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.
Explore Our Discretionary Grants
Showing 4911–4918 of 3961 results
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Grant Recipient
HOUSING FORWARD
Housing Forward is requesting $150,000 in general operating funds from the Chicago Community Trust to further our vision of ending homelessness and our mission of bringing people out of housing crisis and into housing stability. Flexible funding from foundations like the Trust will be utilized to support programs, staffing, and other administrative costs as needed to fulfill our mission for all 2,000 of our existing clients each year, particularly as we work to expand our own congregate shelter and supportive housing options available to our clients.
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Grant Recipient
University of Chicago Urban Labs
Safe and stable housing allows people to live with security and dignity. It also provides the stability necessary to invest in themselves and their communities. Unfortunately, housing is not considered a right or entitlement in the United States: only 26 percent of households who are eligible for housing assistance receive some form of support due to chronic underfunding of these programs. At the same time, the supply of affordable housing has dramatically declined in recent decades, creating a permanent housing affordability gap for a vast majority of low-income households. The challenge of finding affordable housing is particularly acute for returning residents, who face additional barriers to accessing subsidized housing and pronounced discrimination in the labor market. For these and other reasons, people who are exiting incarceration are at extremely heightened risk of experiencing homelessness as compared to other residents, particularly within the first month of release. Stable housing is critically important for returning residents to successfully reintegrate into the community and, notably, is required to avoid reincarceration; “insufficient housing” is considered a parole violation. Despite the clear need for services to address a wide range of foundational housing and additional supports for this population, there is very limited evidence on what types of programs help returning residents find stable housing. There is rich ethnographic data on the barriers returning residents face when trying to find stable housing and reintegrate into the community, but much less information on how existing pilots or programs may be falling short of addressing these barriers and meeting returning residents’ complex support needs. The Cook County Justice Advisory Council (JAC) and City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) have both secured funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to launch pilots focused on addressing the housing needs of returning residents. Each program offers a short-term housing subsidy and wraparound supportive services. JAC and DFSS both believe that stable housing is pivotal to promoting economic mobility for residents, allowing them to obtain and retain employment. They further expect that residents’ well-being will improve and their probability of recidivating will decrease. Given the limited guidance from existing research, as well as the fact that these innovative pilots are both new programs for each respective agency, JAC and DFSS have invited the Inclusive Economy Lab (IEL) to serve as an analytic partner and help them understand in real-time whether these programs are meeting their stated goals. IEL is proposing two complementary research components to better understand how these programs are serving returning residents: 1. A process evaluation, for which IEL will co-design a data dashboard with the JAC to help them understand whether programming is meeting important interim metrics, such as lease up rates, length of time required to find housing, and participant levels of engagement in supportive services (note: DFSS has already developed a similar dashboard internally, which can serve as an important model) 2. Qualitative data collection from those directly impacted, including program participants, service providers, parole officers, and landlords, to glean insight into the successes and challenges that each group is experiencing through their participation in the respective programs. Partners will use these quantitative and qualitative to improve their programming in real-time, helping ensure the success of these two specific pilots, and will also use lessons learned to inform the design of future programs, should the pilots be sustained and scaled. IEL will facilitate a community of practice with the two agencies that will meet on a quarterly basis, allowing partners to reflect on these insights and identify implications for ongoing program design and administration in real time. IEL will compile a policy brief with key findings from the pilots and lessons learned in the Community of Practice by August 2026. (Note: the timeline for this project is two years, extending one year beyond the one-year CCT grant.)
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Grant Recipient
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Chicago is a highly-ranked public institution whose mission is to provide access to excellence for a highly diverse student population. The largest university in the Chicago area, UIC has 33,522 students enrolled in its 16 colleges. The 2024 rankings from U.S. News & World Report recognize the University of Illinois Chicago as one of the top public universities in the country. UIC tied for 40th among public national universities and tied for 82nd among the top 100 national universities overall. The rankings reflect improvements of two and 15 spots, respectively, over UIC’s previous rank. UIC made its most significant jump in the category of the most innovative schools, reaching 46th. UIC is tied with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and others in this category. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report ranked UIC 16th among the nation’s top performers in social mobility. The category measures the extent to which universities enrolled and graduated students receive federal Pell Grants (given to students whose total family incomes are less than $50,000 annually). The university is also ranked 37th (tie) for campus ethnic diversity, 46th in least debt, 46th (tie) in economic diversity, and 50th (tie) among the best colleges for veterans. In the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2024 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking, UIC ranked 13th among U.S. public universities and 55th overall. The rankings also measure social mobility, where UIC placed 8th among all public and private universities. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is proud to educate a large percentage of Chicago's college-bound, minoritized, Pell-eligible, and first-generation students. Despite robust student success programs across campus and inclusive teaching initiatives among the academic units, LAS has identified an equity gap in first-to-second-year retention of Black and Latinx students. This equity gap is further deepened when considering the Pell-eligible and first-generation status. Students in these populations who enter their first year of study with a developmental placement in Mathematics, Chemistry, or English and/or students who come as "undecided" see a further impact on their retention rate. In sum, students who enroll at UIC and LAS with two or more of these characteristics are substantially more "at risk" of not being retained as sophomores. In general, we see a retention gap between 10% and 38% for this student population, depending on the number of characteristics they have. Under the oversight of the Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs and the LAS Office for Student Success and Retention Initiatives, the Become a Strategic Learner Program (BSLP) — which includes the BSLP Academic Study Skills Online Course and Workshop Series, the implementation of Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) assessments in the LAS 110 first-year seminar, and the LAS 120 Major Exploration and Career Development Course—aims to substantially reduce this retention equity gap by offering a holistic focus on higher education literacy, academic skills attainment, major exploration, and career development aligned with students' strengths and interests during their first year of college. By focusing on academic study skills, major exploration, and career readiness, the Become a Strategic Learner Program will reduce the first-to-second-year retention gap and accelerate time to graduation for this student population, thus decreasing their loan burden, setting them up for successful job placements in their career of choice, and boosting their early career earning potential.
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Grant Recipient
South Suburban PADS
South Suburban PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), or SSPADS, greatly appreciates the past years of support of the Chicago Community Support to prevent and end homelessness in the South Suburbs of Chicago. We respectfully request renewed and increased support of $100,000 under the Addressing Critical Needs, Essential Services for Housing Stability RFP. Our approach to sustainable housing stability will provide the following services to roughly 2,000 people and 800 households in the Southland: homelessness prevention (or diversion), street outreach, emergency shelter, intensive case management, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and local and state-wide homelessness advocacy efforts through key collaborations and partnerships.
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Grant Recipient
The Dusable Black History Museum and Education Center
As a historically underserved African American institution based in the historically underserved south side of Chicago, The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center formally requests general operating funds to support our exhibit maintenance, archive digitization, and development department efforts. All of these efforts continue to strengthen the museum’s organizational capacity, community relations, and staff professional development.
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Grant Recipient
Reform for Illinois
General operating funds request for Reform for Illinois, with an emphasis on Fair Elections public campaign financing for Chicago, June 2024 grant cycle.
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Grant Recipient
Urban Gateways
Urban Gateways’ 63-year commitment continues, as we connect the next generation of artists and change makers with opportunities to amplify their voice and expand their imaginations. As Chicago’s premier access point for youth arts experiences city-wide, Urban Gateways is proud to be an innovator of arts integration in the classroom, to foster and facilitate future arts patrons, and to provide tools, training, and access for developing artists and multimedia specialists. Urban Gateways generates multiple access points for engaging, relevant arts experiences through collaborative community partnerships and by empowering young creatives to claim their narratives as the critical change agents our world needs. Mission Urban Gateways engages young people in arts experiences to inspire creativity and impact social change. Organizational Values We support artists. Artists are the soul of our work and without them we would not be able to fulfill our mission: we hold ourselves accountable to their voices. We honor artists and their creative practice by centering the impact of the arts on local communities. We nurture wonder. The power of the arts lives in the exploration of possibility. We believe that the most provocative art and experiences begin with questions, and we honor the vulnerability and courage it takes to create and share. We encourage learning through curiosity to imagine new ways of expressing and being. We cultivate inclusion. All people are full of creative promise. The arts are essential for cultural exchange, expanding our worldview, protesting inequity, and advancing social justice. We foster a sense of belonging by intentionally listening, and by supporting diverse voices, experiences, and stories to value every person and honor their contributions. We are collaborators. We connect young people, artists, and arts experiences; these links lay the foundation for inspired artmaking and for actionable social change through the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and resources. We aim to forge lasting partnerships built on integrity and reciprocity. Urban Gateways has created several pathways for youth to interact with the arts in accordance with their age and interests. The aim of all Urban Gateways learning goals is to increase artistic literacy, develop four key areas of the artistic process (creating, producing, responding, and connecting), generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work, and organize and develop artistic ideas and work using arts learning metrics as proposed by the National Core Arts Standards and the Illinois Arts Learning Standards. Urban Gateways supports Chicago’s young people through the following core programs: Instruction Programs: Multi-disciplinary artist residencies, workshops, and teacher professional development programs connect K-12 students and their teachers with many of Chicago’s most experienced Teaching Artists specializing in music, dance, theater, visual arts, literary arts, and media arts. Touring Performances: Urban Gateways features a roster of 30 performance groups that support broader cultural and social awareness by bringing artistic expressions from world cultures directly to young people as a celebration of our shared humanity. Performances also build an essential pipeline for Chicago’s future artists and audiences that sustains Chicago’s reputation as a world-class arts and culture destination. Street Level: Recognizing that few media spaces exist that are youth-led and youth-centered, Street Level provides free access for young people to nurture their unique creative voice utilizing technology and media through journalism, music production, and youth clubs. Street Level activities, including podcasting, filmmaking, anime, and other forms of media revolve around topics that young participants identify as relevant to their interests and experiences, such as code-switching and the impact of systemic racism. Teen Arts Pass (TAP): Teen Arts Pass (TAP) enables teens to purchase day-of-show tickets to 26 cultural venues for the extremely reduced cost of $5 or for free to enable young people to attend live performances under a model of unprecedented access and inclusion. TAP includes arts partners that represent all performing arts disciplines, institutional sizes, and diverse geographic locations to foster broad program access and inclusion.
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Grant Recipient
Law Center for Better Housing
The Law Center for Better Housing or LCBH meets the needs defined in the Sustainable Solutions for Housing Stability RFP by providing free legal and supportive services to renters facing eviction. LCBH is Chicago’s only legal aid organization that focuses its work exclusively on protecting renters’ rights. In 2023, LCBH served nearly 20,000 households at risk of eviction. Our programs reached renters in all 77 Chicago community areas and throughout suburban Cook County. LCBH requests a $150,000 grant to strengthen its organizational capacity to manage innovative programs that empower tenants to use chatbot technology to solve landlord disputes before an eviction is filed; protect renters in eviction court by providing them access to attorneys and emergency rental assistance; and advance housing justice by collaborating with the courts, government agencies, and community organizations to make Chicago’s eviction courtrooms more equitable.