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…
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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.
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Grant Recipient
Communities In Schools of Chicago
Educational attainment is the social factor that is the greatest predictor of a person’s health and well-being across the lifespan (The Dropout Crisis: A Public Health Crisis and the Role of School-Based Health Care 2018). Adults who do not graduate are more likely to die from preventable diseases (American Public Health Association 2018). The rates of self-reported poor health and chronic disease are often higher among individuals with lower levels of educational attainment (CHNA 2019). The Alliance for Health Equity cites that education is an important determinant of health because poverty, unemployment, and underemployment are highest among those with lower levels of educational attainment. People with high school diplomas earn almost $600,000 more over a lifetime and are less likely to live in poverty. They are also less likely to be the victim or perpetrator of violence. (For the Record: The Costs of High School Dropouts 2011). Achieving graduation drives greater positive health and life outcomes. Yet, students from low-income backgrounds, who are at the core of our work, are historically up to six time more likely to dropout from school than their more affluent peers (The Conditions of Education 2017). To that end, we prioritize working with schools in communities that face systemic inequities, which disproportionately affect our students and families, as demonstrated by lower educational attainment, employment, and household income. Our mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. For 33 years, we have challenged health and resource inequities that disproportionately impact BILPOC students. We advance our mission through our evidence-based programs with a proven impact on student outcomes. In the 2021-2022 school year, we are partnering with 175 public schools, primarily in economically distressed neighborhoods where poverty, violence, and limited access to health care adversely affects quality of life. Each year, we reach 50,000+ students through our combined programs. Partnership Program: At 175 schools, we connect whole-school services across six domains: health & wellness, counseling & supportive guidance, parent & family engagement, academic support, college & career readiness, and arts & culture. In the Partnership Program, we co-create a School Needs Assessment in collaboration with school leadership. We work together to identify the types of services that would be most impactful for students, and we look for resources that can support the whole child. We amplify the strengths of our school partners, maximize community resources through our trusted and robust network of community partners, and mobilize those supports to schools to reach students who face limited access to services. Examples of the health services we connect to students include asthma management, immunizations, vision and hearing screenings, sexual health education, and nutrition education. Counseling, mentoring, and stress management services help students manage anxiety, trauma, and the stressors in their lives, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In school year 2021–2022, we plan to reach 50,000 students through whole-school services. Intensive Program: At 30 of these schools, we also provide direct and intensive support, including counseling, mentoring, and case management to 1,350 of these students with the highest risk of falling off track in school. A CIS Student Supports Manager (SSM) is a full-time member of the school community at each Intensive school, providing targeted support to approximately 45 students on a caseload, helping to foster a positive school culture, engaging students and parents, and coordinating requested services that reach students across the entire school. All SSMs have achieved master's degrees in counseling, expressive therapies, social work, youth development, or a related field.
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Grant Recipient
Hickman and Harrison Group LLC dba ReveNewCycle Management and Consulting LLC
ReveNewCycle Management and Consulting LLC (ReveNewCycle) is a black woman-owned revenue cycle management and consulting firm that offers healthcare providers cost-effective solutions to billing issues. ReveNewCycle’s target market is healthcare providers who deliver services to disadvantaged communities. Central to ReveNewCycle’s mission is the training and employment of community residents. The development project location will serve as the operational headquarters for ReveNewCycle Management and Consulting, as well as a business incubator/co-working space for the small business owners within the Roseland community.
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Grant Recipient
YOUNG INVINCIBLES
Young Invincibles (YI) co-leads the Illinois Higher Education Network (IHEN) to create a more equitable higher education system. We address the impacts of institutionalized racism and classism on the success of Black and Latinx students, and students from low-income households. The coalition consists of advocacy organizations, college access and success organizations, college and university faculty and staff, and students. Working with these stakeholders, YI builds momentum for policies to create fair institutional funding models, meet students’ basic needs, increase financial aid, and address student mental health in a culturally competent manner.
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Grant Recipient
I AM ABLE CENTER FOR FAMILY DEVELOPMENT
I AM ABLE has demonstrated significant growth this year, after receiving a 590 Crisis Care System grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services and Department of Mental Health Services. This allowed us to create a new program, Wellness H.E.A.L.S. (Helping Everyone Anytime Live Supported) which is consistent with our goal to assist residents as they deal with trauma and crises in their daily lives. This program will be operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. The funding received does not fully cover administrative costs related to this opportunity. The support that we are requesting from CCT would help to cover accounting and facility management costs.
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Grant Recipient
Grow Greater Englewood
Grow Greater Englewood is a 501(c)3 non-profit social enterprise development organization established in 2014 focused on revitalizing the Englewood community through the creation of agriculture-based social enterprises leveraging the acquisition, repurposing and preservation of vacant land in Englewood. The Ujima Hive will provide space for creating and growing agriculture-based social enterprises and potentially serve as the Chicago Food Policy Action Council’s proposed Food Hub, a social enterprise that manages a combination of aggregation, processing, distribution and marketing on behalf of multiple urban farms
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Grant Recipient
Greater Chicago Food Depository
The Greater Chicago Food Depository’s mission is “providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger in our community.” The organization has grown to provide over 93 million pounds of food annually, the equivalent of 300,000 meals each day. In response to the significant need as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this fiscal year the Food Depository anticipates distributing 105 million pounds of food. Our organization also implements innovative solutions to address the root causes of hunger and food insecurity, like helping low-income individuals and families enroll in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and invests in programs that strengthen the health and economic stability of communities. In particular, the Food Depository operates workforce development programs to prepare un/underemployed individuals for quality jobs, advocates for food security policies and serves as the coordinator and capacity building provider for a network of over 700 community-based food distribution partners and programs. The prevalence of hunger in Cook County demands a need for a strong network of community partners working to distribute healthy food to individuals and families in need, as well as comprehensive public policies that address food insecurity and its root causes. With the support of the Chicago Community Trust, the Greater Chicago Food Depository will continue to advance our hunger relief policy agendas and provide capacity building and technical assistance to strengthen our network of 700 food access partners – especially those in communities of color – to ensure everyone in Cook County has access to the food needed to lead healthy, stable lives.
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Grant Recipient
Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU Inc
The ACLU of Illinois (ACLU) and our coalition partners seek to end the unjust revenue-generation practices of Chicago and Illinois governments, and to implement the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) to phase out cash bail in Illinois by January 2023. Wealth-based punishments and policies, such as cash bail and excessive fines and fees, disproportionately harm low-income people while failing to improve community safety. Due to the racial wealth gap, people of color suffer disproportionately from wealth-based systems of punishment. The ACLU is working in partnership with two coalitions to address these issues at the city and state level, using policy advocacy, public education and engagement, and implementation strategies to advance reform.
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Grant Recipient
Local Initiatives Support Corp.
This request to CCT is for continued partnership with Local Initiatives Support Corporation on the Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards (CNDA). LISC respectfully requests the Chicago Community Trust’s renewed support of $25,000 to sponsor “The Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Plan Award” to be presented at CNDA. The winner of the award in 2022, selected through a competitive application process led by cross-sector representatives from the city's community development industry, is the N. Lawndale Quality of Life Plan led by the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council. The CNDA event where the award will be presented along with other sponsored awards is on June 29, 2022 at the South Shore Cultural Center.