood Connect LLC
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Public Media Inc
Chicago Public Media is committed to serving the public as a trusted, independent source of news and information that makes our region and our democracy stronger. We have always believed that robust local journalism is at the heart of a well-functioning society, and now more than ever, we are committed to serving our region with award-winning coverage of local, national, and international news that connects Chicagoans to each other — and to the world. With the Trust’s investment of $150,000, we will amplify the public conversation by telling the stories that matter; stories that provoke thought, entertain, capture emotion and inspire action. Chicago Public Media shares in the Trust’s desire to connect residents to one another and amplify authentic community narratives. Underpinning all of Chicago Public Media’s work is a theory of change and intended impact centered around empathy: We aim to create a more informed, connected, and empathetic Chicagoland. Our process of identifying a topic for investigation, reporting, and engaging the community is interconnected by design. With intentional community engagement throughout the process, we are more aware of the needs of our community and better positioned to accurately reflect the lived experiences of Chicagoans. As a trusted, independent source of news and information, we leverage our strengths in investigative and enterprise journalism to shine a light on the consequential issues affecting local communities and empower individuals to make informed decisions and advance what’s important to them. In an annual audience survey, we asked our audience members what, if any, actions they have taken as a result of hearing or reading a WBEZ story. We found that 73% of our audience felt they were more informed when they voted, 69% reconsidered or broadened their perspective on an issue, 49% were inspired to take a more active role in their community, and 46% became involved with a local or national cause. These results demonstrate that inclusive storytelling can serve as a pathway toward understanding and that audio storytelling, in particular, has a unique power to connect people, and in many cases, move people to take action. In the coming year, WBEZ will deliver more impactful journalism for the people of Chicago. Our human-centered, solutions-oriented approach to local journalism will shine a light on deep challenges and systemic inequities to effect positive change. Our strategy, approved by Chicago Public Media’s Board of Directors in June 2021, is to invest in daily journalism and build addressable direct relationships via digital platforms to build daily habits and grow the diversity and engagement of our audience. To deliver on our strategy, we have identified priorities across four pillars: Content, Audience Growth, Funding, and People and Culture. Specifically, we seek to: Invest in our journalism to build a compelling daily news product that focuses on the Chicago region, builds daily habits, and earns the trust of our audience. Build direct addressable relationships through digital platforms, converting one-time listeners to email subscribers and mobile app users to increase diversity, frequency, duration, and support among our audience. Fueled by support from our community and generous philanthropic partners, we nourish the public conversation by telling the stories that matter—stories that provoke thought, entertain, capture emotion, and inspire action. With your continued support in the coming year, we will preserve and strengthen that public service mission for our audience today and in the future.
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Grant Recipient
Latino Policy Forum
Working with our very broad range of more than 150 multi-sectoral membership relationships, partnerships, and coalitions, we will apply our core skills of analysis, advocacy, leadership, and collaboration to the goals of ensuring that governmental policies are fully responsive to the needs of Latinos, that the underlying systems and practices that affect policies are shifted toward greater responsiveness and inclusivity, and that an increased capacity to effect policy and systems change is developed within Latino-serving nonprofits. We plan to address systemic inequality that has been exacerbated by COVID for Latinos and immigrants in the areas of housing, social services, and economic redevelopment.
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Grant Recipient
Esperanza Health Centers
Esperanza Health Centers respectfully request a $50,000 general operating grant. Esperanza is a Federally Qualified Health Center with five sites across Chicago's Southwest side. We serve over 45,000 patients annually through the provision of primary care, behavioral health services, and a variety of wellness programs. A general operating grant from Chicago Community Trust will support our ability to remain nimble in our response to emerging needs in the communities we serve.
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Grant Recipient
Corporation For Supportive Housing
CSH will continue to advance our efforts to connect individuals to housing solutions that break the cycle of chronic homelessness. Specifically, we will: 1) Continue expanding our work with the Chicago/Cook Co. Flexible Housing Pool (FHP)—a coordinated body that is re-orienting the crisis response system by funding supportive housing for people with complex health needs and cycling through homelessness and costly health crisis services. For this grant period, our priorities will focus on engaging new sectors as Investors, increasing the amount of money invested in the FHP, and using project data that has been evaluated to better refine the FHP’s marketing pitch to primarily target MCOs. 2) Continue working to improve the IL Justice System’s process for reentry of returning citizens at risk of homelessness through a robust quality improvement effort surrounding housing placement, as well as improved standards for transitional housing—key steps in ensuring all returning citizens are connected to safe, stable housing upon exiting prison. For this grant period, our priorities will focus on providing training on the Housing Needs Assessment to IL Dept. of Corrections (IDOC) staff and transitional housing providers, as well as engaging with key stakeholder groups, in particular the IL Reentry Council’s Housing Workgroup, related to: 1) expanding the knowledge of and availability of alternative housing and services options, outside of recovery housing, and 2) strategizing about how to connect high-need reentry groups to housing. CSH is also working to fundraise for a reentry housing demonstration project with the FHP in order to build evidence for the effectiveness of paying for supportive housing to reduce recidivism and increase stability and opportunities for community members coming home.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Foundation/Arts Work Fund
The Arts Work Fund is a funder collaborative focused on developing the organizational capacity of small arts and cultural organizations in Chicago and Cook County. Our grantmaking helps arts organizations leverage the creativity and unconventional thinking that arose during the pandemic to address the immediate challenges and devise more effective ways for arts organizations to meet their desired outcomes. Grantees are asked to SHARE their learnings broadly with the arts sector to generate dialogue. Our peer learning strategies include a listserv, monthly podcasts and videos, webinars, and grantee articles.