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.
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Grant Recipient
Music Box Foundation
Music Box Foundation is a family run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established in 2011. Our mission is "To be a catalyst for building healthy communities and enriching lives through the power of music and the arts." We provide music education, dance, audio/video recording technology, mentoring and workforce development programs to underserved youth, young adults, and students with disabilities. Since our founding, we have served over 10,000 youth primarily from low-income communities giving access to and participation in music instruction as a creative endeavor, building critical thinking skills, team building and leadership development. The students learn music literacy, music theory, and how to perform popular songs as well as compose their own music and songs on a variety of instruments including percussions, woodwinds, guitar and keyboard. Students also have an opportunity to shadow engineers where they learn how to use sound boards and other equipment both in a studio environment and during live performances. Students learn how to operate video cameras, learn about lighting, production, reproduction and storytelling. Our goal is to unify and strengthen our communities, provide inspiration and purpose to our youth and promote violence prevention by providing a safe space for our students to be their creative selves. We are seeking funding to continue supporting our video/band program located at the Woodlawn facility which is an old Fire station located 6843 S. Harper Ave.
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Grant Recipient
Hello Baby NFP
HelloBaby is a not-for-profit organization with a mission is to support, empower and inspire families raising young children in underserved neighborhoods in Chicago. Our completely free drop-in play center helps underprivileged families enjoy play in a safe and secure center. We have successfully created a culture of community that offers babies a safe and nurturing environment to play.nnHelloBaby was created in 2016 to meet the needs of underserved families in the City of Chicago. Since then, the organization has successfully created a culture of community that offers parents the tools that they need and babies a safe and nurturing environment to play. HelloBaby is the nation’s first (and only) independent, free-of-charge drop-in play space.nnOur proposed project is to develop a play patio area for visitors to enjoy during our warmer seasons. Currently, our center is bright, friendly, and very inviting but our patio area is underdeveloped. We anticipate that this will lead to positive health benefits, both mental and physical, for all that visit.
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Grant Recipient
Coderdojo Chicago NFP
2022 STEM Robotics Course; Funding will be toward required equipment for the students
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Grant Recipient
Open Collective Foundation
This grant will be used for two separate projects. First, it would be used to support the activation of the Love Solar Powered Fridge site in Englewood. The second way funds from the grant would be used is to fund an initiative called "The Culinary Care Kit." The Love Fridge is a community mutual aid project that provides free food and meals for the Chicago community. Approximately 30 fridges are set up across Chicago to provide free food and other common grocery items to populations who are living in low-income, historically disinvested and resource poor neighborhoods. In the winter of 2020, the Love Fridge established its first community Fridge in Englewood at Getting Grown Collective’s Libations to the Ancestors Community Garden. This fridge was initially powered from electricity provided by a neighbor. Unfortunately the neighbor wasn't able to continue to host the electric needs of the fridge. In an effort to maintain this location, the Love Fridge intends to create its first off-grid site using solar power. To make this happen, the fridge will need to be upgraded and the shelter will require modifications. Additionally, the solar capacity will be used to power: radios, cellphones, laptops, lighting, and tool batteries for tools used in the community garden, which supplies food throughout the growing season to the Love Fridge and the greater Englewood Community. The Culinary Care Kits Initiative focuses on improving the user experience for both the chefs from the Full Circle Initiative, as well as any potential users who are interested in learning how to make simple healthy meals with the basic kitchen tools and equipment. One of the ways that we plan to improve user experiences will be through the distribution of the Culinary Care Kits to both unhoused people and people who are housing insecure, as both groups often lack the proper resources to make a good home cooked meal. The Culinary Care Kits will include portable kitchen appliances such as a mini stove, pots/pans, and utensils. We plan on increasing the engagement with the outside users and the Love Fridge organization by creating a page on the Love Fridge website with all the recipes that the Full Circle chefs have created so that both the chefs and outside users will be able to access the recipes at any time. The meals that are shown on the website will consist of common ingredients that can often be found at the various Love Fridges. Additionally, the recipes will be designed so that meals can be prepared using the portable kitchen appliances and tools that are in the Culinary Care Kits. The overall focus of this project is to provide necessary tools and equipment to unhoused or housing insecure people while also providing them with simple and easily accessible instructions to cook healthy chef-inspired meals on their own with the limited resources that they have.
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Grant Recipient
Mindfulness Leader NFP
Mindfulness Leader (ML) centers around education by providing a first-of-its-kind high school elective and after-school program in the City of Chicago dedicated to creating positive changes in the lives of our youth through teaching them the art of Mindfulness. Activities also provide Social and Emotional Learning classes that can be ingrained in their everyday lives. The program currently has over 2,000 children on the waiting list, which is on a first-come-first-serve basis, and the list is growing daily. By the end of 2022 (with the proper funding), we hope to reduce this number significantly. Your generous funding will allow for program expansion so that every child can benefit from Mindfulness Leader.
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Grant Recipient
Saturday Place
If awarded this grant it will be used to create a lending library for our third and fourth-grade students. Our students are enrolled in our program in the third grade being behind 1 or more years academically. They attend classes on Saturdays with us and during this time our reading teachers work with the students who need the most help in a one-to-one setting. The rest of our students attend class in small group settings of no more than 10 students per teacher. The lending library will include high-interest multicultural stories to motivate our students to read at home. It is imperative that our students continue to learn more phonics patterns and sight words and the best way is for them to practice reading independently to be able to read more expressively and fluently.
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Grant Recipient
Center for Impact Research
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Commons