Grants

Grant Recipient

Blue Tin Production

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $25,000

Blue Tin Production (BTP) is an apparel manufacturing workers co-operative run by immigrant, refugee, and working-class women of color that is building a new model for labor and sustainability that can be replicated at scale for workers locally and globally. Sweatshops dominate the fashion industry and garment workers are predominantly Muslim, Black and brown, working-class, and undocumented. Virtually every issue related to gender, class, race, sustainability, and borders can be found in factory floors, and garment workers remain one of the most systemically silenced voices in the world. The first of its kind in the USA, Blue Tin fills a major gap in ethical and sustainable manufacturing and is cited by global fashion leaders as a unique model with innovative approaches to some of the most pressing issues facing supply chains while meeting the critical needs of those marginalized by the industry. To do so, Blue Tin has three areas of “programmatic” focus. First, Blue Tin is power building: through a worker-run model, Blue Tin reimagines labor within supply chains and centers the leadership, agency, and economic mobility of women of color. Blue Tin’s intergenerational members include domestic violence survivors from Nigeria, young and single mothers suffering PTSD after fleeing war and political violence, and grandmothers from the Philippines who have not completed elementary education. We work with designers locally and globally to produce their clothing while reducing waste. We prioritize designers of color and designers creating clothes for bodies not represented in the fashion industry (trans people, Muslims, people with disabilities, etc). Second, Blue Tin provides professional and personal training and development. Professional sewing has an exponential learning curve, and we provide ongoing professional development training as well as training in co-operative management, business and finance, as well as self-care and mental health support for all of our new and current members. Third, Blue Tin hosts outward-facing community events and collaborations to educate the public and build intersectional coalitions. This includes hosting studio visits for CPS students and the Chicago community, giving talks and trainings on stages around the world, and working on collaborative art projects that have been featured in exhibitions across the US and Canada. This also includes the ongoing project of working with Black and brown youth community organizers in Chicago Lawn to build a 11,250sq.ft. community space and sewing studio in the southwest Chicago neighborhood. Ultimately, BTP addresses a root cause of the racial wealth gap by building leadership potential and holistic economic self-determination, and is built and run by and for communities that sit at the various intersections of need. We believe that a world free of racial capitalism can exist, and can attempt to model that world within our studio while creating a blueprint for sustainability and labor standards on a global scale.

Grant Recipient

Scholarship America, Inc.

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $200,000

Grant Recipient

The Chicago Community Trust

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $400,000

Grant Recipient

HAZ Cooperative Studios LWCA

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $25,000

HAZ Cooperative Studios builds spaces where everyone can access the resources, networks, and opportunities that make a thriving art career possible. We are passionate about providing independent artists of color with the space, community, education, and tools needed to hone their craft and produce their work. Founded in 2020, our limited worker cooperative association believes that making a living and career out of art should be attainable to all. The business has two versions of community: a brick-and-mortar facility owned and operated at 1706 S. Halsted Street, and an online artist directory, hazroom.com. Our property is home to a public gallery, which currently serves as our primary revenue stream, offering event rental and art performance in the Lower West Side. Phase II of our operations include a comprehensive buildout for floors 2 and 3 of the building. Here, we envision a makerspace designed with musicians and photographers in mind, replete with studios and offices for production and education. The intention is to offset traditional overhead costs associated with broad definitions of artistry, provide a third space for collaborations within our community, and honor contributions through profit sharing models. Currently, we have leased the second and third floors to a tenant for additional income. Once completed, the gallery space will more comprehensively feature the works of artist-owners and generate additional commercial opportunities through commision, merchandise, and patronage. The website’s objective is to serve as a digital continuation of this work, where community members may display their portfolios, connect with one another, promote events, and eventually, leverage ecommerce for artist-owners. The purpose of our application is to increase capacity of this work by offsetting overhead costs of the facility, continue website development, and provide stipends for our founding members, who, since August 2020, have built Haz on a voluntary basis.

Grant Recipient

Partnership for College Completion

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $100,000

The Partnership for College Completion (PCC) champions policies, practices, and systems that increase college completion and eliminate degree completion disparities for low-income, first generation, and students of color in Illinois – particularly Black and Latinx students. Since its launch six years ago, the PCC has successfully deployed its unique, three-part approach in service of its mission, to lay the groundwork to improve college graduation outcomes and eliminate inequities in college access, persistence, and completion for these target student populations in Illinois. This proposed grant would support PCC’s work in the area of College & University Partnerships, supporting the Illinois Equity in Attainment Initiative and more broadly our work to support colleges and universities across the state in their efforts to accelerate institutional changes that will advance racial and socioeconomic equity in student outcomes on their campuses.

Grant Recipient

DEVCORP NORTH

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $50,000

DevCorp North dba Rogers Park Business Alliance (RPBA) has been fortunate to have had enough operating capital to apply for reimbursable government grants. But unreliable timelines for reimbursement have depleted our reserves and we are hesitant to apply for other government grants that are structured the same way. We are currently waiting for nearly $160,000 in reimbursements from the Illinois Small Business Development Centers. As a result, we had to make some difficult programming choices and cut our Business Accessibility Toolkit (BAT) program to accommodate this funding gap. BAT was developed to serve our low-median income community of historically underserved people of color, especially Black, Latinx and other diverse business owners and entrepreneurs. An infusion of working capital from Chicago Community Trust would allow us to resume BAT, continue to operate efficiently and free us up to apply for other government grants.

Grant Recipient

Strategy for Access Foundation NFP

Awarded: April 2023 Awarded Amount: $89,000

The Disability Friendly Chicago series is a new program for StrAF, which began in the fall of 2022. The project aims to produce 15 short videos showing accessible tourist attractions in Chicago. Of the videos being produced, 5 out of 15 will focus on the current Chicago attractions to celebrate and educate others about BIPOC identities within the city’s south and west neighborhoods.