Grants

Grant Recipient

The Monroe Foundation

Awarded: December 2022 Awarded Amount: $80,000

The Get Cleared Chicago initiative continues to advocate for public policy issues that result in meaningful changes for justice-impacted individuals. Since our campaign launch in 2018, the Get Cleared focus has remained on engaging all facets of the criminal court system to dismantle prejudicial and discriminatory practices that prevent justice-impacted individuals from successfully reintegrating into society. Justice Matters When Budgets Matters promote changes in policies for the betterment of those who are facing systemic barriers resulting from incarceration.

Grant Recipient

Investigative Project on Race and Equity

Awarded: December 2022 Awarded Amount: $75,000

The Investigative Project on Racial Equity will employ fact-based and data-driven reporting; powerful storytelling; and media training to expose racial, economic and social disparities in Chicago. Our work will inform and arm the impacted communities with tools for change. The Project is a start-up non-profit that will build on the knowledge, history and experience of our founders to create a new, digital newsroom and training institute that would produce long-form investigative reporting on race and equity in the Chicago area. In addition, we will build additional organizational capacity, deepen civic engagement and grow the profile and impact of investigative reporting on race and equity.

Grant Recipient

Lugenia Burns Hope Center Inc

Awarded: December 2022 Awarded Amount: $100,000

Lugenia Burns Hope Center is at a growth point for its organizing work, where increased capacity can translate into systemic change on issues such as housing and quality schools for its low-income, African-American members. A capacity-building investment from CCT would allow LBHC to strengthen three critical areas: senior organizing, communications, and fundraising. This will enable the organization to more effectively move a justice agenda on the South Side.

Grant Recipient

Chicago Community Foundation

Awarded: December 2022 Awarded Amount: $100,000

Grant Recipient

CHICAGO MEDIA PROJECT

Awarded: December 2022 Awarded Amount: $75,000

Shifting Voices is, first and foremost, designed to shift power and resources to filmmakers historically excluded from access to viable, sustainable careers in the industry, specifically early and mid-career documentary filmmakers who draw from Black, Indigenous and POC communities. Documentary filmmaking has its roots in progressive politics, with acclaimed films that have played roles in exposing injustices in communities and institutions. BIPOC communities have long been featured in documentaries as subjects, but the artists behind the camera, shaping how stories are told, have been predominantly white – from Flaherty’s Nanook of the North to James’ Hoop Dreams to more recent, and controversial, films like Meg Smaker’s 2022 Jihad Rehab. The field finds itself reckoning with what has been lost over decades of centering white voices telling BIPOC stories. Today’s BIPOC makers have invaluable assets to transform nonfiction storytelling – proximity to featured communities that lends itself to more nuanced observation and storytelling; personal relationships with and accountability to communities that can engender deeper trust with participants; and new, intersectional perspectives on themes commonly engaged in documentaries from white supremacy to classism to patriarchy. This rising generation of new storytellers has the potential to shift and transform the stories being told and the way they are brought to audiences – and it is this belief in the need to shift power that has shaped the Shifting Voices Film Fund. In turn, we aim for their funded projects to connect with broader, more diverse audiences who see their communities’ stories told powerfully, ethically and with accountability.

Grant Recipient

CHICAGO VIDEO PROJECT

Awarded: December 2022 Awarded Amount: $75,000

Shame of Chicago is a 5-part documentary film series that tells the story of how Chicago became one of the most racially segregated cities in the world, and how that history illuminates our divided present. This largely unexamined story will challenge viewers understanding of our city as it explains the origins of black poverty and the roots of Chicago’s racial wealth gap. It will take aim at timeworn racist tropes and abet organizations seeking racial healing and repair. WTTW will air the 5-part documentary, now in production, in September and October of 2023. Partnerships with WVON and WBEZ, an aggressive 2-year outreach plan and an educational website will make a groundbreaking contribution to civic storytelling that strengthens our collective understanding of the structures of racism in our city.