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
MKB Business Strategies, LLC
MKB Business Strategies, LLC (MKB) mission is to build better communities by galvanizing community resources, residents, contractors, and developers. Our vision is to provide affordable homeownership opportunities to low-to-moderate families and individuals throughout the Chicagoland area. Our goal is to provide a standard of living that supports skills-based training, new career pathways, and an improved quality of life for underserved communities and low-to- moderate income families. The housing market in Chicago's African American, Latinx, and Hispanic inner city and south suburban communities is in dire need of investment and repair. The social impact we deliver is simply unmatched! We promote building a better community by enhancing neighborhood vitality. Our Heritage Pointe II project is designed to achieve just that - vitality and newer, more modern, and affordable housing options for working families in the East Garfield and Near West Side areas. On Tuesday, September 14, 2022, our team completed our groundbreaking ceremony to build 8 single-family homes for this project. The project is projected to be completed by August 2023. Dignitaries in attendance at our groundbreaking included: Alderwoman Emma Mitts, Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr., Community Investment Corporation (CIC), Brian O'Donnell of the City of Chicago's Department of Housing (DHD), and Representatives from the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development. Our goal is to rebuild this community area with improved living, walking, and green spaces. Our Heritage Pointe II project is one of many to drive economic power throughout under-supported areas in Chicago. We are hyper-focused on building back better to develop stronger business corridors and communities in Chicago's hardest hit areas that not only survive, but thrive. With housing insecurity at an all- time high, especially in minority areas, we are ready, willing, and able to provide improvements to neighborhood infrastructure to better communities in dire need of construction improvements. Studies show there's more than 55,000 vacant homes in Cook County, MKB is the solution to a growing issue. This project will serve over 50 community residents and 8 working families. In aggregate, our serves helps thousands of Chicagoland residents annually. The Heritage Pointe II project is just the tip of the iceberg! We serve all facets of the community to proactively anticipate their needs and to improve their standard of living. For over a decade, our teams have been changing lives by developing, rehabbing, reselling and donating properties to low and moderate income families. Our established relationships with banks nationwide, city municipalities, and local governments has opened a segue for job creation of community residents and contract opportunities for contractors and small businesses. By utilizing our services, the community benefits from: safer communities with more curb appeal; increased possibilities for gainful employment; connections to community partners; more support from local businesses and national corporations; economic development opportunities, and more. This grant will assist with developer soft costs associated with the development of Heritage Pointe II. Overall the project budget for this opportunity is estimated at $1,941,660 and we are requesting $100,000. Help us create a better community for working families on Chicago's West Side!
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Grant Recipient
CENTER FOR DISABILITY AND ELDER LAW INC
Over the past three years, CDEL’s funding has grown, thanks to additional government funds from the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan funds from the state, county, and city. In 2022, CDEL received more than $500,000 from various government funders. Each new grant brought additional compliance issues and more intensive reporting, stretching the time and capabilities of the executive director and legal director. Meanwhile, CDEL's staff has doubled in size, and the additional human resource needs have also strained organization leadership. CDEL hired an operations manager in December 2022 to provide more support to the leadership team, but this role requires additional funding. A capacity building grant from CCT will enable CDEL to 1. configure its case management system (LegalServer) to better support compliance with government grants; 2. stay on top of changes in human resources with a membership to the Society for Human Resource Management; 3. train leadership staff on human resources and federal grant compliance; 4. cover grant writing costs associated with preparation and submission of large grant applications; 5. enable CDEL's outside bookkeeper to keep up with the number of vouchers CDEL must submit monthly or quarterly; and 6. cover a portion of the salary of the new operations manager.
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Grant Recipient
Business Services Collective NFP
Business Services Collective was launched in 2019 as a shared ownership resource for the community of BIPOC construction firms in Chicagoland. We have aspired to be a cooperative since our ideation stage and to launch as a two-tiered coop co-owned by the businesses we serve and their workers. We successfully build a shared back office model using a 501c3 structure, now serving a network of more than 100 businesses. Based on our discussions with experts in the cooperative field, we now have the track record, model proof and community buy-in to advance a segment of our network into a tighter-knit community with a cooperative structure. We believe 2023 will be our preparatory year to launch our coop in 2024 and we are generating resources to get ready. We seek $20K towards hiring a cooperative expert who has set up a construction cooperative with a similar community in Houston, Texas and expressed interest in supporting us through early stage development of structure, governance, coop principles, membership design and member-owner rights and responsibilities.
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Grant Recipient
Edgar Fellows
The money being requested will be utilized in two ways. $20,000 will be used to pay for the expenses associated with the nomination and selection and Executive Leadership Training for the 2023 program. Note: it is estimated that costs associated with this are approximately $10,000 per Fellow. $10,000 will be put towards a Silver Sponsorship for the 2023 Edgar Fellows Fundraising Dinner in Chicago on August 31. This sponsorship includes 10 tickets to the dinner. Estimated goods and services to be received as a Silver Sponsor are valued at $1,150 with the remaining $8,850 considered a charitable contribution.
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Grant Recipient
UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
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Grant Recipient
PLANT CHICAGO NFP
Plant Chicago is requesting support for our food access, markets, and indoor victory garden project. Collectively these activities support small food producers while at the same time ensure that low income residents have access to locally and sustainably produced food.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Trust
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Grant Recipient
City of Refuge - Chicago
This application is for necessary resources required to hire additional staff and leaders for the Chicago Westside Police and Youth Sports collaborative initiative. The program was designed to provide wrap around services as well as a large network of local resources. These resources are made available to youth and their families that participate. As the program has grown in popularity, more adults have become involved and more investment in their development has been needed. Further, the amount of resources, such as furniture, household items, has increased and been distributed. With only the Executive Director and 1 staff person, the workload has become overwhelming and it is impossible to increase programming and deepen resource distribution. Having 3 staff will greatly increase capacity while developing the staff themselves. Investment in the current staff has resulted not only in their development, but also the youth they serve. Investing in these staff members and leaders through coach training, time management classes, trauma informed training, Peace Circle certified, helps the youth, their families, and the community. Also, as they become better equipped, they can then get positions that reflect the training they have received through their volunteering.