Grants

Grant Recipient

Friends of the Highwood Public Library

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $30,000

Highwood Library & Community Center's Camino a la Escuela program is a early literacy program that utilizes an established school readiness curriculum to provide children aged 0-6 with the social, emotional, cognitive and linguistic support they need and parents with the parent engagement support and education they need for children to enter school ready to succeed. The program provides the foundation needed to foster a level of comfort with structured learning and prepares children to succeed in the school learning environment. We respectfully request $20,000 in general operating support to provide this program to marginalized Latino/a/x families in the Highwood community. The Highwood Library & Community Center also seeks $20,000 to implement expressive play therapy and art therapy to provide evidence-based, age-appropriate therapies to a community struggling with trauma, fear, anxiety, abandonment and extreme poverty. This will allow preschool to adolescent aged children to access free mental health services without the stigma typically associated with therapy.

Grant Recipient

TELPOCHCALLI COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROJECT INC

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Telpochcalli Community Education Project (Tcep) is the only resource center in Little Village providing its residents with comprehensive direct services; opportunities to develop skills that ensure their active participation in decisions directly affect their well-being; and support in their efforts to secure political, economic, and social equity. Founded in 1998, and organized in 2002 as a 501c3, it has grown from a small agency dedicated to improving neighborhood educational opportunities to a full-service agency serving more than 5,000 community residents annually. Tcep centers its work in four specific areas – Essential Services, the Call Center, Training/Workshops, and Mentorship Projects. In addition, the agency identifies residents’ needs and undertakes significant advocacy efforts on their behalf through its participation in many networks and citywide and state coalitions. Tcep addresses its day-to-day program delivery and long-range planning by putting a high value on: the capacity of individuals to have a collective impact on and responsibility for their own well-being and that of their communities; the importance of valuing the culture and traditions of all residents; and the priority of working collaboratively to build consensus.

Grant Recipient

Highwood Public Library

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $25,000

Grant Recipient

Immigrant Solidarity Dupage

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Immigrant Solidarity DuPage is a grassroots immigrant rights organization in Dupage County founded in 2007 after the "mega-marchas" in Chicago made us see clear the need for the first west suburban immigrant rights organization. A front of fronts, ISD as suburban community organizers---- is committed to building community power first forging unity, audacity and creativity in the west suburban Latinx immigrant community and a commitment internal democracy, leadership and team work while transforming the suburban economy, public opinion and soul into one of inclusion, equality and solidarity. We seek with the Nuestro Futuro grant to launch the Casa Dupage Immigration Law Clinic and Community Leadership Project to boost our Casa DuPage Center's (311 S. Naperville Rd. Wheaton) access to immigration rights and services with a free immigration law clinic which will allow the community access to 1) quality immigration law counsel free of cost, twice a month 2) workshops, citizenship clinics and seminars on immigration law 3) trusted legal aid / our long time attorney/ collaborator Ashley Kent, one of the few Black immigration attorneys and known community ally having worked with us for 5 years as many of attorneys have failed us and our community, while building the community's leadership capacity. Ashley's firm, the Arrivals Group of Wheaton, also allows ISD capacity with free legal aid with staff in the spheres of tenant's rights, worker rights and workplace comp, family law, etc. We seek to build this clinic as need is growing for immigration law and legal services with high levels of poverty left in our community in the wake of COVIDs impact on our community. Meanwhile as the struggle is ever more acute for those without documents given the pandemic: poverty, depression, spousal abuse, deportations rising, etc--- we struggle tooth and nail for immigration reform holding on to hope for the possibility of immigration reform of some kind this year and with that the need for community immigration services. At the same time, we fear that, interacting with our base, and from what we hear from them, our community is being ripped off left and right by unscrupulous lawyers, "notarios" and plastic-immigration attorneys that advertise on Spanish-language media especially here in the suburbs. We seek with this grant to launch the Casa DuPage Legal Aid Clinic to take on the growing case load of immigration cases, be able to allow access to free legal services particularly for the undocumented who do know qualify for Prairie State Legal Services and other 501c3 and transform the community by winning U-Visas, residencies and fighting back against deportations. Meanwhile with regular know your rights workshops on immigration law related themes, we can raise the awareness and conscience of the community as we struggle for just and comprehensive immigration reform as an organization-- building May-Day, lobbying politicians and taking on the not so infrequent instances of xenophobic attacks in the west-suburbs against immigrants including Latinx, Anti-Semitic, and Anti-Moslem. Meanwhile ISD has also stood with and been in the struggle of our Black brothers and sisters, and any attack or struggle, we have been there. In addition, as a secondary focus with the grant funds, ISD seeks to build our capacity as an organization that celebrates, teaches and incubates community leadership development both internally and community-wide. Cristobal Cavazos, Gabriela Hernandez and Rafael Vieyra from ISD have all studied, lectured on and sought to bring community leaderships study and practice to the Latinx community of the West Suburbs and Aurora. Cavazos and Hernandez Chico has also been yearly participants at the Bilingual Parent Advisory Board Summit in Oak Brook speaking to larger and larger audiences each year. We feel that an immigrant rights or any other community organization that doesn't teach community leadership basics like issue-framing (what results are we looking for), social capital and mobilizing resources is missing its potential. We feel that community leadership training has so often been lacking in our community and immigrant rights organizations, leading so many to fail, seperate and even more tragic fail to lead us to just and comprehensive immigration reform. Leadership is so often ignored or neglected in our organizations while it has so frequently been part and parcel of our manager's and bosses training skills to better manipulate us and get more production out of working class Latinos. As we study leadership in ISD and introduce it to the community (a process of only 2-3 years) we are just starting to see ripples in the group (more active, lively and with 86 active dues paying members, 6 full subcommittees and a leading force in the building of May Day this year as many of our older peers begin to step away seeking unity, issue framing, and a poltical independence from those who see our movement as little more than a campaign stop. As well, in DuPage and Aurora leadership development is beginning to have an impact as ISD members/ affiliates begin the creation of workers associations to struggle for better working conditions in area factories and warehouses, tenants associations, organizing immigrant rights marches, rallies and protests and true to our values of grassroots, community and activist-not-politician ethos. Leadership development has made real ISD's great activity and internal unity while with much less resources and political clout than many other organizations but with a higher level of social capital and mobilizing skills. In that, we seek with part of this grant to host seminars on community leadership throughout the summer, fall and winter for our members and the wider community treating community leadership, popular education, teamwork and issue framing from a values-based approach.

Grant Recipient

Expanded Mental Health Services of Chicago NFP

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $10,000

Expanded Mental Health Services of Chicago, NFP provides accessible, culturally-informed, quality mental health care through The Kedzie Center, a community mental health center on the northwest side of Chicago. In 2022, we will begin to serve additional clients and communities through a soon-to-be launched center in the Logan Square/Avondale/Hermosa area of Chicago. Thus, we will serve six neighborhoods on the northwest side. Our clients are primarily Latino/x (62% in 2020-21), and no less than 35% of those are undocumented individuals and families. Our aim is to address the significant effects of trauma among these clients, who have limited access to supports for their emotional well-being, and whose mental health challenges have been exacerbated by Covid-19, structural barriers, financial stressors, violence, and often other overwhelming experiences. We offer a multi-faceted emotional home to our immigrant clients that includes individual, couple, family, group and community-based treatment, as well as supportive bridges to housing and other services offered by our community partners. As one integral facet of our treatment philosophy, we place particular value upon early intervention, and have developed our parent-child psychotherapy program as a cornerstone of our treatment model. We are seeking support for an expansion of both of these programs, our group programs for immigrants and our parent-child program, Lil' Explorers for parents with young children (0-5). We are seeking 20,000 in general operating funds and 12,000 in capacity building to train our new team in child-parent psychotherapy (CPP).

Grant Recipient

Latino Policy Forum

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $27,500

The Latino Policy Forum requests general operating funding for Immigration Services, and capacity-building funds for Mental Health & Wellness Services. These funds would help the Forum to sustain its extensive Immigration Services programming, particularly with regard to community engagement and advocacy, and to maintain and strengthen a broad range of activities related to mental health and wellness, including community education, policy leadership, and advocacy for equitable funding and full access to appropriate services. The funded activities would include both a focus on meeting current needs and activities that address the root causes of inequity.

Grant Recipient

Southwest Suburban Immigrant Project

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $20,000

SSIP is applying for $20,000 in general operating capacity support, plus $10,000 in leadership development capacity support. Below is a description of the planed activities and priorities for 2022 as well as our vision for our leadership development work. Through SSIP’s leadership development model--engagement of directly impacted leaders from the start of campaigns and new programs to the end, and ensuring personal empowerment and advocacy in the process-- we can meet the opportunity the growing immigrant community represents for winning inclusive policies at the local and state levels and serving the Latinx population. According to Census data the 85th and 42nd districts both saw an increase in foreign born populations. This change reflects the growing popularity of progressive policies in a historically conservative district, including but not limited to health justice, economic security, and protections for immigrant families.

Grant Recipient

HOME OF THE CHILD EL HOGAR DEL NINO

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $25,000

We proudly serve a significantly under-resourced and at-risk population in Pilsen. In addition to early learning, our team has always met the needs of the community by providing mental health support, helping families access public benefits, and providing food assistance. Those needs have sharply and urgently increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are doing all we can to support our high risk families with financial aid and essential items such as diapers, formula, and food. Mental health needs have risen sharply, and with that, we have risen to the occasion. Currently, our part-time Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) supports our 36 teachers, in addition to students and parents. One of his first initiatives was to provide Mental Health First Aid training for staff so teachers are better able to identify and respond if mental health crises occur in their classrooms. We also partner with one LCSW professor from Loyola who provides pro bono mental health counseling to our staff. While both individuals have been immensely helpful, we have been searching for a way to install a permanent mental health program in our agency for many years now. In partnership with Nuestro Futuro, we will make an even greater impact in strengthening Chicago’s Latinx community by enhancing our early childhood education program with increased capacity for mental health support. With this grant, we will move our one bilingual Licensed Clinical Social Worker from part time to full time, so he can provide more comprehensive crisis intervention services to families and staff, and coach our Family Support Workers. This will guarantee greater service delivery in a timely manner and appropriate care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. A full-time presence will also enable his critical mission to destigmatize mental health support with ongoing education and screenings available to all.