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
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.
Explore Our Discretionary Grants
Showing 3531–3538 of 3873 results
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Grant Recipient
Association House of Chicago
Association House's Workforce Training programs provide participants with opportunities to gain the hard and soft skills needed to thrive in the workplace. Participants who complete training are connected with potential employers and placed in jobs that earn a living wage and benefits with opportunities for professional development. During and after training, participants are connected with other agency programs to mitigate barriers to training and employment - such as being connected to the agency's food pantry, assistance with public benefits applications, or substance use counseling. Current workforce training programs include Financial Careers Training, which prepares participants for careers in banking, and Kitchen Training, which prepares justice-involved participants for careers in restaurants/hospitality.
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Grant Recipient
Habitat for Humanity Chicago
Homeownership is a significant wealth-generating tool for families and a key factor in neighborhood health; however, one in ten Chicagoans live in substandard housing, and four in ten in declining neighborhoods. Chicago has the largest gap between White and Black homeowners among major U.S. cities—74.1% of White Chicagoans compared to only 39.1% of Black Chicagoans—a gap perpetuated by the disparity in loans made to Black communities. To respond to this disparity Habitat for Humanity Chicago (Habitat Chicago) will create a new loan product, considering income, the availability of vacant land, percentage of owner-occupied units, and the diversity of housing stock. These metrics ensure that we are providing homeownership opportunities to low-moderate income individuals in neighborhoods in need of single-family homes. Habitat Chicago will implement this new loan program in partnership with two HUD certified organizations: Oak Park Regional Housing Center (OPRHC) and Far South Community Development Corporation (FSCDC). Both organizations have a history of preparing homebuyers in our focus neighborhoods, while also fulfilling a service gap for Habitat Chicago- qualified buyers. Habitat Chicago was established through a consolidation of multiple Habitat for Humanity affiliates in 2002, and in 2011 adopted a strategy to focus on neighborhood health by providing affordable new home construction, homebuyer education, and neighborhood development grants in targeted communities. We build affordable homes for qualified buyers, equip them for homeownership with in-depth financial literacy education and equitable lending, and facilitate positive community action through neighborhood improvement projects that promote social cohesion. Habitat Chicago works in historically disinvested neighborhoods where exclusionary housing policies and inequitable development have limited wealth building for generations. In 2012, we began work in West Pullman on Chicago’s South Side. We broke ground in Greater Grand Crossing in spring 2021 and we are preparing to expand services to Austin on Chicago’s West Side. We intentionally serve neighborhoods with predominantly Black populations because regional prosperity depends on the health of these communities. In consideration of current and future needs of our focus neighborhoods, our FYE 2024-2028 Neighborhood Forward Strategic Plan identifies four areas of impact to include: strengthen the neighborhood housing market, connect the community, elevate the neighborhood appeal, and enhance the physical environment. This grant will allow us to strengthen the neighborhood housing market with our key tactics being to expand access to pre-purchase educational opportunities and financing to promote sustainable long-term homeownership through our Affordable Homeownership Program (AHP). AHP gives qualifying homebuyers access to a 30-year, zero percent interest mortgage to purchase newly constructed, affordable, energy efficient homes built by Habitat’s construction team, subcontractors, volunteers, and homebuyers. Qualified homebuyers receive extensive support from application to closing, attend classes and guidance meetings, and help build their homes. In FY24, we plan to complete eight new homes, and twelve more in FY25. Further, we recently piloted a collaborative workforce development initiative at our construction sites with several local workforce development programs (Revolution Workshop, Chicago Women in Trade, Rebuilding Exchange, etc) that will allow us to increase our construction delivery over time. Funds acquired by this grant will provide Habitat Chicago with the opportunity to expand an existing project to include more structured homebuyer preparation and more flexible underwriting guidelines than our current loan product. Additionally, this proposal includes the creation of a special purpose financing program to provide greater access and to specifically target Austin and West Pullman.
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Grant Recipient
Foundation of Little Village
The Xquina Entrepreneurial Ecosystem partnership collective works to build community wealth through the strategic alignment of entrepreneurial resources. By equipping local businesses – both current and emerging – with expanded access to a network of culturally relevant, Spanish-language programming, mentorship, resources, and capital support, they are better positioned to make informed business decisions that, in turn, enhance the economic vitality of Little Village as a whole.
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Grant Recipient
GREATER SOUTHWEST DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
The Greater Southwest Development Corporation’s (GSDC) primary goal is to improve the quality of life in southwest Chicago through economic development strategies designed to address the specific challenges of the neighborhoods and businesses we serve. Our commercial division supports local businesses and entrepreneurs and drives business investment into the area. GSDC also offers residents training and supports and builds and manages rental properties. Requested funds would enable us to help establish, stabilize, and expand more businesses, catalyze greater investments, and help build internal capacity around our Real Estate and Community Development efforts.
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Grant Recipient
GREATER WEST TOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Greater West Town Community Development Project (GWTP) would be grateful to partner with Chicago Community Trust to help close the racial and ethnic wealth gap at the household and community levels in Chicago. GWTP has been committed to this mission for the last 35 years through educational and economic empowerment in disinvested communities in Chicago, particularly on the West Side (East and West Garfield Park, North Lawndale, Humboldt Park, and Austin). GWTP’s Occupational Skills Training Program was strategically designed to respond to issues of poverty, unemployment, and lack of educational attainment through programs that create access to economic opportunities for multi-barriered and historically disinvested community residents. The program offers two certified tracks in the high-growth industries of Shipping & Receiving and Woodworking & Solid Surface Manufacturing that aim to equip participants with the certifications and tools to retain employment in a growing field and increase their income and opportunities to grow household wealth. GWTP’s Occupational Training in Shipping & Receiving (12 weeks) and Woodworking & Solid Surface Manufacturing (15 weeks) fully incorporate technical skills with basic skills remediation, wraparound services, and 12 months of post-program support, including job readiness and job placement. Both programs are approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education and nationally accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. Two Program Advisory Committees (PACs) composed of local employer partners meet regularly to advise GWTP on curricula and industry best practices. By design, the Occupational Skills Training Program offers individualized employment and educational plans. Those who successfully complete the program and are placed in employment will receive follow-up check-ins at least once a month for their first year in the workforce. With funding from Chicago Community Trust, GWTP will recruit and enroll 90 participants in state-approved, certification-granting occupational skills training programs over the 12-month grant period. 72 out of the 90 participants will complete training and earn an occupational skills certificate, and 63 of those will be placed in living-wage employment with an average wage of $16.75.
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Grant Recipient
Illinois Public Interest Research Group Education Fund
Illinois PIRG Education Fund is a recognized leader on issues ranging from affordable utilities to consumer protection in the insurance and financial marketplaces. We have led the charge to restore meaningful gas utility oversight and rein in wasteful utility spending. We pushed for the “Rider QIP” to sunset as planned at the end of 2023. This surcharge has been fueling wasteful gas utility spending and driving up rates. In a victory for ratepayers this January, Peoples Gas declared they will not try to extend this surcharge past 2023. However, there is still more work to be done to challenge rate hikes by all major utility companies in the state. Our work on car insurance reforms contributed to winning regulatory oversight of rate hikes in the health insurance market. We have consistently demonstrated an ability to convene and lead coalition efforts and to meaningfully contribute to coalition efforts led by others. With the generous support of the Chicago Community Trust, we’ve made significant progress on our policy priorities over the past several years. The coming year presents exciting opportunities to defend and build upon our progress: both Chicago utilities are proposing record breaking rate hikes, and we have new opportunities to advance car insurance reforms after this spring’s progress in the health insurance market. We plan to continue to add value to shared efforts and strengthen partnerships for longer term success. Partnerships, in particular with community organizations, ground our work in the lived experience of those most impacted and are crucial to winning and defending reforms.
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Grant Recipient
NORTHWEST SIDE CDC
Northwest Side CDC (NWSCDC) will work with partner agencies, Foundation of Little Village and Onward House, to support newly established and emerging businesses through a series of workshops, training, professional service support, and one-on-one advising sessions. Program participants will take part in a several-month cohort. NWSCDC, Foundation of Little Village, and Onward House will use internal and external resources to provide technical expertise to businesses in several subjects, including technology, capital access, and social media support. The goal of this collective work is to increase access to capital for BIPOC business owners while supporting resiliency building and increasing income.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Foundation/Elevated Chicago
Elevated Chicago is a coalition of organizations advancing Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) to unlock the potential of transit hubs to connect people and attract development that is racially equitable in terms of climate resilience, health and cultural indicators. In partnership with local community-based organizations, Elevated Chicago seeks to transform the 1/2-mile radius around CTA, Metra, and Pace hubs and corridors into community-focused centers of commerce and culture by 1] removing barriers that hinder innovation near station areas; 2] equipping residents with resources to make these areas a community and civic priority; and 3] aligning, cultivating, and deploying capital for development near transit stations, to become areas where the built environment and programming converge to create nodes of connection and opportunity.