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
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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.
Explore Our Discretionary Grants
Showing 3481–3488 of 3873 results
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Grant Recipient
Center for Community Self-Help
The Center for Community Self-Help (Self-Help), in partnership with The Resurrection Project (TRP) and Lawndale Christian Development Corporation (LCDC), requests $280,000 in grant funding to support the advancement of Reclaiming Communities, a campaign organized by United Power for Action and Justice (United Power) to help families build wealth through homeownership. Partners will promote innovative homeownership solutions through a holistic approach that combines developing a pipeline of homeowners, increasing affordable inventory, and organizing creative homeownership financing solutions. Ultimately, Reclaiming Communities will increase and sustain the number of Black and Latino homeowners on the South and West Sides of Chicago.
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Grant Recipient
Advocates for Illinois Children
Funding from this grant would support Children’s Advocates for Change’s continued efforts to close the racial wealth gap for Illinois children and their families by building public support for and securing legislative passage of a state child tax credit. This past spring, CAFC worked with representatives of a 40 member coalition to inform legislators about the wide racial and ethnic disparities regarding children in poverty and how far many families have to go in having enough income to meet just their basic household needs. Prior to the legislative session, CAFC held a policy forum on family economic supports. (During the session, CAFC worked on not only the child tax credit but also on legislation to foster greater equity in the state’s budgeting process and to create a state income tax credit for renters.) While there was legislation introduced to create the child tax credit and we helped secure a number sponsors for the legislation, the effort fell short – in part due to other budgetary pressures facing the state. A state child tax credit would not only help address issues of housing instability and food insecurity but also in combatting child poverty: 1) Address stark racial and ethnic inequities in child poverty and 2) Help combat development and behavioral issues children can face in the short and long term due to poverty – that can impact educational attainment and future earnings.
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Grant Recipient
University of Chicago Urban Labs
The University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab (IEL) is working to eliminate financial barriers to postsecondary success in partnership with the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office (ILSTO) and Chicago Public Schools’ Office of College and Career Success (OCCS). IEL’s ongoing partnership with ILSTO will produce evidence on the role that seeding 529 college-savings accounts has on college-going mindsets of families and inform the implementation of the State’s relatively new Children’s Savings Program (CSP). This analysis will utilize a randomized controlled trial and survey research to produce its insights. IEL will also work with OCCS to analyze more than 1,800 financial aid award letters to understand the net price of attending various institutions and to compare the financial aid packages offered to students with various academic and demographic profiles. This analysis will examine what the real costs of college are for CPS students, assessing which students have affordable college choices. where more financial support is needed, and which institutions typically provide affordable options for students. It will also provide visibility into how institutions of higher education are describing the cost of attendance to students and identify the extent to which colleges are engaging in predatory and misleading practices to attract students. The Inclusive Economy Lab will publish its findings across both projects in 2024 followed by engagement activities with local and national media, presentations at researcher and practitioner conferences, and briefings for policymakers and elected officials. We will encourage our partners, ILSTO and OCCS, to share the findings with their own networks, including but not limited to the National Association of State Treasurers and the National Association of College Admissions Counseling.
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Grant Recipient
Centro De Trabajadores Unidos United Workers Center
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Grant Recipient
Southland Development Authority NFP
Southland Development Authority respectfully requests support for three initiatives designed to directly support the region’s entrepreneurs and small businesses: the Entrepreneurs in Residence program, the Connect 2 Capital program, and the Business Growth Services program.
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Grant Recipient
Office of the Illinois State Treasurer
Executive Summary Justice Informed will work with the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer and the Chicago Treasurer's Office to provide ongoing support to develop a roadmap to relaunch AEBC under new leadership, host focus groups and 1-1 discussions to determine how and toward what end current and new bank partners wish to participate in AEBC and lay the groundwork for a new partnership model by developing relationships with new potential operational, programmatic, and fiscal partners. To-date, AEBC has been a neutral convening space where bank representatives met to discuss and support one another toward their racial equity goals. However, after two years of operating under this model, several things are clear to us about how our impact is limited through the current model: Operational Model: The Treasurer's Offices, respectively, are not the right lead agency to serve as the primary operator and convener, however, these offices participation engenders a level of respect and trust that is paramount to keeping a conversation about economic racial equity moving in Chicagoland. The Treasurer's offices do not have the staff and finances to continue this work as the primary lead. Programmatic Model: There is resistance against racial equity being defined outside of a business model, but instead a community impact model. Banks are using varying definitions of racial equity, many which are not community-informed or accountable. Banks ultimately answer to themselves or matters of government compliance that are in place to remedy the impacts of banks' non-participation in deliberate acts of racial equity (such as CRA and FHA regulations). As such, the high-level issues impacting racially marginalized communities are being addressed through a piecemeal, bank-developed approach that is still grounded by the question "how does this impact our financial bottom line." Some bank's models operating to non-deliberately but still materially produce negative racial equity impacts often create the need for racial equity initiatives such as AEBC. The evaluation of these models and their impact then must be community-accountable at best, or at minimum, community-informed in a consistent manner. Roundtables and annual convenings are important to keep a conversation going, but they don't truly transform a system. Our goal is systems transformation, but that requires a new way of operating such that we maintain good relationships with banks while adding in community accountability and an overarching definition for racial equity in banking. Our goal is to develop a community of bank partners and representatives who openly share information and best practices about their commitments and actions toward racial equity; a space where racially minoritized community members can be the assessors of banks' racial equity impact; a medium where banks and the communities they seek to impact can speak safely to one another about what is or isn't working as it pertains to racial equity strategies, and where the definition of racial equity isn't confined to the singular ideas, fears, or ambitions of one bank but disconnected from the rest. It is imperative that AEBC shift to a community-informed approach, however, given that many banks and communities have a long history of strained relationships, differing beliefs about what banks are responsible for, and many different institutions with varying goals intersecting throughout this work, this is difficult. The role of the respective Treasurer's offices as a convener, and Justice Informed as a programmatic lead creates a more neutral space and convener for this work. We believe by leveraging this partnership model to now shift into an evolved operational model and community-informed program model would exponentially increase our impact on racial equity. To do this, the work ahead requires several months of planning time to map potential partners, host informational meetings, draft potential MOUs, and develop a new roadmap for AEBC. Key Deliverables in this Scope of Work: 1. Compiled Report of Definitions for Racial Equity in Banks Across Chicagoland 2. Completed AEBC 2.0 Partnership Discovery Process 3. AEBC Relaunch Roadmap
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Grant Recipient
JANE ADDAMS RESOURCE CORPORATION
The Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) was established in 1985. Over the last 37 years, JARC has collaborated with stakeholders across various sectors to assess the needs of the community and the clients we serve. We promote economic development by training low-income adults in the skills they need to earn a living wage. We do this through a combination of technical manufacturing training and wraparound supportive services. We believe that everyone who works has the right to a living wage; that training leads to better paying jobs; and that the key to long term, substantive change for people is a focus on careers. We promote economic empowerment through training low-income adults in the skills they need to earn a living wage. We do this through a combination of technical manufacturing training and wraparound supportive services, including financial literacy. We offer free technical training in welding, computerized machining, and assembly at our three Chicagoland locations. We focus on these occupations because they offer career path employment with family sustaining wages, and full benefits. All trainees in our programs also receive one-on-one coaching, case management, transportation assistance, and access to supportive service funds. We also screen trainees for additional needs such as accessing health insurance, housing, food, childcare, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and domestic violence assistance. All these supports continue when our clients start working to help them advance along a career path and continue to reach their long-term goals. All our training programs offer industry recognized credentials and job placement assistance. Last year we placed 49 clients in fulltime jobs at an average starting wage of $19.35.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Foundation/Elevated Chicago
Elevated Chicago (Elevated) requests project-specific support for a coalition of public, private, and nonprofit organizations (Coalition) co-convened by the Office of the Mayor and Elevated as the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Working Group (ETOD WG). The Coalition includes 40+ government agencies, BIPOC-led community and art organizations, developers, and policy experts. Its goal is to implement the 36 policies of Chicago’s first ETOD Policy Plan, monitor the impact of the Connected Communities Ordinance, and advance a growing pipeline of ETOD projects funded by the City. The work seeks to prevent future TOD from displacing residents, small businesses, cultural institutions, and community organizations; encourage investment and build community wealth in BIPOC and low-income communities; and position Chicago as a national leader in ETOD. In addition to the Chicago-based work, in 2022, invited by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Regional Transportation Authority, Elevated coalition staff and partners began working with regional entities on a regional approach to ETOD for the Chicago metropolitan area.