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
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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
Enlace Chicago
Enlace Chicago is requesting consideration for funding for our immigration services. Our services include free Legal Aid Clinics and immigration focused workshops. Enlace collaborates with Beyond Legal Aid to oversee the free Legal Clinic, offering a wide spectrum of services. These services include legal advice, community-based legal education, extended assistance, and full representation in various areas such as immigration, family law, employment/labor, housing, criminal records, public benefits, and consumer issues. Additionally, Enlace offers a range of immigration-related educational workshops and assistance with immigration applications. Our initiative is flexible, adapting to the evolving needs of the community. Our workshop topics include adjustment of status, citizenship, the U-Visa, power of attorney, and know your rights. Our immigration team works closely with local institutions to deliver these workshops and services. We also support these institutions in becoming "sanctuary spaces" for immigrant community members, providing a safe and supportive environment.
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Grant Recipient
Healing to Action
Healing to Action’s mission is to end gender-based violence (GBV) by building the leadership and collective power of the communities most impacted–survivors from immigrant, low-income, disability, LGBTQ+, and communities of color. Through leadership development, grassroots organizing, and movement capacity-building, HTA’s innovative and culturally competent program model directly addresses the systemic barriers, root causes, and cultural stigma that prevent the most marginalized survivors from accessing the support necessary to leave abusive situations and rebuild their lives. Nearly two thirds of our powerful base of survivor leaders are immigrants who identify with a variety of nationalities and ethnicities, including Mexican, Guatemalan, Peruvian, Mongolian, Ecuadorian, Colombian, and Kichwa. Because of this, much of their community leadership activities take place in immigrant communities across Chicago, and particularly with immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. The rest of HTA’s leadership base represents other communities disproportionately impacted by gender-based violence: survivors from Black, Latinx, low-income, LGBTQ+, and disability communities. 100% of survivors in our leadership base identify as low-income, 94% as women of color, 65% as immigrants, and 19% as people with disabilities. Gender-based violence disproportionately impacts all of these communities, further enabling their marginalization, exacerbating their healthcare costs, increasing their likelihood of criminalization, and jeopardizing their economic security. By meeting survivors from non-immigrant communities that are experiencing intersecting forms of marginalization, HTA’s immigrant survivor leaders are able to overcome their isolation and forge powerful relationships across culture, language, and nationality. With the support of Nuestro Futuro funds, this summer we will launch our fourth cohort of Healing Generations and provide 15-20 new survivor-leaders with skill-building, healing support, and leadership development. Healing Generations is an 8 week program that was designed in collaboration with low-income, immigrant, and Latine survivors across the city and helps survivors develop a shared political analysis of the root causes of gender-based violence. Participants develop skills to support survivors in their communities, and learn about community organizing so they can dream and implement new solutions for survivor safety that are grounded in their own experiences and wisdom. Incoming and current HTA survivor-leaders will build community with one another and engage in an arts healing practice during Healing Generations. Current leaders will also provide peer mentorship to incoming graduates and support onboarding new leaders into our active survivor-leader base through the HTA Circle structure. Funds will also support graduates of Healing Generations (both this current and previous cohorts) in using their skills to support other immigrant survivors in their communities. Using a hybrid promotora and grassroots organizing model, HTA’s survivor leaders will plan and implement workshops with immigrants and other low-income communities of color that are dynamic and accessible. In these workshops, they will discuss gender roles and expectations, consent, healthy relationships, and how to have intergenerational and community-centered conversations about gender-based violence to prevent future harm. Survivor leaders will also build awareness and capacity within Chicago Public Schools to support caregivers in talking about gender-based violence at home, and becoming agents of change in their school communities. These activities will be powered by HTA’s close-knit Leader Circles which meet regularly, where survivor leaders set collective goals and assign roles to execute them based on specific skill sets or interest areas that each individual leader wants to develop. Our Community Support Circle bridges together previous and current Healing Generations cohort members to strengthen our network of powerful leaders, identifying areas for continuing education, developing peer support and outreach strategies, mentoring new leaders, promoting relationship-building, and recruiting future cohort participants. In our Organizing Circle, survivor-leaders develop strategies and tactics to build community voice to address gender-based violence through grassroots outreach, narrative work, civic education, and working with community institutions. Some of our target goals and objectives for 2024 include: Goal 1: Deepen HTA’s powerful peer-to-peer network for isolated survivors through leadership development and peer outreach a. Through Healing Generations 8-week leadership program, 12-18 survivors deepen their understanding of the root causes of gender-based violence. b. HTA leaders co-facilitate at least 40% of sessions of the Healing Generations Leadership Program and mentor at least 50% of new cohort members. d. Through a collective arts healing opportunity, HTA fosters connection and community-building between new cohort members and existing leaders. e. HTA survivor leaders facilitate 2-3 workshops to connect with new communities of marginalized survivors. Goal 2: Create a blueprint for building the capacity of school communities to support youth in preventing gender-based violence a. Through a three-part train-the-trainer program, 5-10 caregivers at Parent University Networks 7 and 8 (a majority immigrant community with a large influx of newly arrived migrant families) understand critical components of sexual health and consent education and commit to training other caregivers. b. Through 1-2 healing cafecitos, 3-8 parent leaders at Walsh Elementary (a majority immigrant community with a large influx of newly arrived migrant families) will deepen their understanding of gender-based violence and sexual health and foster parent support with one another; building a sense of belonging and community. C. 3-8 Walsh parent leaders will develop and execute organizing strategies for advancing sexual health and prevention education through 1-3 strategy/action-planning sessions and bi-monthly 1/1s with HTA. Goal 3: Provide intensive leadership development and healing support to HTA survivor leaders through ongoing skill-building and healing retreats so they can effectively initiate peer-led dialogues in their communities a. HTA strengthens leaders' facilitation, public speaking, and outreach skills through offering 3-4 training opportunities in leader circle meetings. b. Through 3 retreats, HTA leaders learn 1-2 healing modalities/skills they can use to build relationships with each other, regulate stress, and sustain their leadership over time. c. Through quarterly 1/1s with each HTA leader, HTA's organizers will provide individualized support so leaders can achieve personal growth while contributing to collective Circle goals. Goal 4: Break isolation and stigma and connect immigrant survivors to HTA’s community of support through leveraging P2P network to reach marginalized survivors in target communities a. As trusted access points, HTA leaders hold 350 conversations about gender-based violence with community members. b. HTA leaders receive 150 disclosures from survivors, and provide 125 referrals to resources.
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Grant Recipient
Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors
NIJFON's vision is a world where all immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are welcomed, supported and able to live without fear. NIJFON works towards its vision everyday through its mission of providing free immigration legal services to low income immigrants throughout Northern Illinois, providing education and advocacy on immigrant rights and building cross cultural communities. Racist systems perpetuate the advancement of immigrants by keeping them in poverty, silent and vulnerable. NIJFON works on uplifting immigrants and integrating them into society by providing them the opportunity to have their day in court and building a quality of life through just policy while challenging and dismantling racist systems. NIJFON fights against harmful legislation that threatens to permanently separate immigrant families, educates and trains on the challenges faced with the immigration system, and advocates to increase political will to make needed reforms. NIJFON's respectfully requests operating funds of $20,000 to support much needed free legal immigration services. Support will help us fund legal services for immigrants seeking relief throughout cook county and collar counties throughout Northern Illinois. With this request, NIJFON will continue to increase its legal capacity, education and advocacy to protect immigrant rights, support new legal intake and continue to lower its caseload, allowing our legal team to provide free consultations and immigration legal services throughout the year. With this funding NIJFON can help clients with humanitarian cases in areas with little or no access to legal services. NIJFON also continues to respond to the increasing needs of recent arrivals, partnering with organizations to provide Temporary Protected Status and Employment Authorization applications, educate on the asylum system and processes, and help recent arrivals get access to benefits for asylum seekers, a free legal consultation or referral. NIJFON also understands that it is extremely important to continue to advocate for the rights and protections of the long term undocumented immigrant population that has been in the United States for 10, 15 and 20 + years in the shadows. It is urgent that as we help and support recent arrivals, we continue to build the advocacy around the broken immigration system that is unjust and unfair and keeps 11 million plus individuals in the shadows, with no access to benefits, health care, work authorization, legal status and citizenship (among many other things) depriving them of living a good quality of life and making them vulnerable to fraud, injustices and unsafe work conditions that have cost many immigrants their lives.
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Grant Recipient
CENTRO ROMERO
Centro Romero is seeking $20,000 in grant funds for our Community Navigator program, which trains and empowers members of all ages to be pillars of their own immigrant communities through education and outreach.
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Grant Recipient
DISABILITY LEAD
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Grant Recipient
FAMILY SERVICE & MENTAL HEALTH CENTER OF CICERO
For over a century, Family Service and Mental Health Center of Cicero (“Family Service”) has provided supportive, affordable, and accessible services, primarily to Spanish-speaking clients in Western Cook County, a large number of whom are immigrants. Journeying Together was created as our response to the alarming rates of unaddressed mental health problems experienced by Spanish-speaking migrants in the Chicago area. Using an efficient, cost-effective model that accesses migrants through area congregations already serving them (for food, housing, legal, and other needs), we address the trauma and related diagnoses they live with. The requested $20,000 will be allocated entirely to cover clinical staffing for the program.
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Grant Recipient
FOX VALLEY UNITED WAY
Requested funds will enable Fox Valley United Way to provide more Aurora children from marginalized populations with equal access to exemplary early childhood care and education. SPARK serves Aurora, Illinois’ second largest city. Children under 5 are 10% of the total population, which is higher than average. More than 44% (8,400) of these children live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, and there are 12,000 young children with all available parents in the workforce. Although some affordable early childhood education/care programs are available, such as Early/Head Start, Preschool for All, and Prevention Initiative, the 2,400 slots in these programs falls far short of the need. Accessing such opportunities is also difficult for parents from marginalized groups. For example, Aurora has the state's second largest population of refugees, immigrants, and asylees; 42% of the population is Hispanic/Latine; and 6,214 children under five live in households isolated by language (primarily Spanish-speaking households). Requested funds will help SPARK fill these gaps and facilitate access to resources by • Ensuring families are aware of the importance of early learning and connecting them with programs and services; • Coordinating efforts among the school districts’ early childhood programs, Head Start, child care providers, and other early learning programs to maximize impact/efficiency; and • Supporting quality improvement in early childhood education/care programs and expansion of formal and informal early learning opportunities. Specific initiatives will include the following: • Gateway to Early Childhood Programs (Gateway): A single point of entry where Aurora families can go to help them navigate the complexities of learning about and enrolling in early childhood programs and resources; • Bright Beginnings: A prenatal to age 3 initiative in partnership with local hospitals; • Family Resource Center: Resources and hands-on support for early learning offered by SPARK staff to parents and children at the Northern Lights Youth and Community Center on the east side of Aurora. • Bright by Text: A text service for parents with information, resources, and opportunities to support healthy child development; • Playgroups: Parent-child activities offered at housing sites to support early learning/development for families served by the Aurora Housing Authority and World Relief. • Developmental Screenings: Free screening in overall development, speech/language, motor skills, hearing, and health and connection to resources, as needed. During FY25 (7/1/24-6/30/25), SPARK expects that it will increase the number of parents reached to 8,192 and the number of children reached to 4,193. This will include connecting at least 30 new families to early childhood resources through the Bright Beginnings program and adding 10 new playgroups. SPARK anticipates that 80% of survey respondents/focus group participants will report increased knowledge and confidence in supporting their child’s learning; engagement in developmentally appropriate learning activities with their child at home; and increased awareness of early childhood and family services and resources. In addition, 75% of families who complete a Gateway interview will be referred to early childhood programs/services and 80% of children will participate in their first developmental screening.
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Grant Recipient
Partners for Our Communities (POC)
POC provides culturally competent services for Immigration relief and wrap-around services for immigrant individuals and families, which is vital to the growth and success of our local economy in the wake of increased newcomers to the suburbs. More importantly, North Suburban Cook County has been home to thousands of immigrants over the last 20 years who still need legal services to become citizens, including DACA, U-VISA, Temporary Protected Status, guardianships, and more. With your general operating support, POC will pilot a legal clinic that provides pathways to self-sufficiency by adding this much-needed service that gets to the root cause of immigrants’ lives in poverty. POC will also provide community workshops and events to help newcomers acclimate to IL, know their rights, TPS, renter’s rights, etc. POC has provided these services for over 30 years and prides itself on giving a voice to this unique population through immigration relief, leadership development, skill building, mental health support, and providing access to basic needs. POC has built relationships with networks across Illinois that focus on immigrant rights, advocating for better laws and policies so clients and affected staff have equitable opportunities to live a healthy life, contributing positively to the greater community.