Paving the Path to Homeownership for Housing Choice Voucher Holders
Since the mid-20th century, homeownership has been one of the most important vehicles for building wealth in the United States. According to research from the…
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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
CITY COLLEGES OF CHICAGO FOUNDATION
There is a strong interest among incumbent workers in Chicago’s major healthcare employers (Rush University Medical Center, Northwestern Medicine, Advocate Aurora Health among others) to move from entry level roles such as patient care technicians (PCTs) into nursing careers. For example, in a 2023 Workforce & Organizational Research Center (WORC) survey, although respondents reported generally high levels of job satisfaction, most reported larger career aspirations and many viewed their current roles as stepping stones to roles that offer greater earning potential than their current roles. This interest could provide a sizable growth in personal income – from a starting wage of $21.86 for PCTs to an average of $39.09/hour for registered nurses (RN) – while simultaneously strengthening a key Chicago economic sector. While a number of workforce development initiatives seek to engage incumbent workers in upskilling, these initiatives too often do not optimize student success by identifying, assessing, and addressing upfront the intersectional needs of students, employers, and educational institutions. This City Colleges’ project, in collaboration with healthcare industry workforce organizations and local employers, seeks to assess and address these student success factors associated by implementing a Patient Care Technician (PCT) to Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) Pathway Program. Completion will allow individuals to take the National Council for Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses and move into an RN role. The City Colleges of Chicago Foundation requests $200,000 in grant funds from the Chicago Community Trust to support the initial phases of development and recruitment for a PCT to ADN Pathway Program, establishing a solid foundation for launch. Specifically, funding will support the City Colleges of Chicago and its healthcare partners with tools to identify, screen, and build a support system for PCTs who wish to enroll in the PCT to ADN Pathway Program and achieve greater household wealth. This is a tangible, achievable way that we can collaboratively increase the financial security and health of incumbent workers primarily from Black and Latinx communities.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Women in Trades
Systemic barriers have historically excluded women and people of color—particularly Black individuals—from the construction trades workforce. In Cook County, less than 5 percent of trades apprentices are women, and only 6 percent of Chicago construction workers are African Americans. The Chicago Construction Workforce Equity Coalition, led by Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT), has drafted comprehensive ordinance language in collaboration with tradeswomen of color, minority contractor organizations, and other industry stakeholders. The Chicago Construction Workforce Equity Ordinance takes concrete action to improve access to and retention in the construction trades for underrepresented groups, requires the City to provide the staffing and resources to implement and enforce new requirements, brings all industry stakeholders together to assist with oversight, and requires public reporting of data to provide accountability on performance. Chicago Women in Trades recently succeeded in introducing and getting HB 3400 passed by the Illinois State Legislature in May 2023 to increase state data transparency, thanks to sponsors, Representative Will Davis, Leader Mattie Hunter, and Representative Will Guzzardi. This bill became state law and requires the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) to issue quarterly reports by project and by contractor on the workforce of public works projects that include race, ethnicity, and gender information by trade, skill level, and hours worked—providing workforce data transparency that will lead to accountability to under-represented communities. Fueled by state and federal spending on infrastructure, large scale local projects, and investment in pre-apprenticeship training, opportunity has never been greater to make progress for people of color and women in the trades than it is right now. Now is the time to leverage this legislative victory, momentum, and opportune season so that the City of Chicago provides solutions to racial and gender inequities in the construction trades. Chicago Community Trust funding will alleviate the strain on the coalition’s existing resources and capacity by helping fund lobbying and advocacy efforts as well as marketing and public education initiatives.
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Grant Recipient
North Lawndale Employment Network
North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) is a place-based, nonprofit workforce development organization whose mission is to increase the earnings potential of the North Lawndale community of Chicago through innovative employment initiatives that lead to economic advancement and an improved quality of life. NLEN is more than a workforce development agency; we are a social justice organization that uses innovative employment initiatives to undo the devastating impact of historic disinvestment on Chicago’s West Side. Through our neighborhood-based employment initiatives that address the root causes of poverty, NLEN works to bridge the racial wealth gap and serves as a driving force for social equity and racial healing on Chicago’s West Side. NLEN is committed to solving the problem of unemployment among men and women with criminal backgrounds and individuals impacted by poverty and gun violence. As an experienced practitioner and trusted subject matter expert, NLEN collaborates with community stakeholders to lift families and communities out of poverty to reduce gun violence and recidivism. Our 24-year history of successfully managing placed-based initiatives that deliver employment and supportive services to residents recovering from the effects of mass incarceration and chronic exposure to gun violence has proven to interrupt the cycle of violence. NLEN provides integrated job readiness, employment training, career pathway development, job placement, and retention services – with wraparound and barrier reducing support – that begin with a comprehensive orientation and enrollment process, participant assessment, and individual employment plans (IEPs); and continues with case management, supportive service coordination, and occupational skills training. Our unique programming leads to upskilling and certifications for participants, ensuring program graduates are equipped with the hard and soft employment skills, along with industry-recognized credentials, which lead to family-sustaining jobs, long-term employment success, and economic advancement. NLEN assesses each program participant to customize the wraparound support needed to address barriers to program participation, training, and sustained employment. Supportive services include healthcare and mental health support, financial coaching and services, housing and homeless prevention services, civil legal aid, transportation, work uniforms, tools, supplies, tuition, books, and digital literacy training. As a core component of our job readiness program, occupational skills training, and job placement services, NLEN’s Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) contributes to the bundled support of program participants, supporting their financial wellness and economic advancement. The FOC team includes certified financial wellness coaches that lead the intake and assessment process; work closely with our Client Solution Specialists to coordinate wraparound supports; provide one-on-one coaching to establish financial goals and create and implement financials plans; and provide financial and digital literacy workshops.
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Grant Recipient
Southland Development Authority NFP
The Southland Development Authority respectfully requests FEBG grant support for its Business Growth Services division, and in particular programs designed to increase access to capital for the Southland’s small businesses. This programming includes 1-on-1 coaching, counseling, and mentorship, as well as cohort training programs, events, webinars, and panels.
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Grant Recipient
Bridges From School to Work Inc.
Bridges from School to Work (Bridges) improves employment and career outcomes for young adults with disabilities ages 18 to 21. We provide a full continuum of workforce development services, including intake, assessment, employability skills, mentoring, job search, career exploration, help with job applications and résumés, job development, and job matching. These services aim to culminate in competitive, unsubsidized employment for 80% of enrolled youth, including 12 months of post-hire follow-up and ongoing case management. Through the Bridges program, youth with disabilities prepare for, obtain, and advance in jobs that help them develop an identity, find a purpose, grow in self-confidence, gain economic empowerment, and increase their prospects for social mobility. Evidenced-based interventions with youth with disabilities at this crucial transitional phase between high school and young adulthood can improve their prospects for lifelong workforce attachment, increased earnings, and overall health and wellbeing. In addition to Bridges services that culminate in employment for older youth, we are piloting classroom-based instructional sessions for younger youth, specifically high school sophomores and juniors ages 15 to 17, on the topics of self-advocacy, job exploration counseling, and workplace readiness training.
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Grant Recipient
The University of Chicago - Office of Civic Engagement
The Chicago Community Trust (CCT) and the University of Chicago Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) have a shared commitment to building a thriving, equitable, and connected Chicago. Aligned to CCT’s Building Collective Power strategy, OCE requests a one-year, $50,000 grant renewal to advance the Civic Actor Studio (CAS) in 2024-2025. The Civic Actor Studio neatly aligns with CCT’s Building Collective Power strategy’s goals to shape leaders by strengthening their ability to address the complex systemic problems their communities face, enhance the influence of hyper-local community leaders who are addressing long-standing structural barriers, and build broader connections among community leaders to promote collaboration toward addressing complex societal issues. The Civic Actor Studio (CAS) at the University of Chicago is a leadership retreat for established and emerging civic leaders, led in partnership with Court Theatre, that connects disparate civic actors — non-profit leaders, educators, funders, media, and UChicago faculty and staff — to examine the various leadership roles they play, engage in civic dialogue, and “practice” the embodiment of civic leadership so that they have increased self-efficacy in their work and can build social capital among groups. Participants read dramatic texts and take part in theater-based exercises and discussions, creating scenes on stage designed to help civic actors access their voice, power, and the wide range of “characters” they embody. Launched in 2018, the Office of Civic Engagement and Court Theatre partnered to develop this new leadership development platform. In 2024, CCT renewal funding will help support the advancement of two CAS cohorts, serving 50 civic actors, as well as enable CAS to extend its program activities to include additional workshops and convenings. OCE will also plan and deliver training for facilitators to help expand the bench of those playing a leadership role in CAS.
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Grant Recipient
University of Chicago Urban Labs
The University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab (IEL) is working to eliminate the racial wealth gap in Chicago by removing financial barriers to postsecondary success for students of color. Thanks to generous support from the Trust, IEL published a report in partnership with Chicago Public Schools’ Office of College and Career Success (OCCS) in 2024 which described the role that unmet financial need and concerns about student debt play in constraining the college choices of CPS students. IEL also conducted, in partnership with the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office (ILSTO), a randomized controlled trial and survey research to test whether offering seed deposits can increase the rate at which households of color participate in the State’s 529 college savings program. These findings will be published and disseminated in winter 2024. For the next stage of our work, IEL will broker an institutional partnership between OCCS and ILSTO to understand the impact of automatically creating 529 accounts with larger deposits on students’ postsecondary aspirations, parental investments in their children’s education, and ultimately students’ postsecondary enrollment and persistence. This project will build upon the existing literature on college savings accounts and dovetail with growing excitement around Baby Bonds as a tool for reducing racial wealth gaps. The Inclusive Economy Lab will convene a community advisory group to ensure that parents and students of color and advocates inform the research questions, the methods, and the implementation. Additionally, IEL will work with ILSTO and OCCS to increase local knowledge of administering 529 accounts by inviting representatives from other states who have recently experimented with opt-out strategies, matching mechanisms, and seeding to present their learnings to Chicago and Illinois policymakers, funders, and community members. We will encourage our partners to share their learnings with their own networks, including but not limited to the National Association of State Treasurers and the National Association of College Admissions Counseling.
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Grant Recipient
Field Foundation of Illinois, Inc.
Field Foundation is seeking renewed support of up to $350,000 for our work in Journalism and Storytelling in Chicago. At Field Foundation, we are doubling down on our mission to change how news production and storytelling reflect Chicago and to create a more equitable, connected and inclusive media ecosystem. We know that a nation grappling with diminishing sources of local news — more than a fifth of Americans now living in news deserts, an average of two newspapers vanishing weekly — has seen a growing divide between those with access to credible news, and those without. We also know traditionally underserved communities are those most disenfranchised by the void of reliable, timely news, information and narratives reflective of and specific to those communities. Through our established grant-making process, Field has centered Chicago voices, organizations and communities plagued by significant disinvestment, which historically have been BIPOC communities on the city’s South and West sides. By enhancing coverage of and content created by, for and about these communities in our “heat map,” we help journalism and storytelling entities examine and propel possible solutions to Chicago’s most pressing social issues, from the racial wealth divide to community development. With a historic presidential election looming, these entities are valiantly working to spotlight systemic inequities in a nation “moving on” from the racial reckoning of 2020, and an accompanying erosion of civil and legal rights, and we believe it critical to continue generously supporting coverage by, of, and for those most affected by these issues. Now is the time to deepen our commitment to this precious group of journalists and storytellers, and support justice and equity.