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…
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
Deborah's Place
This grant will allow Deborah’s Place to make significant progress towards achieving our strategic plan outcome of developing a board and management staff that includes 75% people of color through structured review and revision of job descriptions and our salary administration plan. The agency will also use this opportunity to engage residents and staff in our Rebecca Johnson building in developing processes that better prepare our community to resolve conflicts before they escalate and without engaging the police. We will do this with the help of a group like Nonviolent Institute of Chicago that can provide training in conflict resolution and nonviolence as well as coach residents on restorative justice with their neighbors and community.
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Grant Recipient
ILLINOIS ART EDUCATION ASSN
Extending the IAEA's equity-focused initiatives this project addresses underlying systematic disparities in arts education and serves educators throughout Illinois. Experts will develop resources and educator training that promotes high-quality, racially just lessons in arts classrooms. Targeted regions will participate in developed trainings and improve existing lessons through the lens of anti-racism. New resources and lessons will be digitally disseminated across Illinois and a webinar featuring participant educators will highlight changes in their practice. Additionally, the IAEA Board will engage in a consultant-led discussion to reflect on how its operation can further promote equity, diversity, and inclusion.
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Grant Recipient
CTF ILLINOIS
ACCESS Behavioral Health utilizes virtual supports for providing mental health services to those in need. Through virtual supports, ACCESS has continued providing person-centered, one-on-one care for those seeking evidence based care for mental health. Originally crafted to combat the negative effects on mental health associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, ACCESS seeks to expand supports, and open a dialogue for the racial disparities COVID-19’s impact has revealed. With the help of professional counselors and facilitators, those in need may begin these discussions with ACCESS Behavioral Health of CTF ILLINOIS.
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Grant Recipient
KENNETH YOUNG CENTER
Kenneth Young Center aims to increase trust and relationship-building and build the foundation for long-term racial healing and anti-racism in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs in partnership with Trickster Cultural Center, a 501c3 Native American cultural center. The project will be youth-led, adult-supported and will engage all members of the community, through the Communities for Positive Youth Development Coalition, in discussions, activities and events about racial equity, diversity, and inclusion per COVID guidelines, and in accordance with positive youth development, restorative justice practices and traditional indigenous healing practices.
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Grant Recipient
YogaCare
This project builds off of the growing work of YogaCare and one of its key initiatives, the Socially Engaged Yoga Network (SEYN), to expand racial justice and healing justice work throughout Chicagoland organizers and yoga communities. The project will engage organizers and healers citywide, providing racial healing circles, resource sharing, decolonized yoga, and self-care tools. The overall goal is to build a foundation among both the yoga community and Chicagoland communities of activists and organizers for long-term racial healing and the creation of anti-racist systems. The project aims to reach at least 50 yoga teachers, organizers, and activists as well as the over 40 staff, volunteers, and board members of YogaCare and SEYN itself.
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Grant Recipient
ERIKSON INSTITUTE
Erikson Institute’s work in the early childhood field improves the lives of young children, lifting up families and the communities where they live. We approach all of our work with a racial equity lens so we may best serve the children and families in our care. With this in mind, Erikson understands that the work of restructuring inequitable systems begins with ourselves. Therefore, this fall, Erikson’s full-time faculty and staff have begun to participate in race equity trainings with Chicago ROAR. A grant from Healing Illinois will allow us to continue this work, expand training more widely across Erikson, and equip our community with the skills to create antiracist and anti-oppressive structures both outside and within our own walls.
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Grant Recipient
Pillars Community Health
PCH serves individuals and families, focusing on those who are low-income, uninsured, experiencing homelessness, and survivors of domestic and sexual violence. We provide a continuum of physical and behavioral health services and work to reduce barriers to care that affect our target population. The toll of COVID-19 highlights the need for providers, including PCH, to address systemic inequities and provide care in the communities we serve. In the coming year, we are investing resources to support diversity, equity, and inclusion as we become a trauma-informed organization. This initiative will not only enhance quality of care at PCH but will also create a model for other organizations comprehensively addressing racial justice and trauma.
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Grant Recipient
Chinese Mutual Aid Association Inc
Endeavoring to always reflect the diversity of the community of low income refugees and immigrants that we serve, CMAA is requesting support to hold a series of facilitator-led workshops for our staff and home care aides on topics related to diversity, inclusion and racial equity. Additionally, we are seeking support to create an anti-discrimination webpage, as a part of of CMAA’s website, which will act as a navigation page for those pursuing resources on anti-discrimination. This funding will be allocated towards hiring a professional facilitator; staff time to organize the events and translation costs for our home care aides; compensation for staff agency wide to attend the workshops; as well as staff time in developing the webpage.