The Chicago Community Trust Awards $150,000 to We Will Chicago Partners

CHICAGO (October 19, 2021) – The Chicago Community Trust announced today that it has awarded $150,000 to 10 We Will Chicago community partners to help advance the City of Chicago’s first citywide planning initiative in more than 50 years.

Through the Trust’s Flexible Funding Program, each $15,000 grant will help the non-profit organizations to engage and represent their constituencies related to the We Will plan’s long-term equity and resiliency goals.

The Trust grant recipients are:

• Bronzeville Community Development Partnership
• Chicago Cultural Alliance
• Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community
• Eighteenth Street Development Corporation
• Endeleo Institute
• Garfield Park Community Council
• North River Commission
• Rogers Park Business Alliance
• Southeast Environmental Task Force
• Territory

The funding matches the City of Chicago’s financial commitment to 15 additional community-based organizations in this phase of the three-year, citywide planning effort.

“We see the importance of helping to resource the citywide planning process to ensure that community-based voices inform and shape the direction of our city’s future,” said Sandra Aponte, community impact program manager at the Trust.

“By investing in community partners, the Trust is helping to ensure the We Will planning process truly addresses the city’s needs and represents the priorities of neighborhood stakeholders,” added Maurice Cox, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, the lead agency for the We Will Chicago plan.

Through coordinated dialog and research conducted through monthly meetings, the organizations are each supporting one of the plan’s seven core pillars by actively taking part in a series of engagement meetings that are shaping the guiding questions of We Will Chicago.

The topic pillars include:

• Arts and Culture
• Economic Development
• Environment, Climate and Energy
• Housing and Neighborhoods
• Lifelong Learning
• Public Health and Safety
• Transportation and Infrastructure

A complete list of research team individuals and organizations is available on the We Will Chicago website. Resources that highlight the teams’ contributions to the We Will initiative can be found in the documentarian reports for each pillar group.

Members of the public interested in hearing more about the We Will plan should register for an account on the program’s website.