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. Today, that means confronting the racial and ethnic wealth gap.
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Grant Recipient
EcoWomanist Institute
The EcoWomanist Institute (EWI), located in Chicago, Il is seeking $30,000 from CCT to continue to provide the mental, emotional and leadership support to Black women in leadership who are on the frontline of EJ communities working to dismantle the impact of decades of systemic racism and the toll it has taken on both them and their community. The EWI mental health model; Soulcare/Selfcare was created by a collaboration of African American women and women of African descent from a cross-section of Black women who represented urban communities in Chicago and other metropolitan cites. The EWI leadership team hosted what we affectionally call, "Kitchen table Talks", much like what we grow up seeing how the women in our families gathered to talk about things that mattered to them. We meet over the course of several months with Black women ranging in age from 19 to mid 70s, who represented a cross-section of occupations, college student, educators, community activists, social workers, entrepreneurs, block club leaders, environmentalist, lawyers, clergy public health workers and retirees. From the GED to the PhD, every voice at those tables was listen to and affirmed. Together we made the decision to create a mental health and leadership support model that we deemed "culturally relevant, deeply personal and unapologetically focused on what Black from all walks of life felt be needed to give ourselves. The late Audre Lorde reminded us that, " The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House". Therefore EWI is seeking funding to continue the work of "dismantling" the effects that systemic racism has had on Black women.
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Grant Recipient
Live Free Chicago
Live Free Chicago is requesting general operating support to strengthen and advance our organizing and advocacy efforts in Chicago and across Illinois. In 2016, the city of Chicago lost 762 lives due to gun violence. Over 80% of the victims were Black men and women. Church leaders in Chicago were deeply pained by the growing number of funerals of young people in their communities and were frustrated with the absolute absence of a coordinated strategy by city leaders and their own faith community. In addition to gun violence, black communities continue to suffer from divestment, over-policing, and criminalization of black bodies, and other forms of structural violence. This drove them to help found Live Free Chicago in March of 2017. Live Free’s goal is to end all forms of violence against black people, specifically mass incarceration, gun and police violence.
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Grant Recipient
Rush University Medical Center
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Grant Recipient
DEEPLY ROOTED PRODUCTIONS
Requested funds will help Deeply Rooted Dance Theater (DRDT) strengthen and expand its organizational infrastructure, programming, and impact in the coming year. This will include the company’s important progress toward a full-time company and staff of equitably compensated employees, the development of a South Side Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities, and a significant expansion of programming on the South Side.
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Grant Recipient
New LIfe K.N.E.W. Solutions Mental Health Community Center
New Life Knew Solutions is a minority-owned and operated Community Mental Health Center established in 2019. NLKS's current client population is 90% comprised of the target demographic for this funding opportunity. Treating individuals and families desiring therapeutic services is an investment in Chicago's Westside neighborhoods. Operational funding through the Mental Health Strategy will support the need for accessible mental health services while addressing the challenges. Challenges include inadequate numbers of Licensed practitioners who specialize in Cognitive Behavioral, Expressive Art, Behavioral Health, and Emotionally Focused therapies and a lack of online access for people seeking treatment.
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Grant Recipient
PROJECT EDUCATION PLUS
Project Education Plus is looking to continue our expanded, exemplary programs that benefit students’ grades K-12. Our program demographic includes 75% African American children who come from low-income residences such as Near North Cabrini-Green, and West Town. We also service 10% white, 10% Hispanic, 5% Asian, American Indian, and other nationalities. PEP's request will be used to fulfill the goals and objective of these educational services that help combat anger, frustration, and negative attitudes while encouraging positive outlooks. Our educational services consist of mentoring, after school activities, STEM, and high school tutoring/e-tutoring. Baseball was added to our program as of last year and has essentially become an extension to our after school program; the students who attend our after school program are also active members of the baseball team. These expanded programs are helping us revert back to pre-covid operations.
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Grant Recipient
Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation
SOUL is looking to strengthen civic engagement and build power in Black communities and neighborhoods in Chicago's Southland. These areas experience disproportionately high rates of crime, unemployment, failing schools and infrastructure, community divestment, incarceration, police violence and systemic poverty. We wish to further advance our racial and economic equity platform by creating opportunities for residents to be engaged in rebuilding their communities by creating spaces to have meaningful conversations, building accountability-centered relationships with their elected representatives, and offering public education around policy – giving the most marginalized in our communities the tools to impact the legislative lens that governs their daily lives. Those familiar with our organization’s work over the past five years might describe SOUL as a group focused on criminal justice reform. Although much of our work has indeed centered the criminal legal system through an abolitionist lens, we have broadened our analysis and the analysis of our base around what it takes to shrink systems of policing and incarceration in Cook County. Moreover, we are clear that we need real economic equity – abundantly-resourced neighborhoods, fully-funded schools, housing security for all, etc (especially for Black and Brown folks) --in order to have real safety and ensure that our communities are not over-policed and not reliant on punitive carceral systems that have historically been ineffective. Unlike many organizations, we pride ourselves on the fact that as SOUL has rebuilt itself, we are who we organize. Our staff, board, and community leadership represent the most marginalized parts of society. Many of us are Black and Brown, queer and trans, organizing alongside faith leaders and those deeply engaged in the work of the church. Together, we struggle with our truths, understanding that those closest to the problems are closest to the solution. Through regular meetings, teach-ins, listening sessions and one-on-one conversations, we are able to get to the core of South Cook County’s inequity problems and allow our members to inform our analysis, campaign strategy and shifts, and priorities.
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Grant Recipient
Light of Loving Kindness
Light of Loving Kindness (LOLK) has a successful track record of creating, developing, implementing, and managing programs. The communities we serve are often victimized by poverty, high violence rates, and lack of resources. We work within communities that are low-income and underserved. Many residents in these neighborhoods lack resources, which can fuel violence. We all know how difficult teenage years can be. Today, many children in our schools are living lives filled with trauma of one sort or another, trauma that is often beyond their control, according to the Center for Disease Control. For the youth population that Light of Loving Kindness serves from underserved and underrepresented areas on Chicago’s West and South sides, society’s most strenuous challenges are also interwoven into that young adult’s every day life. Our programs address the Mental Health Challenges of violence, poverty, toxic stress, stigma, and provide for the mental health needs of African Americans, youth affected by COVID-19, and LGBTQ. To address the challenges and respond to the needs of mental health services, we have a growing network of community programs rooted in holistic trauma-informed care and social and emotional learning: 1. Self-Love Bootcamps for Teens 2. Leadership Internship for Teens 3. Paz Mental 4. Just As I AM 5. Mindful Youth Ambassadors We visualize a future in which young people, regardless of race, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, and/or background see themselves as unique, creative, and powerful human beings. At LOLK, we are trained, certified, and experienced practitioners specializing in science-based integrative, complementary, and alternative solutions for mental and physical wellness. We emphasize understanding, respecting, and responding to the effects of trauma in individual and group settings with trained psychologists and mindfulness-based practitioners. Our interactions are to help youth believe in themselves, to develop resilience and to heal in a gentle way that allows them to release layers of trauma, while focusing on a brighter future. Over the years, we are pleased to share that LOLK has become a hub for convening community partners to create collaborative solutions around the health and well-being of our community’s youth. LOLK teams with local organizations and practitioners to offer opportunities for our youth in need, from mental and physical health to lifestyle education. Once a client is within one of our programs, they have access to all of our programs - meaning we provide wrap-around services but more importantly, connectivity and longevity to a youth’s care. The construct of our program is made to support activities that are proven to reduce involvement in the criminal or juvenile justice system, while reducing symptoms of mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, self-harming, suicidal ideations, and trauma recovery, and support related mental health services for youth, and in extension, their families and communities. The substantial collaborators we are partnering with for the African American Legacy Fund Initiative are YourPassion1st and Insight In You. All three organizations involved in this proposal are Black-Led and Black-Serving, committed to improving the quality of life of Black people throughout Chicago’s metropolitan region. Light of Loving Kindness is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization, whose mission is to empower the next generation of conscious leaders by providing access to internal streams of awareness, through holistic solutions, mindfulness-based tools, social-emotional learning, and human connection, delivered through specialized programming and community services, culminating in the self-esteem and confidence needed to pursue their life’s purpose. To strategically plan our impact and organizational direction, we follow an Operating Model, and have External Goals and Objectives for our work in the community, as well as Internal Goals and Objectives for our work as a business entity. A philanthropic contribution from African American Legacy Fund and Chicago Community Trust towards our operating dollars will facilitate both the programming and collaborating aspects of our Operating Model. LOLK’s approach to qualitative and quantitative data collection and data management is strategically tied to our program delivery, community responsiveness, and directional goals and objectives. We conduct formative assessments, cumulative assessments, Strength Deployment Inventory, and Personal Data Collection with our participants. The use of our data provides a big-picture overview of how LOLK is currently performing. This results in a more well-intentioned nonprofit and influences our decision-making going forward.