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.
Explore Our Discretionary Grants
Showing 3091–3098 of 3874 results
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Grant Recipient
MATTHEW HOUSE
Matthew House is a nonprofit organization providing food, shelter, additional supportive services, and permanent supportive housing for unsheltered adult homeless men, women, children, and families. It has been providing critical services in Bronzeville to this population for thirty-one years—one of the first in Chicago to do so. It was founded by four African Americans (3 male veterans and the agency’s executive director who continues to serve in that capacity). Seventy-five percent of all clients served last year were chronically homeless, i.e. they were homeless for at least a year, and most of these have been homeless for more than one year. This population is considerably older than those who have been homeless for less than a year. Typically, they suffer from mental health problems and addictions. It takes considerable time and effort to help them grow in self-sufficiency, but MH has a long history and much experience in doing so. Examples: One former client was homeless for thirteen years; now housed, he is employed at our agency. A woman who had been homeless for ten years was housed after receiving aid from MH for three years. For homeless/housing insecure individuals and families, our Daytime Supportive Services Program provides walk-in services six days a week, including free breakfasts and lunches, access to showers, and a change of clothes, access to a mailing address and other essential services. After their immediate pressing needs are met, our clients can work with experienced case managers to overcome obstacles to becoming housed. For clients who become housing ready, MH manages 73 units of scattered-site permanent supportive housing. MH has a staff of 12, all of whom are Black. Six staff members were formerly unsheltered homeless clients. Having lived-experienced persons on staff not only provides them with employment, but it also helps our agency better understand and serve the needs of its clients. Our agency also ensures that our board of directors includes a formerly unsheltered client. All board members are African American. Our clients come from throughout Chicago, but mostly from the south side of the city, especially from Bronzeville and other majority Black areas in Chicago. Last year MH served 1,389 unduplicated clients, a 30% increase over the prior year. There was also a large increase in the number of unsheltered homeless families with small children. MH is adapting its services and its facility to accommodate their special needs. While MH has been fortunate to secure government funding, much of that is restricted to housing. Some funders undervalue supportive services for unsheltered persons. The Chicago Community Trust clearly regards these as critical needs that must be met before this population can grow in self-determination. Our agency welcomes the opportunity to apply for continued general support for its wide range of wraparound services. This is especially important when, as noted elsewhere, MH has to be flexible and sometimes incur additional expenses that were not foreseen, to meet additional demand for its services as well as new challenges in serving an increased number of female clients, including single parents with minor children.
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Grant Recipient
La Raza Chicago, Inc.
A project to keep saving La Raza, the last major Spanish newspaper in Chicago, and to keep it as a quality and trusted source of local news to serve and empower the Hispanic community. The recovery after the COVID-19 emergency has been slow and local media outlets face big financial challenges, everything amid a declining trend in advertising revenue. The grant will help to support the cost of keeping the position of the Editor in Chief, will provide resources to assign Spanish content production to reliable stringer writers, and will support the production of content for print and online. This application asks for $75,000 to also make an investment in the renewal of La Raza’s distribution infrastructure (street boxes) to maintain our community’s access to our content. This grant will mitigate the current news deserts affecting the Chicago Hispanic communities, preserve La Raza’s content production capacity, enhance its online platforms, support its transformation, and keep active a local media outlet that for 53 years has been critical for the defense and empowerment of the Chicago Latinx communities and for the preservation of democracy and free of speech.
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Grant Recipient
KMW Communities LLC
Chicago's East Garfield Park
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Grant Recipient
FOLDED MAP PROJECT
This purpose of this application is to secure general operating funds that will allow Folded Map to solidify its organizational (infra)structure, and thereby position itself to expand the impact of its work. Folded Map’s mission is to be a resident-, advocacy-, and policy-influencing tool inviting audiences to open a dialogue and question how we are all impacted by racial and institutional conditions segregating the city. Together, our projects seek to (1) increase connections, community building, and empathy among students and residents of segregated Chicago across the racial/spatial divide; (2) increase understanding of the structural causes and consequences of a segregated and inequitable Chicago; and (3) catalyze action.
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Grant Recipient
Firehouse Dream Inc
The Firehouse Dream’s Community Mental Health initiatives decrease stigma and increase access to mental health resources in Proviso Township to proactively address the growing mental health crisis that has claimed the lives of several young people in recent years. Funding would go toward mental health workshops, group therapy, pop-up educational events, personal kits, and individual therapy for BIPOC youth. The estimated cost of these activities is about $137,000 a year.
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Grant Recipient
Dion's Chicago Dream Inc NFP
We are seeking this grant to expand our signature program, Dream Deliveries, to bring a year’s worth of food security to an additional 80 households. Dream Deliveries offers fresh produce straight to the doorstep of the food insecure Chicagoland residents it serves. Dream Deliveries provides families with five days’ worth of healthy food options for consumption every week at no cost. Our customers help us choose what fruits and vegetables are in the boxes. We combine our commitment to care with a state-of-the-art logistics operation that allows us to hit as many households as possible in each delivery run. We hire from the community, and we own our own vehicles.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council NFP
The Metro Chicago Good Food Purchasing Initiative (GFPI) is seeking continued support to deepen our work with institutions to improve their procurement processes, provide support to food producers to access these institutional opportunities, and build a good food culture across all community anchor institutions in the Chicago region.
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Grant Recipient
Real Men Charities, Inc.
For over 30 years, Real Men Charities, Inc. (RMC) has been a force and advocate for minority males (particularly African Americans) to help debunk the myth that men are not standing up for their families, our children, and communities. Real Men Charities, Inc. has presented many community forums to support father engagement, restorative justice, health and wellness, and Peace & Possibility pavilions and discussions. Additionally, it runs and operates the Quarry Event Center of Chicago to bring arts and live entertainment to the communities we serve. Additionally, RMC designs, edits, and publishes The South Side Drive magazine, which reaches over 34,000 people through its distributorship. The organization’s mission is Building Healthy Families & Communities. The magazine is designed to be a catalyst for economic development, reflecting a truthful image and examples that demonstrate the art of living. We seek to share the good news about Chicago’s south side and Black culture while serving as the "Guide to the Good Life" in our city. We are 'keepers of the culture' by presenting the voices of the people who are often disenfranchised, marginalized, and undervalued. This magazine captures the essence of the beauty of Black culture, business, health, and lifestyles. RMC seeks a grant award to build capacity, circulation, and a strong digital platform.