Grants

Grant Recipient

CommunityHealth NFP

Awarded: August 2023 Awarded Amount: $50,000

As a key member of the safety net in Chicago, CommunityHealth is proactively working to address the ongoing migrant crisis by providing not only immediate medical relief at polic precincts, but also registering asylum seekers as CommunityHealth patients so that they can receive consistent and comprehensive care, including mental health services. On May 9th, the mayor of Chicago issued a declaration of emergency in response to the influx of migrants. City representatives reached out to request assistace from local community-led organizations. CommunityHealth jumped into action immediately, and on May 24th we deployed our first mobile clinic, made up of a small group of CommunityHealth staff and volunteers. Our mobile clinic unit has continued to visit police precincts twice a week, performing health screenings and registering individuals as new patients for follow-up care at CommunityHealth. Throughout the ongoing crisis, CommunityHealth has collaborated with many other community-based organizations and individual volunteers to ensure that migrants have access not only to medical care, but also medications and personal hygiene products. Though the circumstances that necessitated this cooperation are dire, they have also presented an opportunity to strengthen partnerships between local charity organizations. Moving forward, CommunityHealth aims to maintain the interdisciplinary unity demonstrated in this emergency situation in order to better address the wraparound needs of our patients. With your support, CommunityHealth can continue to enact our essential role in Chicago’s response to migrant arrival, as well as provide ongoing comprehensive care to the asylum seekers who become our patients long-term.

Grant Recipient

Inner-City Muslim Action Network

Awarded: August 2023 Awarded Amount: $50,000

Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) is a community-based organization that fosters health, wellness, and healing in the inner-city by organizing for social change, the arts, and operates a holistic health center. IMAN incorporated as a nonprofit in 1997 through the drive of people directly affected by and deeply invested in social issues affecting communities of color living on Chicago's South Side. The organization intentionally connects people who are often isolated and disconnected through its multiple programs that integrate workforce development, youth leadership development, restorative justice, holistic health support and arts and culture to residents, including formerly incarcerated returning citizens. Through our Green ReEntry Program we create a pathway from incarceration to holistic healing and employment. The participants in this program are provided transitional housing, life skills education, sustainable construction training, and job readiness as a comprehensive approach for neighborhood stabilization and violence prevention. We believe that providing justice-involved youth/ individuals or returning residents with these skills as well as social-emotional wellness support will change their life’s trajectory. In partnership with Chicago City Colleges, we currently offer HVAC, carpentry, and welding as certification options for a group that often have limited skills and certifications such as these can make participants more desirable to employers. Secondarily, we provide weekly individual behavioral health sessions as well as group therapy sessions to address the root causes of their decision making and identify traumatic incidents that can be trigger causing for the purpose of providing healing and improving behavioral health. As a final piece of individual support, we pair each client with a case manager to monitor their progress. These supports are accompanied by resume writing, interviewing skills and financial literacy courses to name a few. Our Federally Qualified Health Center was erected to provide crucial primary care support for uninsured or underinsured individuals and families. One of our HC priorities is to identify health issues that are deemed most prevalent in communities such as the neighborhoods we serve. It is important to create a path to complete health by providing dietary support and a comprehensive approach ensuring that the proper relationships are established in the event that further assistance is needed such as extended testing, hospital stays or surgery. Behavioral Health is a large component designed to provide supplemental support to our primary healthcare but can also be used, and has been used for individuals that are seeking behavioral health support alone. Through our health center we also offer connections to other services such as food, housing and other wrap-around services. Our Food Ecos work is a multi-pronged operation connecting the Englewood neighborhood, a well known food desert, to food through our Go Green Fresh Market grocery store. Our grocery store provides quality foods and produce at a reduced rate to accommodate individuals that are financially impacted by lack of employment and overall opportunity. Directly across the street from the grocery store is IMAN’s Food and Wellness center which takes a modern twist on the traditional food pantry which allows individuals to shop as they would in a traditional grocery store. Through our healthcare center, re-entry, community engagement & safety, and organizing and advocacy work we are able to connect individuals to foods that sustain them as well as their families and we currently serve 3,000 + individuals from the Chicago Lawn and Englewood neighborhoods. Our Organizing and Advocacy team is a key component to our organization staying abreast of community needs. In addition to canvassing the area weekly, this team also holds monthly meetings known as Power Hour​​ with youth, young adults and seniors to identify community needs and gaps in access. This work is supplemented by our Community Engagement and Safety Team which works to maintain a safe community by partnering with members of the community and our O&A department to discuss neighborhood conflicts that have the potential for violence. The CE&S team then goes into these situations to mediate and provide solutions to maintain neighborhood safety. IMAN’s Arts & Culture team provides vibrant and unique forums that radically and positively reimagines the world by connecting disconnected communities, nurturing individuals and inspiring communal transformative healing. This vision is accomplished through our multicultural and culturally competent Arts Presentation, collaborative Community Arts programming and a dynamic artist roster, Ceramic classes and our IMANifest Art Gallery. Uniquely our arts programming serves artists and the community with arts access, it is also integral to our ReEntry and behavioral health work providing group therapy sessions and various forms of artistic expression (media, dance, drum circle. Music, etc.) These core programs have been designed to close the gaps in services for Chicago Lawn, Englewood, West Englewood and surrounding marginalized communities.

Grant Recipient

The Chicago Community Trust

Awarded: August 2023 Awarded Amount: $25,000