Grants

Grant Recipient

Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA)

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $11,100

Grant Recipient

Garfield Park Community Council

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $11,100

Grant Recipient

Logan Square Neighborhood Association

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $11,100

Grant Recipient

Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $11,100

Grant Recipient

Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $20,000

NIJFON's vision is a world where all immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are welcomed, supported and able to live without fear. NIJFON works towards its vision everyday through its mission of providing free immigration legal services to low income immigrants throughout Northern Illinois, providing education and advocacy on immigrant rights and building cross cultural communities. Racist systems perpetuate the advancement of immigrants by keeping them in poverty, silent and vulnerable. NIJFON works on uplifting immigrants and integrating them into society by providing them their day in court and building a quality of life through just policy and challenging and dismantling racist systems. NIJFON fights against harmful legislation that threatens to permanently separate immigrant families, educates and trains on the challenges faced with the immigration system, and advocates to increase political will to make needed reforms. NIJFON's respectfully requests operating funds of $20,000 to support its operating costs for legal immigration services and $10,000 of capacity building support for the leadership development of its senior staff and legal staff. Support will help us fund our current legal staff and will also support the addition of a third attorney to our team. Over the last 2 years NIJFON has increased its capacity by adding legal staff, specifically a legal administrative assistant that helped the legal team triage cases and lower our caseload significantly. With this request, NIJFON will continue to lower its caseload and continue allowing our legal team to provide free consultations and respond to immigration emergencies like those seen with Afghanistan refugees, Black immigrants that are discriminated against in the immigration courts and other emergencies that experienced by various immigrant groups.

Grant Recipient

Southwest Suburban Immigrant Project

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $20,000

SSIP is applying for $20,000 in general operating capacity support, plus $10,000 in leadership development capacity support. Below is a description of the planed activities and priorities for 2022 as well as our vision for our leadership development work. Through SSIP’s leadership development model--engagement of directly impacted leaders from the start of campaigns and new programs to the end, and ensuring personal empowerment and advocacy in the process-- we can meet the opportunity the growing immigrant community represents for winning inclusive policies at the local and state levels and serving the Latinx population. According to Census data the 85th and 42nd districts both saw an increase in foreign born populations. This change reflects the growing popularity of progressive policies in a historically conservative district, including but not limited to health justice, economic security, and protections for immigrant families.

Grant Recipient

NORTHWEST SIDE HOUSING CENTER

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $15,000

Northwest Center's request for the Early Childhood Support is an expansion of our Parents as Mentors Program (PMP). Our PMP is an essential tool to foster and advance the education of our students in Belmont Cragin schools. Our program, which is part of the Statewide Program run by the Parent Engagement Institute, focuses on helping and training parents (mostly Latinx mothers) to help fill persistent equity gaps in early childhood education through volunteering in early childhood classrooms. Our Parent Mentors offer our teachers and students extra support through one-on-one interactions with students and supporting teachers with any additional assistance. Upon completing an initial leadership and mentorship training, Parent Mentors are assigned a classroom for the school year, where they work with students one-on-one or in small groups for two hours per day, 5 days per week. On Fridays, the Parent Mentor cohort comes together for ongoing professional development training. Our Parent Mentors are not just an extra set of eyes and ears; they function as teacher aides committed to helping students who are behind in any subject as they provide one-on-one attention as well as group support to early childhood students in pre-k and kindergarten. Through research conducted by the Parent Engagement Institute we have seen better attendance, family participation, and increased grades and test scores in reading, writing, and math as a result of our programs. Equally important is the development of confidence from the early childhood learners and parents because of the program. In addition, Parent Mentors develop leadership skills necessary to create positive change in their school and community. Finally, Parent Mentors are not only an essential support in our schools but also in the Belmont Cragin community as they work to share additional early childhood and leadership resources to the community. For example, during the pandemic, Parent Mentors have shown us what mutual aid looks like through over 5,000 instances of individual support such as emergency funds; support for navigating unemployment, SNAP, food pantries, grocery delivery, the provision of tech devices, and immigration assistance.

Grant Recipient

TELPOCHCALLI COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROJECT INC

Awarded: July 2022 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Telpochcalli Community Education Project (Tcep) is the only resource center in Little Village providing its residents with comprehensive direct services; opportunities to develop skills that ensure their active participation in decisions directly affect their well-being; and support in their efforts to secure political, economic, and social equity. Founded in 1998, and organized in 2002 as a 501c3, it has grown from a small agency dedicated to improving neighborhood educational opportunities to a full-service agency serving more than 5,000 community residents annually. Tcep centers its work in four specific areas – Essential Services, the Call Center, Training/Workshops, and Mentorship Projects. In addition, the agency identifies residents’ needs and undertakes significant advocacy efforts on their behalf through its participation in many networks and citywide and state coalitions. Tcep addresses its day-to-day program delivery and long-range planning by putting a high value on: the capacity of individuals to have a collective impact on and responsibility for their own well-being and that of their communities; the importance of valuing the culture and traditions of all residents; and the priority of working collaboratively to build consensus.