Grants

Grant Recipient

Music Box Foundation

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $6,000

Music Box Foundation is a family run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established in 2011. Our mission is "To be a catalyst for building healthy communities and enriching lives through the power of music and the arts." We provide music education, dance, audio/video recording technology, mentoring and workforce development programs to underserved youth, young adults, and students with disabilities. Since our founding, we have served over 10,000 youth primarily from low-income communities giving access to and participation in music instruction as a creative endeavor, building critical thinking skills, team building and leadership development. The students learn music literacy, music theory, and how to perform popular songs as well as compose their own music and songs on a variety of instruments including percussions, woodwinds, guitar and keyboard. Students also have an opportunity to shadow engineers where they learn how to use sound boards and other equipment both in a studio environment and during live performances. Students learn how to operate video cameras, learn about lighting, production, reproduction and storytelling. Our goal is to unify and strengthen our communities, provide inspiration and purpose to our youth and promote violence prevention by providing a safe space for our students to be their creative selves. We are seeking funding to continue supporting our video/band program located at the Woodlawn facility which is an old Fire station located 6843 S. Harper Ave.

Grant Recipient

Hello Baby NFP

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $6,000

HelloBaby is a not-for-profit organization with a mission is to support, empower and inspire families raising young children in underserved neighborhoods in Chicago. Our completely free drop-in play center helps underprivileged families enjoy play in a safe and secure center. We have successfully created a culture of community that offers babies a safe and nurturing environment to play.nnHelloBaby was created in 2016 to meet the needs of underserved families in the City of Chicago. Since then, the organization has successfully created a culture of community that offers parents the tools that they need and babies a safe and nurturing environment to play. HelloBaby is the nation’s first (and only) independent, free-of-charge drop-in play space.nnOur proposed project is to develop a play patio area for visitors to enjoy during our warmer seasons. Currently, our center is bright, friendly, and very inviting but our patio area is underdeveloped. We anticipate that this will lead to positive health benefits, both mental and physical, for all that visit.

Grant Recipient

Open Collective Foundation

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $6,000

This grant will be used for two separate projects. First, it would be used to support the activation of the Love Solar Powered Fridge site in Englewood. The second way funds from the grant would be used is to fund an initiative called "The Culinary Care Kit." The Love Fridge is a community mutual aid project that provides free food and meals for the Chicago community. Approximately 30 fridges are set up across Chicago to provide free food and other common grocery items to populations who are living in low-income, historically disinvested and resource poor neighborhoods. In the winter of 2020, the Love Fridge established its first community Fridge in Englewood at Getting Grown Collective’s Libations to the Ancestors Community Garden. This fridge was initially powered from electricity provided by a neighbor. Unfortunately the neighbor wasn't able to continue to host the electric needs of the fridge. In an effort to maintain this location, the Love Fridge intends to create its first off-grid site using solar power. To make this happen, the fridge will need to be upgraded and the shelter will require modifications. Additionally, the solar capacity will be used to power: radios, cellphones, laptops, lighting, and tool batteries for tools used in the community garden, which supplies food throughout the growing season to the Love Fridge and the greater Englewood Community. The Culinary Care Kits Initiative focuses on improving the user experience for both the chefs from the Full Circle Initiative, as well as any potential users who are interested in learning how to make simple healthy meals with the basic kitchen tools and equipment. One of the ways that we plan to improve user experiences will be through the distribution of the Culinary Care Kits to both unhoused people and people who are housing insecure, as both groups often lack the proper resources to make a good home cooked meal. The Culinary Care Kits will include portable kitchen appliances such as a mini stove, pots/pans, and utensils. We plan on increasing the engagement with the outside users and the Love Fridge organization by creating a page on the Love Fridge website with all the recipes that the Full Circle chefs have created so that both the chefs and outside users will be able to access the recipes at any time. The meals that are shown on the website will consist of common ingredients that can often be found at the various Love Fridges. Additionally, the recipes will be designed so that meals can be prepared using the portable kitchen appliances and tools that are in the Culinary Care Kits. The overall focus of this project is to provide necessary tools and equipment to unhoused or housing insecure people while also providing them with simple and easily accessible instructions to cook healthy chef-inspired meals on their own with the limited resources that they have.

Grant Recipient

Son Monarcas

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $3,000

> Overview: Son Monarcas-led Summer Arts Camp at McCutcheon Elementary. > Goals: Provide cultural arts programming for students at McCutcheon Elementary who might otherwise not have this opportunity. Introduce students to the unique history and fusion of music and dance from Latin America, particularly Mexico. This funding would support youth programming in cultural arts education through a summer camp at McCutcheon Elementary, where we would be working predominantly with Latinx and African American students coming from low-income backgrounds. > Primary Project Activities: - Son Monarcas led Cultural Arts Education Programming in Music, Visual Art, and Theatre at McCutcheon Elementary School and possibly other youth organizations - Field trip to National Museum of Mexican Art which includes an interactive museum tour, Aztec drum and dance workshops, printmaking workshops at the studio of Hector Duarte, and "Butterfly Fandango" educational performance. The grant would help to fund youth programming in cultural arts education with a specialization in music from Latin America, the music and dance from Latin America, and even more specialization to music from Mexico. The youth that we would be focused on working with would be Latinx and African American, low-income populations throughout the Chicagoland area. We may also be using it to supplement teacher instruction and field trips for McCutcheon Elementary and possibly other youth organizations in Chicago.

Grant Recipient

Save Abandoned Babies Foundation

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $5,000

To increase bus shelter signage throughout the Chicago public bus transportation system to further educate everyone on the Safe Haven Law.

Grant Recipient

Center for Impact Research

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $50,000

Grant Recipient

YOUTH GUIDANCE

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $5,000

Grant Recipient

National Able Network, Inc.

Awarded: June 2022 Awarded Amount: $5,000