Trust Talks, The Podcast – Episode 15: We Rise Together: For An Equitable & Just Recovery
In this episode of Trust Talks, we discuss We Rise Together’s impact and what’s next, including how the initiative—and donors—can continue to fuel the…
Community Wealth
We are working toward a future when community assets — businesses, land, homes, and commercial real estate — will sustain and increase majority Black and Latine community well-being, cohesion and prosperity, ultimately building household wealth and a more thriving Chicago region.
Community Wealth: State of the Space
After decades of disinvestment in majority Black and Latine communities in Chicago, there is a growing recognition that traditional approaches to economic development are insufficient to close the wealth gap in communities. Today, there is a heightened focus on fostering community-led investment and development. Community wealth building is gaining traction as an approach to economic development that creates local amenities and promotes shared ownership and control of community assets.
According to data from the Cook County Assessor’s Office, the West and South sides of Cook County have the highest number of vacant and abandoned properties and the lowest average assessment values for those unused pieces of land. One primary reason for this is the lack of investment and development in these areas, which has led to a scarcity of amenities that contribute to a high quality of life and hinder the ability to build assets such as a home or small business.
Where We Focus
There is a wide range of interventions that can be pursued to build community wealth across the Chicago region. The Trust believes we can have the greatest impact by prioritizing funding for community-led initiatives aimed at transforming disinvested communities, preserving residents’ stakes in gentrifying areas, and ensuring asset ownership spurs growth for current and future residents.
Specifically, the Trust’s Community Wealth funding is designed to:
Our Vision
We are working toward a future when community assets – businesses, land, homes, and commercial real estate – will sustain and increase majority Black and Latine community well-being, cohesion and prosperity, ultimately building household wealth and a more thriving Chicago region.
As we move forward, we are committed to learning together, adjusting, and being responsive. We will use insights from our grantmaking and input from our partners to shape our learning journey and approach.
Collaboration is Needed
The Trust collaborates with a wide range of external partners, including community organizations, local government, and civic and corporate leaders, on ways we can work together or alongside one another to help increase wealth, opportunities and well-being for every Chicagoan.
The Community Wealth team works closely with the following funder collaboratives housed at or co-led by The Chicago Community Trust:
- Elevated Chicago: A partnership of organizations committed to transforming the half-mile radius around transit stations into hubs of opportunity and connection across our region’s vast transit system.
- Food:Land:Opportunity: A multi-year initiative to create a resilient local food economy that protects and conserves land and other natural resources while promoting market innovation.
- We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery: An accelerator in the economic recovery to help ensure Black and Latine communities hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis are not left behind, supporting a stronger region for all through grants to community-directed real estate projects and support for thriving locally owned businesses and expanded employment opportunities.
Join Us
Chicago needs more wealth-building partners! Whether you are a donor, a community leader, work for a nonprofit, lead a company, or serve as a local government representative, we invite you to join us in increasing opportunities for Chicagoans to build assets.
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How You Can Take Action
Interested in learning more or partnering with us?
Please contact Christen Wiggins, Senior Director of Community Wealth, at cwiggins@cct.org, or Adele Nandan, Director of Donor Engagement, at anandan@cct.org.
