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
Injustice Watch NFP
Injustice Watch is a Chicago-based public service journalism organization that covers issues of equity and justice in the courts. We are requesting $50,000 of funding to support investigations related to housing and homeownership.
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Grant Recipient
Legal Action Chicago LLC
With a coalition that we will lead and support, we will pursue two related policy projects to protect the income and assets of people in Cook County from seizure by creditors and arbitrary tax enforcement, with a particular focus on rectifying racial disparities. We will lead a coalition of grass roots and advocacy organizations aimed at reform of the court-based debt collection system in Illinois and Cook County ("debt collection reform"), and with many of the same partners and others we will engage in litigation and policy advocacy to reform the aspect of the Cook County delinquent property tax system that deprives home owners of their title to the home and also the market value of the home over and above the tax debt ("equity preservation"). Both of these problems have clearly disparate racial impact, and the advocacy will address that aspect directly through organizing, public information, policy advocacy, legislation and litigation.
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Grant Recipient
The University of Chicago - Office of Civic Engagement
The UChicago Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Polsky) in partnership with local and regional financial and banking partners, and a local economic development referral partner, will continue to serve South Side entrepreneurs of color to help them increase access to social, financial, and instructional resources through the Small Business Financial Fundamentals Program (SBFF). The SBFF will provide technical assistance for businesses owners seeking support with their financial reporting, projections, and ongoing ability to use financial knowledge to guide growth strategy, by leveraging the robust academic resources of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth). University of Chicago students, including MBA students, will deliver tailored training and education to South Side business owners. In addition, workshops focused on Access to Capital will provide additional touchpoints for participants in the financial ecosystem, and broaden the reach of the program beyond those served by the more intense core engagement. Through this program, participants will also have full member access to the robust and ongoing support at the Polsky Exchange at the University of Chicago, yielding a strengthened network of local entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills needed to most effectively utilize the services and resources offered by the Exchange. As the SBFF prepares to launch its third year of financial education and capital connection for South Side businesses through this program, prior participants will have the opportunity to participate in a new Finance Clinic designed to reinforce actionable lessons from the program as well as assess their current funding needs and make introductions to appropriate capital providers.
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Grant Recipient
Bethany House of Hospitality
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Grant Recipient
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND FAMILY ISSUES
COFI exists to build the power and voice of parents, primarily mothers and grandmothers from Black and Brown communities, to shape the public decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their families. Through COFI, over 5,000 low-income parents of color have been trained as civic leaders in Illinois communities and, with POWER-PAC IL (the statewide organization of COFI trained parents), in policy advocacy at city/state/federal levels. Closing the racial wealth/income gaps are top priorities of POWER-PAC IL parents, with particular focus on reducing debt burdens and increasing wages/savings opportunities – especially in the wake of the pandemic and ensuing inflation. This grant will help us continue to ensure that low-income parents are fully participating members of coalitions fighting the racial wealth gap.
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Grant Recipient
Sarah's Circle
Sarah’s Circle is requesting a one-time grant of $50,000 to help us advance our mission and serve even more of Chicago’s most vulnerable women. While certain subpopulations of the homeless have been identified and provided with specialized care, our population has often been overlooked. Women experiencing homelessness face specific challenges and gender-specific needs, which is why Sarah’s Circle remains committed to our mission. Sarah's Circle is one of only two agencies in Chicago that serve single, unaccompanied women who are homeless, and we are also one of the few shelters in the area that serve trans women. Women, generally, are particularly vulnerable to violence on the streets and in unstable living situations, and these numbers are even higher for trans women. As they encounter violence, delay medical care, and remain unable to find employment, women lose the health, confidence, and optimism necessary to make it on their own. Women who have experienced unsheltered homelessness (especially for long time periods), often have significant health repercussions from their time on the street. Physical and sexual assault, lack of proper nutrition, and delayed preventative care often lead to greater needs over time. Homelessness often causes women to be biologically older than they are chronologically, also known as weathering. Weathering can cause women to be 10-20 years older than their chronological age. Homelessness is an ongoing problem in the City of Chicago and programs such as ours are essential to addressing, and solving, this issue. According to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, single, unaccompanied women comprise 29% of the national homeless population, however we know this is a conservative number. Point-in-time counts is the method most homeless related data is collected. As the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services explains, “The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is an annual assessment of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness at one moment in time. Each year, data compiled during the PIT count are analyzed and help to inform areas of need and the allocation of resources for housing and services.” Women, in particular, take great efforts to stay undetected. Staying in discreet locations can be vital to their health and safety. Rendering this method often an inadequate form of data collection. With women being underrepresented in these counts, less support is directed towards their needs. This bears out as we see that the percentage of homelessness decreased among families, veterans and youth between 2020-2022. Meanwhile, in the same time period, homelessness increased among individuals, people with disabilities, and those who have experienced chronic homelessness. This is the population Sarah’s Circle serves. Two factors that often contribute of someone falling into homelessness is a mental health condition and being a survivor of violence, and often these factors go hand in hand. In 2022, 34% of Sarah’s Circle’s clients reported having a history of domestic violence, and 37% reported having a mental health condition. However, staff reported an estimated 80%-90% struggling with a mental health condition. These numbers also reflect what women are willing to report. Due to stigma around both mental health and domestic violence, these numbers often go underreported. The National Network to End Domestic Violence reports that between 22%-57% of all women experiencing homelessness say that domestic violence was their immediate cause of homelessness. More so, it’s estimated that 38% of all survivors of domestic violence become homeless at some point in their lives. A history of violence against women can be a barrier to seeking shelter or other resources. Being around men can be retraumatizing for many women, which is why organizations that focus solely on women are so important.
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Grant Recipient
SMALL BUSINESS MAJORITY FOUNDATION INC
Small Business Majority [SBM] requests support to continue Pathways to Entrepreneurial Growth, offered in partnership with Rogers Park Business Alliance [RPBA] and New Covenant Community Development Center [NCCDC]. Pathways increases access to business support, financial management training and capital for entrepreneurs of color by linking together SBM’s Business Bootcamp, RPBA’s GROW/PROGRESANDO and NCCDC’s Financial Dashboard programs. Partners monitor outcomes and feedback from multi-program participants and identify adaptable best practices aimed at boosting cultural competence and humility in service delivery—key to increasing effective, fair service delivery for entrepreneurs disproportionately harmed by structural discrimination, public disinvestment and the pandemic.
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Grant Recipient
AUSTIN COMING TOGETHER
The Austin Community Hub is a radically hospitable space where we welcome Austin Coming Together (ACT) member organizations and Austin residents to collaborate, connect and get support. The Hub, as an Initiative, is a collaboration between the Service Delivery Enhancement and Engagement teams at ACT. Together, the Hub responds to community engagement, youth and family engagement, ACT member and partner engagement, as well as counseling & case management and network capacity building. One of the primary goals of the Hub is to thoughtfully engage with as many Austin residents as possible and to refer them to services and opportunities in our vast network of providers and resource partners.