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.
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Grant Recipient
Chi-Village
Chi-Village's core mission and values are deeply rooted in addressing civic needs, championing Black Liberation practices, and advancing the African Diaspora by developing platforms for eradicating the wealth gap. Our request for funding aims to support the expansion of our 2024 Black Liberation & Cultural Revitalization Initiative. This initiative is dedicated to enriching our community through a multifaceted approach, including intergenerational programming, youth adult-led youth workshops, and workshops focused on wellness and wealth-building. In partnership with the Chicago Park District, we are excited to host our inaugural Kwanzaa celebration on December 26th and 27th at the Dr. Conrad Worrill Track & Field Stadium. The December 26th celebration will be open to the entire Chicagoland area, embodying the principle of Umoja, which stands for Unity. On December 27th, our "#ChiVillageKidCheckIn" event, tailored for youth, will shine a light on the principle of Kujichagulia, or Self-Determination. To enhance this celebration, we are collaborating with Africa International House to curate a vendor market featuring local Black-owned businesses, child entrepreneurs, and small businesses from across the country. This market will not only be a highlight of our Kwanzaa celebration but also contribute to narrowing the wealth gap by fostering collective work and responsibility within our community. Additionally, in partnership with Project H.O.O.D., we are launching an afterschool program offering various dance and percussion classes and holistic wellness tools. This program is designed to address mental health and wellness needs among our youth, providing them with tools to alleviate stress-induced anxiety. Our Viberaiser series will continue throughout 2024, featuring quarterly events and workshops. The Viberaiser serves as a platform for independent performing artists, holistic health practitioners, and local businesses, playing a pivotal role in fostering economic empowerment and forging equitable alliances within our community. Our first Viberaiser Workshop in February 2024, titled "Rep-Ur-Rationale," will educate the community about the state of the reparations movement at the federal and state levels. In July, our Viberaiser, "Speak To Your Canvas," will delve into the use of art therapy as an educational and leadership tool. In August, "Summa Summer" will offer free Kemetic Yoga and Sound Bowl healing classes to the community for one day. Finally, in November, "Friends To Family" will be a culinary adventure exploring vegan cuisine and traditional dishes from various regions throughout the African diaspora. We firmly believe that art and culture are integral components for a thriving community, fostering personal growth, cultural appreciation, and social cohesion. Our unwavering responsibility is to serve as the catalyst for the change we aspire to see and to bridge gaps in communities that have historically suffered under oppressive racial hierarchies, hindering access to high-quality social services. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that communities disproportionately affected by income and wealth disparities gain access to top-notch art and cultural programs while amplifying the voices of change-makers.
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Grant Recipient
Teatro Vista Theatre With A View Inc
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Grant Recipient
Metropolis Strategies NFP
ILJP is requesting funding to support our general operations, to support the Illinois Reentry Council’s ongoing work to implement public sector investments for the creation of affordable housing for returning residents, and to support the creation of a Director of Reentry position at the Illinois Department of Human Services. The Illinois Reentry Council is working to get government to invest more time and resources into creating opportunities for people exiting jails and prisons. Outgoing Secretary Grace Hou and Incoming Secretary Dulce Quintero at the Illinois Department of Human Services are are in the process of hiring someone to serve as DHS’s Director of Reentry to lead the agency’s reentry work. They and their team are utilizing the normal channels of government to create a full-time position in the department, but it will take 12 months for them to work with Central Management Services (CMS) to post the job, interview candidates, and hire a person. Both the incoming and outgoing Secretaries of the Department want to start right away, and we are raising money to hire a person who would report to the Illinois Reentry Council and would work with and support the department while it goes through the process of creating the position and hiring. It will cost $143,000 to support the position. They would have to pay for their own benefits for 12 months. A grant from the Chicago Community Trust would be used to help fund this initiative. Other resources from the MacArthur Foundation are likely to be secured. And we are engaged in discussions with other funders who are interested in supporting this project. The second use of the grant would be for reentry housing. This is related to the Illinois Reentry Council’s ongoing work to create reentry housing opportunities for people exiting jails and prisons across the state. The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) released its first Request for Applications for the Housing for Justice-Involved Persons program in January of 2022. The program was designed to be flexible and to support new and emerging affordable housing providers, including growing organizations and those led by people with direct experience with the criminal legal system. When IHDA announced the first round of awards in the summer of 2022, the agency committed to funding projects that would create almost 500 new beds for people exiting jails and prisons. However, since the grantees were announced, many, including some IRC members, have run into some difficulties with implementation. More specifically, many grantees are experiencing challenges during the predevelopment phase. Issues related to zoning approval, land use, lack of legal representation, and lack of support on project planning have arisen all over the state including and in Chicago. To help mitigate these challenges, we tapped our network to find real estate attorneys and consultants, land use consultants, and people with development experience in this field to support IRC members working through these challenges. However, the real estate services industry cluster is short on firms that are willing to do this work on a pro bono basis. We are working on a long-term solution with IHDA personnel, who are going to issue another round of funding next year, but it will be at least a year until we are able to implement the recommendations that we are working on. In the meantime, many grantees are struggling to either close on their projects, or to obtain the necessary zoning approvals needed to start developing, rehabbing, and operating the homes. There are at least 5 to 6 IRC member organizations that would benefit from support in these areas. A typical real estate attorney costs $20,000, and we understand that a land use consultant costs half as much. The grant funding would provide critical resources to organizations that need these services to create housing units. The remainder of the grant would be used to support the ongoing operations of the Illinois Justice Project, which works on a broad range of criminal legal system reform issues in the juvenile and adult space, including diverting and deflecting people from the system, accelerating and supporting successful release for people to leave the system, changing policies and practices for those in the system, and integrating an understanding of and services to address the impact of trauma on those touched by the system.
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Grant Recipient
Still Point Theatre Collective
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Grant Recipient
Awakenings Art
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Grant Recipient
3Arts, Inc.
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Grant Recipient
NatureServe
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Grant Recipient
WIEBOLDT FOUNDATION
The 2024 Wieboldt Foundation Capacity-Building Cohort seeks to fill an unfortunate void that exists. Intensive capacity-building funds are hard to come by, yet essential to strengthen, stabilize and enhance the impact of community organizing nonprofits. In this regard, these entities would function like any business; better equipment, stronger skills, and streamlined operations contribute to an improved bottom line – measured here in overall impact rather than profit. Additionally, fostering collaboration among a cohort of community organizing groups is important to the sustainability of the ecosystem. Specifically, organizational capacity will be built in 4 areas: operations; organizing; resources; and collaborations.