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.
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Grant Recipient
Educare Community Outreach Network
Our Mission is to create and maintain an effective environment by establishing behavioral supports and social culture needed for all youth and stack holders in our community to achieve social, emotional, and academic success. To instill the lifelong values of teamwork and individual responsibility in daily tasks in a healthy environment.To build individual character, confidence and skills through a wide range of sports, workshops and cultural activities. We have organized and implemented a Summer Camp Outreach Program during the summer months, utilizing our gymnasium (The William Kelly Gymnasium) for organized recreational opportunities for the youth of our community.We would like to be able to utilized and expand our gymnasium for our older youth - to provide them with extended hours in a safe environment during the evening hours.
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Grant Recipient
N Y A Cafe
During the month of June, we intend to extend our programming to include a free weekly media arts series that allows youth ages 13-17 opportunities to engage and experiment within the digital, cinematic, and audio media arts space as a way for youth to socialize and engage positively within their peer group; experiment with various media arts technologies (audio/visual, music studio, audio engineering, cinema, 3d printing); utilize trending media arts technologies at no cost; allow youth to step into the traditions of creative place making and entrepreneurship to maintain and promote South Shore's identity as a hub of creative culture in Chicago.
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Grant Recipient
Alt Space Chicago
With the over usage of plastic disabling environmental ecosystems Alt Space Chicago has partnered with Happy Returns to address the situation head-on. Our response is simple, redemption. Taking single-use plastics and converting them into art and public art installations is a symbol that speaks to humanity. In the community of Austin, so many neighbors are overlooked and labeled due to economic status, race, or simply being from this community. To receive support from Chicago Community Trust will allow us to continue our cohort, educating them about community and environmental stewardship. Our current Cohort will activate three locations in the Austin community on June 3rd, 2023 with the public art installations they created from the redeemed plastic collected in Austin. There will be a culminating event to celebrate this amazing breakthrough. We understand that the problem with plastic isn't going to end soon, only 9% of plastic produced has been recycled, so this allows us to continue educating the community and addressing the global issue of plastic in a tangible way. Through this grant, we will be able to hire 5 -10 more Austin residents of all ages and backgrounds for a 1-2 month program.
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Grant Recipient
Earth's Remedies
Earth's Remedies is connecting Westside youth to technical skills and professional development resources which amplifies the youth's access to career opportunities within a field of choice. Youth researchers are paid to work with Earth's Remedies to collect valuable information and data about businesses, organizations, and vacant properties in their communities. The youth work as a team to research the community issue, analyze the data to make recommendations for improvement, and leverage the data for policies, plans, and programs to improve the quality of their lives. At the end of the summer program, the scholars present their research and recommendations to community members, researchers, policy-makers, elected officials, and other professionals at events such as the August Scientific Symposium. Scholars connecting to developmental resources ultimately place the youth as a pillar within their community, thus being a resource for their families and peers.
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Grant Recipient
SANKOFA SAFE CHILD INC
Sankofa Safe Child Initiative would like to organize and host sewing classes for 15 African American and Latina youth, ages 12-14, from June 6-26, These classes will be taught by Shalas Wilks, who will provide sewing instruction for youth 15-20 hours per week which includes formal instruction and free sewing lab periods. The classes will be held at Sankofa House where there are currently 21 sewing machines available for use and instruction. During this period, youth will learn to make their own dance costumes, and an additional 1-2 costumes for their younger participant peers, under the age of 12, that they will wear during the Girls Speak Out (funded by Safe & Peaceful Communities) "Put Down the Guns" Parade & Block Party dance performance on July 29. The youth will be recruited via media radio ads and via in-school word-of mouth, prior to the end of the school year.
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Grant Recipient
No Matter What
No Matter What has a lot of plans with our youth during the summer months. Over the last 2 months we have been creating spaces for youth to leave the City of Chicago to travel abroad. This summer we built a cohort of youth between the ages of 14-19 and we are taking them to Ireland. Apart of them getting the opportunity to travel abroad, the students have to complete a 6-week weekly workshop from mid-may to the end of June.
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Grant Recipient
OPEN Center for the Arts
Expanding youth summer programming – the children/youth will explore the history of the pinewood derby cars, the components, how to make, design, and paint a derby car, and learn the value of how to compete. Everyone will have an opportunity to create and race their derby car with a set of rules and limited tools to level out the playing field. Funds will be used for the coordination, supplies, teaching artists, community engagement, documentation, and admin of this course. This is a 5-day course that will be presented between June 8-23 at OPEN Center for the Arts by the OPEN Team.
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Grant Recipient
Excel Community Development Corporation
Excel Community Development Corporation has been running the Hope Excel youth development program of a summer camp and after school program since its inception. This year we will offer an early start to our program and begin programming earlier this year to cover the CPS end of school year from June 6th to June 26th. In order to run our program successfully we will need staffing, food and activities to keep youth engaged and safe during the critical summer months. All young people will be introduced to Black History. During the summer months youth participants will be able to learn about the contributions of black historical figures across the world and also in Chicago. They will walk away having learned more about their history, a history that is not necessarily taught in schools.