Grants

Grant Recipient

BLACK ALPHABET NFP

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Black Alphabet (BA) requests a $20,000 grant to expand our capacity to improve the quality of life among Black people throughout metropolitan Chicago living at the intersection of marginalized racial, sexual orientation, and/or gender identities. BA will use AAL Initiative funds to launch new programs to increase our impact on supporting Black LGBTQ+/SGL people throughout Chicago, including our Professional and Leadership Development Workshop Series, Black LGBTQ+/SGL Young Men Empowerment Retreat, and Freedom Festival Initiative. BA will also use AAL Initiative funds to grow the capacity of our current programs, including our annual Black Alphabet Film Festival, year-round Black LGBTQ+/SGL curated film screening events, Collective Power Artist-in-Residence, and Art Therapy and Transcendental Meditation. With a general operating support grant, we will have the flexibility to apply funds where they are most needed to have the greatest impact. Established 2013, the mission of BA is to promote social equity awareness and education in all aspects of life for the Black LGBTQ+/SGL community through the use of public-facing media and arts programs. BA is the oldest, largest Black-focused LGBTQ+/SGL arts nonprofit in the US. Our focus is on serving Black LGBTQ+/SGL youth on Chicago’s South and West sides. According to the 2019 Chicago LGBTQ Community Needs Assessment, Black LGBTQ+/SGL respondents consider these neighborhoods to be the least safe and supportive. By supporting BA’s programs and initiatives for Black LGBTQ+/SGL Chicago residents, the AALI Fund will advance its mission to convene and catalyze impact in Chicago’s most underserved Black communities.

Grant Recipient

Project OneTen, NFP

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Black and Latino/x boys face the largest education disparities in Chicago and across the country. These inequities have only exacerbated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, aftermath, and recovery. Project OneTen seeks to address the achievement gap between Black and Latino/x boys and their peers through our Freshman Success Program which provides essential and holistic leadership development programming to support Black and Latino/x boys in achieving academic success when transitioning from eighth grade to high school. Through quality mentorship, access to academic coaching, and workshops that focus on cognitive skill development, social and emotional learning, self-awareness, Project OneTen seeks to create an environment where Black and Latino/x students can learn to recognize and engage with supportive leaders and peers, identify their strengths and areas of growth, and feel empowered to be the young leaders they aspire to be on their high school campuses and beyond. Funds from the AALI Fund will support our ability to increase our organization capacity. These funds would support three major components, (1) Recruitment and Community cultivation efforts, (2) training and support for our volunteer mentors, and (3) Exposure opportunities for our young leaders that support their college and career goals. Next year we will evolve our leadership development to incorporate direct college and career exposure opportunities that support students abilities to visualize their dreams and themselves in the future. While we know it all begins freshman year we know it doesn't end here. We want to connect our students to direct opportunities that allows them to color in their dreams and ambitions. Which includes college trips, job shadowing opportunities, Spring break exposure trip, and funds to support independent exploration. Finally, we will invest in our volunteer mentor training and support throughout the program year. Our volunteer mentors play a key role in our program outcomes and the ongoing support of our young leaders. Focusing on a relationships first model, such as the framework created by The Search Institute, we engage five critical elements of developmental relationships: express care, challenge growth, provide support, share power, and expand possibilities. Project OneTen embeds each of these key areas in our program, weaving a strong web of support to prevent students from failing. Mentors focus on social, emotional, and cultural experiences; academic coaches serve as tutors and advisors; Project OneTen leaders develop programs and host workshops where students are exposed to Black and Latino/x leaders spanning diverse sectors; cohort peers give a sense of belonging, shared experiences, and motivation to persist; and parents help reinforce values and capabilities.

Grant Recipient

NEW LIFE CENTERS OF CHICAGOLAND NFP

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $30,000

Grant Recipient

Reflections Foundation

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Pink Hard Hats: Girls in Trades Initiative (PHH) is a targeted program that supports more than 750 girls at 50+ sites in Chicago each year, introducing girls to the wide variety of careers available in the skilled trades, construction, and manufacturing industry. PHH “pushes-in” to all of our Polished Pebbles school and community based programs to connect every girl we engage in the Chicago region to opportunities and careers in the skilled trades. We partner with construction, manufacturing, and engineering companies, industry groups, unions, and corporations to turn our girls' dreams into careers. Our goal is to replace the school to prison pipeline with a school to career pipeline for low-income African American and Latina girls. PHH workforce readiness program is designed to meet the specific needs of Black girls (70% of the girls we serve), providing communication, social emotional, and other “soft” workforce skills, and matching girls with internships and employers. Workforce readiness begins with conflict resolution and communication skills and progresses to interview training, resume preparation, job/internship placement, and retention support. We partner with industry leaders, mostly Black women, to provide career panels, guest speakers, hands-on symposium, and job shadow experiences to form a school to career pipeline and prepare girls for early integration into the workforce in the skilled trades and to set them on a path for family supporting jobs. Your support will allow us to reach more girls of color and provide them with a deep experience via our Pink Hard Hats “push in” trades focused had-on workshops, job shadows, internships, and summer jobs programs to the full 50+ schools and 750+ girls we serve in the Chicago region each year, focusing on Simeon High School to recruit, support and retain girls of color in its Career and Technical Education Program and its feeder middle schools.

Grant Recipient

Lugenia Burns Hope Center Inc

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Lugenia Burns Hope Center, a Black-led organization serving low-income families and seniors in the Bronzeville community, seeks general operating support for community organizing, policy advocacy and leadership development on issues of justice and equity as identified by the community.

Grant Recipient

A Step Ahead Chess

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $10,000

We are at an exciting time at A Step Ahead Chess, where our program is growing and our partnerships are expanding. With over 100 young people on our waiting list, we have a responsibility to grow, and in order to evolve strategically, require more general operating support. One of our primary focuses is to attract and retain highly skilled coaches and managers who can continue to lead our organization and deliver exceptional educational experiences. We understand the challenges facing the educational field, as data indicates a concerning trend of teachers are leaving the profession. To ensure that we can recruit and retain top-notch instructors, we are striving to offer competitive compensation packages that reflect the value and expertise they bring to our organization. In addition to prioritizing quality instructors, we are also committed to promoting diversity and representation within our organization. As a black-led organization, we recognize the importance of hiring and empowering black and brown individuals who can serve as role models for our participants, are passionate about chess education and share our commitment to academic enrichment and STEAM fields. As we celebrate 5 years since our launch in 2018, ASAC continues our dedication to creating an inclusive environment and providing quality programming and joy to youth everywhere.

Grant Recipient

Provident Foundation

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $10,000

The Provident Foundation is seeking a General Operating grant in the amount of $10,000. The Provident Foundation’s mission, vision and activities align with African American Legacy’s Arts and Science focus area. The Provident Foundation recently completed a strategic planning process through the Community Programs Accelerator at the University of Chicago. The foundation is now positioned for growth and is seeking to scale up its activities in order to better fulfill its mission to provide access to education, mentorship and scholarship opportunities for underrepresented Chicago area youth pursuing careers as next generation doctors, nurses, and other health professionals in keeping with the historical legacy of The Provident Hospital and Training School and its founder Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. A General Operating grant from African American Legacy will enable Provident Foundation to continue to build its infrastructure on the path of renewal and growth. Currently, the Provident Foundation is run by a working board consisting of Ryan Priester, Program Officer at MacArthur Foundation as Board Chair; Myetie Hamilton, Executive Director of City Year as Board Vice Chair; Dr. James Woodruff, Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine; Dr. Abdullah Pratt, Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago; and Dr. Ethan Molitch-Hou, Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago. Cheryl Heads, our program administrator, has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She is charged with handling the organization’s day-to-day programmatic and operational functions and working alongside the board of directors to assist in developing long-term organizational strategy, partnerships, and fundraising opportunities. Measures of Progress In order to expand our operations and increase our impact in the coming year, The Provident Foundation is seeking to 1) hire an executive director; 2) develop and expand foundation board of directors; 3) strengthen community engagement and advocacy; 4) expand scholarship and pipeline programs; and 5) build awareness and knowledge of the historical legacy of The Provident Hospital and Training School and its founder Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Goal 1: Hire an Executive Director. Provident Foundation seeks to hire an Executive Director to ensure the organization operates with a sound infrastructure designed to support the organization’s growth. The Executive Director will develop and lead long-term organizational strategy, partnerships, and growth efforts. This position will report to the Board of Directors and will provide direct supervision to key staff members as they are hired. This is a unique time and opportunity in the Provident Foundation’s history, and we seek a new Executive Director to continue to build upon our legacy, be inspired by our mission, and motivated to lead the organization to its next great horizon. Goal 2: Development and expansion of Board of Directors. The board of directors currently acts as a working board, performing volunteer administrative and operational activities in addition to governance. It is the goal of Provident Foundation Board of Directors to become solely a governing body for the foundation once permanent staff are in place. Adding new board members will allow the board to better provide the framework for the organization to achieve its mission and goals, ensure accountability and transparency, manage risk, and maintain the stability and continuity of the organization. Having a highly effective board of directors focused exclusively on governance will also ensure that the organization has the resources and leadership needed to continue its mission and goals, even as board members and staff change over time. Goal 3: Strengthen community engagement and advocacy. The Provident Foundation plans to strengthen its community engagement and advocacy through panel discussions, forums, educational workshops, commissioned reports, and partnerships with organizations doing similar work. Strengthening our community engagement and advocacy can help us identify and understand the specific health needs of communities of color. By engaging with community members, healthcare professionals, and students interested in pursuing careers in the healthcare field, the Provident Foundation can gain a deeper understanding of the social, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to health disparities in our communities. This knowledge can inform the development of targeted programs for our scholarship recipients who are committed to working in under-resourced communities once they have completed their education. Goal 4: Expand Provident Foundation Scholarship Program and other Pipeline Programs. Scholarships awarded through the Provident Foundation Scholarship Program are granted each year to minority students enrolled in their senior year of high school, or in their freshman, sophomore, junior or senior year in college in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, leadership, community service and interest in urban health. Studies prove that African American and Latino medical students are more likely than white students to express the intention to work in high-poverty, minority communities. The Provident Foundation Scholarship Program serves to increase the number of underrepresented minority physicians, nurses and other professionals in the healthcare field. Over the past six years, the Provident Foundation has provided 22 scholarships to students from underrepresented communities pursuing medical careers. As the foundation continues to grow, the number of scholarships awarded will also increase. Increasing the number of scholarships, expanding our mentorship program, and providing support for job readiness and academic enrichment programs will enable us to help more students realize their dreams of becoming doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Goal 5: Build awareness and knowledge of the historical legacy of The Provident Hospital and Training School and its founder Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. The Provident Foundation retains ownership of a rich archive of documents and artifacts from the Provident Hospital and Training School dating back to the late 1800s. A small portion of the archives was on display at the International Museum of Surgical Science a few years ago. The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC is displaying copies of several of our documents. This exhibition showcases the history and remarkable legacy of Provident Hospital and Training School and of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first open heart surgery in 1893. For more than a century, Provident Hospital survived as a private community facility serving those in need of healthcare. Through two World Wars, race riots and national epidemics, thousands of Chicagoans were treated within its walls. The exhibit was created by the Provident Foundation and made its debut October 20, 2001 at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. It is currently housed at Chicago State University under partnership with the foundation. The Provident Foundation will seek opportunities for exhibition as well as a permanent location and modern digitization of the collection for easy online access.

Grant Recipient

Automotive Mentoring Group Inc

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

The Automotive Mentoring Group (AMG) is a non-for-profit 501(c) workforce development program designed to be proactive against gang and gun violence in Chicago. We provide workforce training in the art of automotive restoration of classic cars from the 1930’s to 1972. This includes metal fabrication, paint work, auto interiors, and complete mechanical restoration. The goal is to work with the City’s gang population to reduce shootings, murders, and car jackings in Chicago’s troubled black and brown neighborhoods. AMG helps the participants earn their high school diplomas and enroll in automotive technology programs at community colleges to obtain jobs and apprenticeships in the automotive industry and beyond. Working together with our 83 hiring partners we can place them in well-paying jobs in the automotive industry with a future and hiring commitment of five years. AMG is rebuilding lives one life at a time by helping support black and brown youth and adults develop work and life skills as they restore classic cars. We feel that is important to address the untreated trauma that a lot of these participants have experienced so we have reserved the use of a child psychologist to spend one-on-one counseling time for those who need it to address the mental health issues that many of them have. As many of our mentors are retired law enforcement officers that will be working one-on-one mentoring these young black men and women, the idea is to allow healing between not only the victims of police violence, but also to allow these law enforcement officers to heal in a positive way. We see this as a positive fair exchange and necessary for both sides. Our program continually stresses entrepreneurship where we encourage the participants to work closely together so that they could hopefully start small businesses together. We continuously talk about having a family legacy and the importance of being able to hand something down to their son or daughter. In addition to the many goals we have, through our mentoring efforts and partners we plan to eliminate the desire for these black men to be attracted to gang life in Chicago. We want to reduce the gang population and to have a sizable impact in decreasing the number of shootings and murders in Chicago by teaching the participants to use better reasoning skills and negotiation tools to avoid violence to give them long lasting tools that the next generation will benefit from. We use peace circles to facilitate peace by teaching participants how to peacefully resolve conflict and respect others.