Grants

Grant Recipient

GIRLS 4 SCIENCE

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $10,000

Girls 4 Science seeks funding to equip 400 girls of color aged 10-18 in the Chicago region with the knowledge and confidence to pursue advanced study and careers in STEM through its free, year-round, out-of-school-time program.

Grant Recipient

D-Composed Gives

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $10,000

D-Composed is a Chicago-based chamber music collective that celebrates Black culture and creativity through the music of Black composers. For our proposal, we are proposing general operation support to help advance and amplify our youth & community engagement programming.

Grant Recipient

Of Color, Inc.

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Of Color, Inc. builds wealth in disinvested, under-resourced Chicago communities of color by braiding services that result in good jobs and stable housing for veterans, youth and families who lack both. Of Color, Inc. is a small and rapidly growing human services organization providing housing services and workforce development to Chicago’s underinvested communities. Of Color, Inc. leadership team is 100 percent women of color -- each of them raised in the communities that we serve. Our Board of Directors is currently 90 percent persons of color with 80 percent as women of color. Our Board Officers are 100 percent women of color. The organization has received government support through HUD, the State of Illinois, and the City of Chicago, but as we grow past our current $1.5 million budget, the needs for general operating support are coming to the fore. We have strategically approached philanthropic partners over the past year, with good success. Knowing the history of the African American Legacy Initiative, and aware of the impact that your grants have for organizations like ours, we respectfully approach for a general operating grant of $20,000 to accomplish the goals shown below.

Grant Recipient

BLACK ALPHABET NFP

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Black Alphabet (BA) requests a $20,000 grant to expand our capacity to improve the quality of life among Black people throughout metropolitan Chicago living at the intersection of marginalized racial, sexual orientation, and/or gender identities. BA will use AAL Initiative funds to launch new programs to increase our impact on supporting Black LGBTQ+/SGL people throughout Chicago, including our Professional and Leadership Development Workshop Series, Black LGBTQ+/SGL Young Men Empowerment Retreat, and Freedom Festival Initiative. BA will also use AAL Initiative funds to grow the capacity of our current programs, including our annual Black Alphabet Film Festival, year-round Black LGBTQ+/SGL curated film screening events, Collective Power Artist-in-Residence, and Art Therapy and Transcendental Meditation. With a general operating support grant, we will have the flexibility to apply funds where they are most needed to have the greatest impact. Established 2013, the mission of BA is to promote social equity awareness and education in all aspects of life for the Black LGBTQ+/SGL community through the use of public-facing media and arts programs. BA is the oldest, largest Black-focused LGBTQ+/SGL arts nonprofit in the US. Our focus is on serving Black LGBTQ+/SGL youth on Chicago’s South and West sides. According to the 2019 Chicago LGBTQ Community Needs Assessment, Black LGBTQ+/SGL respondents consider these neighborhoods to be the least safe and supportive. By supporting BA’s programs and initiatives for Black LGBTQ+/SGL Chicago residents, the AALI Fund will advance its mission to convene and catalyze impact in Chicago’s most underserved Black communities.

Grant Recipient

Project OneTen, NFP

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Black and Latino/x boys face the largest education disparities in Chicago and across the country. These inequities have only exacerbated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, aftermath, and recovery. Project OneTen seeks to address the achievement gap between Black and Latino/x boys and their peers through our Freshman Success Program which provides essential and holistic leadership development programming to support Black and Latino/x boys in achieving academic success when transitioning from eighth grade to high school. Through quality mentorship, access to academic coaching, and workshops that focus on cognitive skill development, social and emotional learning, self-awareness, Project OneTen seeks to create an environment where Black and Latino/x students can learn to recognize and engage with supportive leaders and peers, identify their strengths and areas of growth, and feel empowered to be the young leaders they aspire to be on their high school campuses and beyond. Funds from the AALI Fund will support our ability to increase our organization capacity. These funds would support three major components, (1) Recruitment and Community cultivation efforts, (2) training and support for our volunteer mentors, and (3) Exposure opportunities for our young leaders that support their college and career goals. Next year we will evolve our leadership development to incorporate direct college and career exposure opportunities that support students abilities to visualize their dreams and themselves in the future. While we know it all begins freshman year we know it doesn't end here. We want to connect our students to direct opportunities that allows them to color in their dreams and ambitions. Which includes college trips, job shadowing opportunities, Spring break exposure trip, and funds to support independent exploration. Finally, we will invest in our volunteer mentor training and support throughout the program year. Our volunteer mentors play a key role in our program outcomes and the ongoing support of our young leaders. Focusing on a relationships first model, such as the framework created by The Search Institute, we engage five critical elements of developmental relationships: express care, challenge growth, provide support, share power, and expand possibilities. Project OneTen embeds each of these key areas in our program, weaving a strong web of support to prevent students from failing. Mentors focus on social, emotional, and cultural experiences; academic coaches serve as tutors and advisors; Project OneTen leaders develop programs and host workshops where students are exposed to Black and Latino/x leaders spanning diverse sectors; cohort peers give a sense of belonging, shared experiences, and motivation to persist; and parents help reinforce values and capabilities.

Grant Recipient

NEW LIFE CENTERS OF CHICAGOLAND NFP

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $30,000

Grant Recipient

Reflections Foundation

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Pink Hard Hats: Girls in Trades Initiative (PHH) is a targeted program that supports more than 750 girls at 50+ sites in Chicago each year, introducing girls to the wide variety of careers available in the skilled trades, construction, and manufacturing industry. PHH “pushes-in” to all of our Polished Pebbles school and community based programs to connect every girl we engage in the Chicago region to opportunities and careers in the skilled trades. We partner with construction, manufacturing, and engineering companies, industry groups, unions, and corporations to turn our girls' dreams into careers. Our goal is to replace the school to prison pipeline with a school to career pipeline for low-income African American and Latina girls. PHH workforce readiness program is designed to meet the specific needs of Black girls (70% of the girls we serve), providing communication, social emotional, and other “soft” workforce skills, and matching girls with internships and employers. Workforce readiness begins with conflict resolution and communication skills and progresses to interview training, resume preparation, job/internship placement, and retention support. We partner with industry leaders, mostly Black women, to provide career panels, guest speakers, hands-on symposium, and job shadow experiences to form a school to career pipeline and prepare girls for early integration into the workforce in the skilled trades and to set them on a path for family supporting jobs. Your support will allow us to reach more girls of color and provide them with a deep experience via our Pink Hard Hats “push in” trades focused had-on workshops, job shadows, internships, and summer jobs programs to the full 50+ schools and 750+ girls we serve in the Chicago region each year, focusing on Simeon High School to recruit, support and retain girls of color in its Career and Technical Education Program and its feeder middle schools.

Grant Recipient

Lugenia Burns Hope Center Inc

Awarded: October 2023 Awarded Amount: $20,000

Lugenia Burns Hope Center, a Black-led organization serving low-income families and seniors in the Bronzeville community, seeks general operating support for community organizing, policy advocacy and leadership development on issues of justice and equity as identified by the community.