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
ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS
1.4 million people live in poverty in Illinois, according to the Illinois Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security. Last year, ICIRR began a journey to explicitly tackle and reverse poverty in Illinois. We built a cross-movement coalition whose long-term goal was to significantly reduce poverty across the state for all of its residents. During our very successful inaugural year, we helped win new support for low-income residents and revenue fixes to generate hundreds of millions of dollars to fund these supports. While much work remains, our efforts demonstrated what is possible when we continue to build upon our efforts to unapologetically reverse poverty throughout Illinois. Living in poverty is both costly and hazardous to one's health. Families with low incomes have reduced access to healthcare, are more likely to reside in unhealthy environments, and generally have shorter life expectancies than wealthier families. They often face financial ruin from a single medical emergency. The everyday costs of raising a family place these households in a precarious financial situation, making it difficult to break free from poverty. Poverty is also racialized, with these challenges being more pronounced in communities of color. Undocumented residents face even greater hurdles, as they are more prone to exploitative labor conditions and have limited access to job opportunities that offer upward mobility. Despite paying taxes, millions of immigrants are excluded from government safety net programs due to their immigration status. To mitigate these burdens on working families across Illinois, ICIRR has been educating legislators and other stakeholders about the importance of state investments designed to transition all people, regardless of immigration status, out of the cycle of poverty. With support from the Trust, ICIRR will build upon and expand its successes to organize its base to build support for state-level investments that strengthen our newly won state Child Tax Credit (CTC), continue to expand healthcare coverage to all, push for direct cash assistance through guaranteed income programs to low-income Illinois residents, and more. In addition, ICIRR will continue to partner with organizations across movements to strategize and advance the generation of new sources of revenue in the state budget. With federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars now fully exhausted in the state, we must expand new revenue solutions and community investments at the state-level that reduce poverty and ensure that everyone is able to thrive and not just survive in Illinois.
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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, trainings, 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
Small Business Advocacy Council
During the current grant term, the SBAC engaged in lobbying activities focused on revitalizing commercial corridors and reducing vacancies in disinvested communities by reducing red tape and streamlining processes for small and local businesses. The SBAC has also engaged in lobbying activities, which have resulted in the enactment of legislation that significantly increases incentives for businesses that hire formerly incarcerated individuals. The SBAC's lobbying activities involving the reduction of red tape and transiting vacant properties into small businesses have included direct engagement with Mayor Johnson’s office, alders, policymakers, and other elected officials. These activities include securing the endorsement of over 30 chambers and place-based organizations on a robust package of reforms that will reduce significant red tape for small and local businesses. These efforts have also procured the endorsement of a growing number of alders on the package. The SBAC has led a grassroots campaign focused on galvanizing stakeholders through coalition meetings, email communications, attendance at live events and a robust social media engagement. As stated above, during the current grant term, the SBAC lobbied to increase incentives for small businesses that hire formerly incarcerated individuals. The SBAC engaged policymakers on this issue in Springfield and made this one of the cornerstones of its legislative agenda. This effort led to tangible results and a victory in Springfield, as the General Assembly passed, and Governor Pritzker signed, legislation significantly increasing the tax credits that businesses can receive for hiring formerly incarcerated individuals. These tax credits will help formerly incarcerated individuals transition into the workforce and help with the costs of on-the-job training. Efforts will now include working with stakeholders and policymakers in Black and Latine communities to amplify this win so small and local businesses are aware of these increased tax credits and can utilize them to hire formerly incarcerated individuals in their neighborhoods. The present application continues to request funds for lobbying activities to enact the reforms set forth in the package to reduce red tape and streamline processes. The SBAC has worked closely with local chambers and place-based organizations, and other thought leaders, to develop this package. This package of reforms has evolved based on stakeholder input, and in this current grant cycle, the SBAC will continue lobbying to streamline the process and reduce the costs of obtaining a special use permit. The SBAC will lobby to improve the city inspection process to increase consistency and timeliness. Lobbying activities will also focus on improving the process for the renewal of permits and ensuring that debt checks are timely and accurate and that far-removed debts do not stymie the efforts of entrepreneurs to obtain business licenses for an unreasonable period in disinvested communities. Costly and overly burdensome red tape has a profound impact on Black and Latine entrepreneurs and communities, and addressing these systemic barriers will foster economic development and revitalize disinvested communities. This application requests funds to lobby for better communication between city staff and small businesses, especially in Black and Latine communities, so entrepreneurs receive consistent messages that allow them to open and operate their businesses. These funds will also be used to monitor and remain current on laws and ordinances that will have detrimental or unintended consequences on small businesses in disinvested communities so advocates can be mobilized and empowered to engage on these issues. This application seeks funds to be used for direct lobbying and grassroots activities, such as hosting forums, meetings, roundtables, social media and PR campaigns, and action calls.
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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), the Hope Center Foundation of Chicago (HCF), and Lawndale Christian Development Corporation (LCDC), requests $320,000 to support our proposal to Advance Sustainable Homeownership in the greater Chicago area. Our proposal seeks to directly complement and enhance the work of the Reclaiming Chicago Initiative (RCI), a campaign organized by United Power for Action and Justice to help families in the South and West Sides of Chicago build wealth through homeownership. While not new to RCI, for our second year, we have invited HCF to join our partnership, which will allow us to broaden our footprint into Roseland and expand access to our financial solutions. For this iteration, the collaborative will build on the learnings of our first year of funding and support the RCI vision by providing counseling services to individuals across the home purchase spectrum, utilizing referral channels to connect potential homebuyers to affordable financing solutions, forging new relationships to increase homebuyer DPA access, and piloting an expanded reserve program to protect new owners against unforeseen financial emergencies that may threaten their new ownership status. Through these efforts, we will work towards our long-term Reclaiming Chicago goal of increasing and sustaining the number of Black and Latino homeowners across the South and West Sides of Chicago.
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Grant Recipient
CITY COLLEGES OF CHICAGO FOUNDATION
There is a strong interest among incumbent workers in Chicago’s major healthcare employers (Rush University Medical Center, Northwestern Medicine, Advocate Aurora Health among others) to move from entry level roles such as patient care technicians (PCTs) into nursing careers. For example, in a 2023 Workforce & Organizational Research Center (WORC) survey, although respondents reported generally high levels of job satisfaction, most reported larger career aspirations and many viewed their current roles as stepping stones to roles that offer greater earning potential than their current roles. This interest could provide a sizable growth in personal income – from a starting wage of $21.86 for PCTs to an average of $39.09/hour for registered nurses (RN) – while simultaneously strengthening a key Chicago economic sector. While a number of workforce development initiatives seek to engage incumbent workers in upskilling, these initiatives too often do not optimize student success by identifying, assessing, and addressing upfront the intersectional needs of students, employers, and educational institutions. This City Colleges’ project, in collaboration with healthcare industry workforce organizations and local employers, seeks to assess and address these student success factors associated by implementing a Patient Care Technician (PCT) to Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) Pathway Program. Completion will allow individuals to take the National Council for Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses and move into an RN role. The City Colleges of Chicago Foundation requests $200,000 in grant funds from the Chicago Community Trust to support the initial phases of development and recruitment for a PCT to ADN Pathway Program, establishing a solid foundation for launch. Specifically, funding will support the City Colleges of Chicago and its healthcare partners with tools to identify, screen, and build a support system for PCTs who wish to enroll in the PCT to ADN Pathway Program and achieve greater household wealth. This is a tangible, achievable way that we can collaboratively increase the financial security and health of incumbent workers primarily from Black and Latinx communities.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Women in Trades
Systemic barriers have historically excluded women and people of color—particularly Black individuals—from the construction trades workforce. In Cook County, less than 5 percent of trades apprentices are women, and only 6 percent of Chicago construction workers are African Americans. The Chicago Construction Workforce Equity Coalition, led by Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT), has drafted comprehensive ordinance language in collaboration with tradeswomen of color, minority contractor organizations, and other industry stakeholders. The Chicago Construction Workforce Equity Ordinance takes concrete action to improve access to and retention in the construction trades for underrepresented groups, requires the City to provide the staffing and resources to implement and enforce new requirements, brings all industry stakeholders together to assist with oversight, and requires public reporting of data to provide accountability on performance. Chicago Women in Trades recently succeeded in introducing and getting HB 3400 passed by the Illinois State Legislature in May 2023 to increase state data transparency, thanks to sponsors, Representative Will Davis, Leader Mattie Hunter, and Representative Will Guzzardi. This bill became state law and requires the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) to issue quarterly reports by project and by contractor on the workforce of public works projects that include race, ethnicity, and gender information by trade, skill level, and hours worked—providing workforce data transparency that will lead to accountability to under-represented communities. Fueled by state and federal spending on infrastructure, large scale local projects, and investment in pre-apprenticeship training, opportunity has never been greater to make progress for people of color and women in the trades than it is right now. Now is the time to leverage this legislative victory, momentum, and opportune season so that the City of Chicago provides solutions to racial and gender inequities in the construction trades. Chicago Community Trust funding will alleviate the strain on the coalition’s existing resources and capacity by helping fund lobbying and advocacy efforts as well as marketing and public education initiatives.
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Grant Recipient
Bridges From School to Work Inc.
Bridges from School to Work (Bridges) improves employment and career outcomes for young adults with disabilities ages 18 to 21. We provide a full continuum of workforce development services, including intake, assessment, employability skills, mentoring, job search, career exploration, help with job applications and résumés, job development, and job matching. These services aim to culminate in competitive, unsubsidized employment for 80% of enrolled youth, including 12 months of post-hire follow-up and ongoing case management. Through the Bridges program, youth with disabilities prepare for, obtain, and advance in jobs that help them develop an identity, find a purpose, grow in self-confidence, gain economic empowerment, and increase their prospects for social mobility. Evidenced-based interventions with youth with disabilities at this crucial transitional phase between high school and young adulthood can improve their prospects for lifelong workforce attachment, increased earnings, and overall health and wellbeing. In addition to Bridges services that culminate in employment for older youth, we are piloting classroom-based instructional sessions for younger youth, specifically high school sophomores and juniors ages 15 to 17, on the topics of self-advocacy, job exploration counseling, and workplace readiness training.
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Grant Recipient
The University of Chicago - Office of Civic Engagement
The Chicago Community Trust (CCT) and the University of Chicago Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) have a shared commitment to building a thriving, equitable, and connected Chicago. Aligned to CCT’s Building Collective Power strategy, OCE requests a one-year, $50,000 grant renewal to advance the Civic Actor Studio (CAS) in 2024-2025. The Civic Actor Studio neatly aligns with CCT’s Building Collective Power strategy’s goals to shape leaders by strengthening their ability to address the complex systemic problems their communities face, enhance the influence of hyper-local community leaders who are addressing long-standing structural barriers, and build broader connections among community leaders to promote collaboration toward addressing complex societal issues. The Civic Actor Studio (CAS) at the University of Chicago is a leadership retreat for established and emerging civic leaders, led in partnership with Court Theatre, that connects disparate civic actors — non-profit leaders, educators, funders, media, and UChicago faculty and staff — to examine the various leadership roles they play, engage in civic dialogue, and “practice” the embodiment of civic leadership so that they have increased self-efficacy in their work and can build social capital among groups. Participants read dramatic texts and take part in theater-based exercises and discussions, creating scenes on stage designed to help civic actors access their voice, power, and the wide range of “characters” they embody. Launched in 2018, the Office of Civic Engagement and Court Theatre partnered to develop this new leadership development platform. In 2024, CCT renewal funding will help support the advancement of two CAS cohorts, serving 50 civic actors, as well as enable CAS to extend its program activities to include additional workshops and convenings. OCE will also plan and deliver training for facilitators to help expand the bench of those playing a leadership role in CAS.