Paving the Path to Homeownership for Housing Choice Voucher Holders
Since the mid-20th century, homeownership has been one of the most important vehicles for building wealth in the United States. According to research from the…
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.
Explore Our Discretionary Grants
Showing 5831–5838 of 4696 results
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Grant Recipient
Brave Space Alliance
Brave Space Alliance (BSA) respectfully requests a $50,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust in support of our general operations. During a time when hostile policies increasingly target the LGBTQ+ community, support from the Trust will help us to continue serving our community by providing a safe space, meeting our constituents’ basic needs, protecting gender-affirming care, and boldly advocating for the liberation of all people. Addressing Critical Needs BSA was founded specifically to serve Black and brown trans and LGB+ people on the South and West Sides of Chicago. Our work begins at our Hyde Park Community Center, where we offer holistic support programs to meet the critical needs of our constituents, as defined in the RFP. These wrap-around services are based on the pillars of Health, Housing, Food, and Identity, and include: -Health: onsite HIV and STI testing and counseling, referrals to culturally-competent, gender-affirming care, linkage to PrEP, health literacy education materials (including sexual health education), behavioral health support sessions, support groups, and an on-site clinic (on track to begin operating in late 2025) -Housing: our Jasmine Alexander Housing Building offers temporary residential support for up to 15 housing-insecure individuals for up to 18 months. All residents are trans or LGB+ individuals who are housing insecure and living with or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Programming also includes financial literacy education and workforce development training to build household wealth and economic security. -Food: BSA’s Community Pantry serves as an alternative food system for the community members we serve, who often don’t feel comfortable visiting other food pantry locations for fear of identity-based judgment or violence. -Identity: The Dignity Suite (rooms offering free, gender-affirming clothing, accessories, and hygiene items), free barber and beautician services, free transit passes, technical assistance enrolling in SNAP and other benefits, pop-up name change clinics, and ballroom events and classes. Collective Power BSA builds collective power in our community by uplifting the voices of our community members. BSA was founded in part to address the lack of influence BIPOC trans and LGB+ people have within institutions that made decisions affecting our lives. BSA is a “for us, by us” organization, with 100% of our program staff as queer people of color. Black and brown trans and LGB+ people are represented at key decision-making positions at all levels of BSA, from volunteer members to staff to the Board of Directors. BSA’s staff represents the community we serve and draws on the skills, knowledge, and resilience of the community to develop creative responses and long-term solutions. We regularly hire from the community we serve, and are committed to equitable workplace practices, including providing training and professional development for employees. BSA also builds collective power by educating our community members about policies that impact them, and empowering them to speak out on behalf of the community, and take action in the public arena. Policy Change BSA pursues policy change through our advocacy work. As Chicago's only Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ organization, BSA occupies a unique role in Chicago’s community organizing and social justice work ecosystem, bridging the gaps between community organizations working on trans and LGB+ rights, racial and economic justice, and gender justice. Though our advocacy work quickly evolves in response to a changeable political and social climate, it can generally be broken down into the following categories: -Advocacy Coalitions: BSA participates in coalitions at the local and state levels, and maintains working partnerships with a variety of Chicago and Illinois coalitions, including Equality Illinois. -Community Policing Reform: We serve on the Community Advisory Committee for the Chicago Police Department’s initiative to reform community policing policy. -Know-Your-Rights Trainings: We host regular know-your-rights trainings, including recent trainings focusing on the rights of migrants. -Training Workshops: BSA offers a comprehensive suite of training for groups looking to learn about intersectional trans-awareness and anti-racism. A recent highlight of our advocacy work includes CEO Channyn Lynne Parker’s direct meeting with Governor JB Pritzker, where she shared the importance of increased financial support for HIV testing and support programs amidst federal funding cuts. This conversation directly contributed to the release of a grant opportunity through the Illinois Department of Public Health offering a total of $4,000,000 to support HIV prevention and response services. This fall, we will also develop and pilot cultural competency trainings for healthcare representatives across medical, social, and public health systems in Chicago. These trainings will prepare representatives for a BSA-hosted Systems Alignment Lab, where they will gather to develop more equitable, interconnected, and aligned healthcare delivery strategies to improve access to healthcare for LGB+ individuals living on Chicago’s South and West sides. We are grateful for this opportunity to apply for a general operating grant from the Chicago Community Trust Cross Community Impact program. In addition to supporting the delivery of our programs for 5,500+ individuals, a gift from the Trust will support our work to complete the following objectives during the grant period: -Launch comprehensive health services at our on-site clinic to extend the wraparound support we offer our community. In addition to existing HIV testing and referrals to health practitioners, new on-site offerings will include: general exams, testing, and consultations with medical practitioners; blood pressure and blood sugar screenings; 1:1 education sessions on a wide range of health issues; and on-site access to services offered by our partners. -Expand our workforce development and financial literacy programs, forging additional partnerships to supplement existing partnerships with Fifth Third Bank and Capital One, increasing our reach to at least 100 individuals served annually. -Continue advocating for the needs and rights of trans and LGB+ individuals, particularly the needs of queer communities of color, in the public arena. We will remain nimble and responsive to the political environment as it changes, dynamically meeting the needs of our constituents as they evolve. Thank you for your consideration of this request. We deeply value the partnership of the Chicago Community Trust in supporting and protecting the LGBTQ+ community during this challenging time.
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Grant Recipient
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago
A $100,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust will bolster the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago’s (the Y) efforts in enhancing Early Learning access and equity across Chicago. The Y is one of the largest providers of early education in the region, with a total enrollment capacity of 758 children across eight Chicago locations. The Y’s vision is to be at the forefront of advancing Early Learning as a trusted convener and connector for all communities. High quality, comprehensive early education services are key to fostering healthy child development and ensuring long-term success for children and families.
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Grant Recipient
Revolution Institute
Revolution Institute (RI) will partner with Project Equity (PE) to raise awareness of worker-owned cooperatives as a strategy to strengthen and retain local businesses and build meaningful wealth for workers in the Chicagoland area, and will provide technical assistance to help local businesses pursue and complete transitions to cooperative models. The objective is to facilitate the purchase of a manufacturing or energy company and convert it to employee ownership on behalf of distressed families and communities.
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Grant Recipient
18th Street Casa de Cultura NFP
¡Son Chiquitos! - “They Are Little Ones,” provides music and art-based programming that draws upon cultural traditions and Spanish language resources, embedded within the community, to guide healthy bilingual, bicultural child development. Son Chiquitos began in 2010 as an artist, educator and family network to provide culturally relevant music education for young children, ages 0-6. Over 15 years, the program has developed multiple formats for creating impactful learning experiences that strengthen children’s multilingual awareness and early bilingual literacy, and healthy multicultural identity development. Children and extended families often participate for several years, in some cases, from birth as participants, into related school-age programs we developed as an outgrowth, to older youth and young adults who volunteer with the program. In Fall, 2021, we incorporated Son Chiquitos and related programs into the 18th Street Casa de Cultura organization and 5,000 ft2 physical space, where we host and continue to grow Son Chiquitos programs; the physical space also allows us to provide access to an extensive, curated children’s multilingual reading collection, and areas for didactic displays and exhibits that rotate with the cultural themes. During the past 2024-25 season, 18th Street Casa de Cultura has been hosting and organizing the Son Chiquitos Foro Musical - Saturday morning immersion programs with art stations and a highly interactive live music presentation, designed with themes aligned to a cultural calendar. Curriculum and activities engage children in the construction of meaning and understanding of happenings around them, examining the roots of cultural traditions and activities in relationship to their community and cultural identities. The Son Chiquitos program presentation is currently a monthly community-family engagement event, generally with 50-100 attendees, where young children participate in art making, movement and singing. The program has also been provided to schools, Chicago Public Library branches and other community organizational events. Currently in our 4th year as 18th Street Casa de Cultura, and aligning to our current strategic planning process, we are excited to expand Son Chiquitos programming, increasing the frequency and type of offerings, so that ultimately, young children have more opportunities to engage in Son Chiquitos curriculum. Our goal is to maintain the Son Chiquitos Saturday Foro Musical, large community programs, and to begin offering weekly, size-capped classes providing early childhood music and literacy in small groups, with children able to attend regularly for deeper concept and fluency development. Other short term goals for Son Chiquitos include building our relationships with area schools and centers, where we can bring programs into early childhood classrooms, and support family engagement through music. With this program, we will be measuring our progress on these goals through two key indicators for expanding the scope and scale of our services. By increasing the frequency and type of programs we offer, we will grow the number of programs and number of constituents, expanding enrollment in programming, specifically for constituents to be participating more frequently in greater numbers of activities, increasing the impact of Son Chiquitos programming on children's development.
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Grant Recipient
The Experimental Station: 6100 Blackstone
Since 2008, Experimental Station’s 61st Street Farmers Market in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood has been a pioneering model in serving an under-resourced and under-represented community. One of the first markets in Chicago to accept SNAP, the 61st Street Farmers Market was the first in Illinois to match SNAP purchases, making the Market’s foods accessible by making them more affordable. The Market has also provided a model to markets throughout Illinois in best practices for engaging under-represented populations and building connections among both children and adults to nutritious foods. Experimental Station is requesting general operating support to sustain our 61st Street Farmers Market and the Market's educational offerings, fostering a healthy food culture and better health and wellbeing for more than 1,000 members of our South Side community.
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Grant Recipient
Black Researchers Collective
We're building capacity of Chicago communities with community organizers and movement builders by advancing civic education, increasing research and data literacy, involving residents in state and local policy, and actively engaging folx in a participatory process to activate what they've learned for the benefit of their communities. This work primarily lives in our Community Education & Action Research pillar, and is fully executed in partnership with a number of our Community Anchor Organizations. For FY2025-26, we're working with the following communities and anchor organizations to actively contribute to the economic vitality of Chicago neighborhoods: (1) West Garfield Park: Garfield Park Community Council, (2) Grand Boulevard: Community Assets Builders Association, (3) South Shore: Real Men Charities, and (4) Washington Heights: Elevated Survivorship.
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Grant Recipient
Taskforce Prevention and Community Services
Task Force Prevention and Community Services (TaskForce) respectfully requests $50,000 in general operating support to sustain and expand our vital, life-affirming programs for LGBTQ+ youth of color in Chicago. Based in the heart of the Austin community—a neighborhood deeply affected by systemic disinvestment—TaskForce serves as one of the only safe, affirming hubs for over 3,500 LGBTQ+ youth, offering integrated services that address the intertwined challenges of HIV prevention, mental health, gender-based violence, and food insecurity. This application will outline: Our Mission and Values: A community-rooted commitment to the sexual health, wellbeing, and empowerment of LGBTQ+ youth of color through a trauma-informed, culturally responsive model of care. Organizational History and Urgency: Founded in 1990, TaskForce operates in one of Chicago’s most underserved areas. As demand for our services surges—up 40% from 2023—we face rising costs and urgent needs from youth navigating housing insecurity, violence, and limited access to affirming healthcare. Core Programs and Services Including: Health Services: Free, on-site HIV/STI testing, PrEP navigation, hormone therapy, and wraparound care. Mental Health and Violence Prevention: Referrals, expressive therapies, youth mental health training, and case management for survivors of gender-based violence. Essential Needs: A growing food pantry, gender-affirming clothing closet, legal aid, and warm meals. Community Engagement: The Vogue School, CPS outreach, and employment readiness programs rooted in cultural pride and identity. Impact and Reach: In 2024 alone, we provided 600+ HIV tests, distributed 2,400+ produce bags, served 1,100+ families through our food pantry, and engaged over 2,000 youth in our Vogue School—all at no cost to participants. Vision for 2025: With your support, we aim to reach 4,000 youth, deepen partnerships for on-site care, grow food access by 10%, and expand trauma-informed, gender-affirming programming citywide. Why Now: LGBTQ+ youth of color—especially Black and Latinx youth—face unprecedented barriers to basic healthcare, safety, and stability. Amid rising attacks on gender-affirming care and widening health disparities, TaskForce is often the only place many youth feel safe, seen, and supported. Without increased funding, our ability to meet this moment is at risk. We ask for your partnership to protect and expand access to services that save lives, affirm identities, and build brighter futures for LGBTQ+ youth of color in Chicago. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
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Grant Recipient
Illinois Environmental Council Education Fund
The Illinois Environmental Council Education Fund (IECEF) will continue to engage coalition partners and educate decision-makers in an effort to create a stronger, more resilient local food economy in Chicagoland and throughout Illinois.