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 5891–5898 of 4731 results
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Commons
Chicago Commons respectfully requests a $95,000 general operations grant. Generous support from Chicago Community Trust will allow us to continue serving families across generations. For more than 130 years Chicago Commons (Commons) has been driven by our mission to empower communities to overcome poverty and systemic barriers, embrace opportunities, and thrive across generations. For our community’s youngest members, Commons provides high-quality, year-round early childhood education to children in underserved communities from 6 weeks to 5 years old. Our four directly-operated early childhood education centers empower children through the Reggio Emilia approach for self-directed, experiential learning. We also have 18 Head Start/Early Head Start subgrantee early childhood education sites across 15 other underserved areas. We provide services that help seniors and adults with disabilities maintain their independence and quality of life. Our Adult Day Service center provides individualized care in a community-based group setting, and our Home Care Aides assist seniors throughout Chicagoland with their daily needs. Finally, our Family Hub empowers the parents/caregivers of our children and seniors through financial empowerment, entrepreneurship, workforce and skill development, degree/accreditation attainment services, mental/physical wellness workshops, and self-advocacy. Commons serves approximately 3,500 individuals across all programs annually. Commons works with families from across the Chicagoland area, but our main service sites are the Lower West Side (Pilsen), New City (Back of the Yards), Grand Boulevard, and Humboldt Park. Research has repeatedly shown the importance of early childhood education (ECE) equity in closing the gap between low-income students and their wealthier peers, as well as building a foundation for success later in life. In the neighborhoods we serve, only 33% of children from birth to three are reached by Early Head Start services. Our diverse participants include homeless families, teen parents, immigrants, children with disabilities, and those involved in the child welfare system. 98% of our families are below 100% of the Federal Poverty guideline, making them Head Start eligible. Many face significant economic hardships, with an average household income of $15,050. About 60% of participants identify as Black/African American and 30% as Latino/a/x. 95% of primary caregivers of our ECE students are single mothers. Finally, studies have linked social isolation to a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults, as well as an increased vulnerability to abuse, neglect, and exploitation. 84% of Adult Day Services clients are over the age of 60; 85% live alone. Commons’ multigenerational approach exceeds what can be achieved through separate services for parents and children. Our approach combines high quality Early Childhood Education with holistic family services, leading to better long-term outcomes and the potential to interrupt intergenerational poverty.
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Grant Recipient
Heartland Human Care Services Inc
Heartland Human Care Services (HHCS) respectfully requests $130,000 in general operating support from the Chicago Community Trust’s Essential Services Grant to strengthen its internal infrastructure and ensure long-term sustainability of its critical programs serving Chicago’s most vulnerable communities. HHCS addresses poverty, displacement, and injustice, delivering trauma-informed services through four core portfolios: Housing, Asset Building, and Traveler’s Aid; Youth Residential Services; Workforce Development; and Refugee and Immigrant Community Services. This grant will support the launch of a dedicated resource development team to expand and diversify philanthropic funding, enabling HHCS to maintain and grow high-quality, integrated services that address housing instability, unemployment, trauma, and barriers to good health and self-sufficiency. The initiative aligns with a clear theory of change: by investing in organizational capacity, HHCS will solidify and grow stakeholder support and deepen its partnerships for maximum impact. HHCS is an active collaborator across the Chicago region, maintaining formal agreements with sector partners in housing, healthcare, refugee resettlement, and anti-trafficking networks. Through these partnerships, HHCS delivers coordinated, client-centered care and contributes to citywide efforts to advance equity and address root causes of poverty and exclusion. Data is central to HHCS’s learning and improvement strategy. With improved fundraising infrastructure and stronger data systems, HHCS will be well-positioned to scale its work, strengthen sector alignment, and contribute to a more just, thriving Chicago region.
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Grant Recipient
The Leadership Center for Attorney General Studies
State Attorneys General (AGs) play a critical role in defending civil liberties and protecting state residents from harm. As AGs stand up to for our values and constitutional rights, the Leadership Center for Attorney General Studies (LCAGS) is their key platform for support and the hubs from which they will draw resources and engage with national partners. This grant will fund a program placing experienced legal fellows in the Illinois AG's office, providing the office with capacity to protect Illinois residents at a time when resources are limited and threats are great.
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Grant Recipient
Southland Human Services Leadership Council
This Bridge Grant Request by the Southland Human Services Leadership Council is intended to continue to deepen and strengthen the Council’s cross-sector systems leadership by drilling down and focusing on filling gaps in workforce development delivery, across the agencies that make up the whole of the Council and across multiple forms of job types. SHSLC will continue to act as a convenor and leader for dozens of agencies across the region, holding regular meetings to network members and identify regional needs and service gaps. But this plan and future vision for the region is based on implementing program vision to fill gaps and provide connective tissue among the agencies in the membership.
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Grant Recipient
Small Business Advocacy Council
The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) will support four communities through its newly launched Commercial Corridors program. This project will select and fund ten small businesses transitioning into new brick-and-mortar locations or expanding their current spaces in these four communities. This project will provide these businesses with funds and resources to proceed with the first stages of their projects while waiting on additional city funding. The project will provide marketing and coaching opportunities and assistance to these businesses.
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Grant Recipient
Business Services Collective NFP
Business Services Collective, NFP DBA Builders Avenue ("Builders Avenue"), a nonprofit focused on building healthy communities through a vibrant construction sector, is requesting a one-time grant of $300,000 to expand our program supporting diverse construction entrepreneurs in Chicago. In a moment where our city requires expansion of affordable housing, renewed urban infrastructure, and a green transition, diverse construction entrepreneurs will build our neighborhoods while creating pathways to community wealth and employment. This funding will enable us to serve 28 additional construction entrepreneurs, improving their financial health by providing more than 1,000 hours of personalized 1-on-1 training and back office support improving their ability to plan, manage, and fund their construction businesses. More than a coaching program, our unique approach incubates the creation of sustainable community assets such as entry-level workforce and shared services tailored to the specifications of participant entrepreneurs, providing holistic solutions addressing the interlocking barriers to business growth. Based on our 5 year track record of success, Together Fund’s support for our model is expected to generate 15% growth in revenues for participant businesses, including more than $2 million in new construction projects, $700,000 in capital accessed, and a 10% increase in financial health for 28 businesses maintaining more than 200 jobs and $5 million in economic activity across Chicago.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago State University Foundation
Chicago State University has a significant transfer student population with over 48% of the incoming 23-24 student class composed of new transfer students. However, we recognize that this population needs academic, career, and social supports in order to thrive and not lose the momentum they have developed through completing their associate’s degrees. The proposed Rx Roadmap program will strengthen the existing relationship between Chicago State University and Olive-Harvey College so that STEM and allied health students will be supported as they matriculate through both institutions. This planning grant will focus on three objectives: 1.) Clarify existing academic and career challenges for students through surveys and focus groups with students, their families, and advisors at both institutions, 2.) develop relevant student supports focused on both decreasing loss of course credits and time to degree completion paired with providing students with the ability to explore multiple career options and increasing students’ sense of belonging in the health and STEM professional fields, 3.) exploring technology solutions to better provide students with degree completion transparency. These objectives will be met by engaging with One Million Degrees,(OMD) an organization that ensures student success through academic and financial wrap-around support. We will develop a partnership with OMD who will be providing technical assistance on how to embed its evidenced-based model for offering professional development and individualized coaching to program participants. OMD’s professional development curriculum will include topics relating to self-care/wellness, resume building, interviewing skills, and time management. Career exploration is a critical component of the Rx Roadmap program. Faculty, alumni, and representatives from external partner agencies will provide programming allowing for increased awareness of the array of opportunities with the health professions and STEM fields. For example, utilizing a formal partnership between Chicago State University and Astellas Pharma, students will gain a deeper understanding of various post graduate opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry. In order to streamline academic advising and optimal transfer of credit between Chicago State University and Olive-Harvey College, we will be exploring a shared technology tool that would offer personalized transfer planning tools, deadlines, resource links, campus maps, and push notifications. The tool is envisioned as a constant companion for students, providing real-time updates and guidance. Specifically, it will enhance student engagement, timely transfer actions, and improve transfer success rates. During the planning phase of the grant, we would investigate and test different options available on the market. Once we have selected an instrument or app, we would train a focus group of students and staff on its usage and evaluate its benefits for improving student engagement with the goal of a larger-scale roll-out for the full grant.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Foundation/Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance
This is a funding application for the Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance. Bridges to Brighter Futures is a Leadership Funder of the Funder Alliance, and this application maintains that role in FY25 and FY26. Being a Leadership Funder means that this funding (at least in part) pools with the other Leadership Funders, and that Bridges to Brighter Futures representative(s) sit on the CWFA Management Committee to direct the funder collaborative's strategies, staff and grant-making. The application itself, as agreed to by Leadership Funders, is mainly cut and pasted from the latest version of the CWFA Leadership Funder Generic Proposal.