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
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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.
Explore Our Discretionary Grants
Showing 4051–4058 of 4445 results
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Grant Recipient
Elawa Farm Foundation
To strengthen a network of Northern Illinois farmers to collaborate on market opportunities, build the local food supply in the Chicago region through aggregation and connection to a strong market base, and advocate for policy and resource access as a unified group by supporting the Northern Illinois Young Farmers chapter.
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Grant Recipient
University of Chicago Urban Labs
Since launching a learning agenda five years ago – CCC has made substantial progress using data to improve outcomes for students across the district. Data have informed new rigor around developmental education policies that incorporate GPA into course placement and led to an opt-out offer of the One Million Degrees program that will now be provided to all eligible new students at two campuses with the goal of reaching over 9,000 students annually. Over the same period, completion rates at CCC continue to increase, yet we are cognizant that more work remains, particularly as it relates to ensuring that CCC is providing an equitable education for all students. By pairing learnings from the implementation of the developmental education placement policy rollout with a plan for a new learning agenda, the Inclusive Economy Lab hopes to understand what changes to administrative procedures and policies would be necessary to address racial disparities in associates degree attainment and transfer rates to four-year institutions. With the support of the Lab’s External Affairs Director and its advocacy partners, this information will be disseminated publicly in 2025, with targeted outreach to elected officials in Springfield and Chicago who can raise the visibility of the work.
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Grant Recipient
Star Farm Chicago
Star Farm is applying to be considered for this opportunity as a non-profit urban farm, landscaping company, and retail farmers market co-op. As we enter our eighth year, we look forward to launching multiple projects that have been years in the making, including our three farm sites and Fresh Market and Shared Kitchen project, along with growing our capacity to grow, deliver, and distribute local produce while directly supporting local farmers through access to land, infrasctructure, tools, business support, and equitable market channels.
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Grant Recipient
McHenry County College
The Center for Agrarian Learning was launched almost four years ago, with the goal to support and educate two different audiences: farmers across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, and MCC college students in the Entrepreneurial Agriculture program. Programs and opportunities for both groups will continue this year. Simultaneously, we will take an in-depth look at the Entrepreneurial Agriculture program, its strengths and weaknesses, and the relevance of the courses required to earn the degree and certificates. Our goal is to strengthen the program and ensure that it is serving the needs of our community.
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Grant Recipient
Per Scholas, Inc.
Per Scholas’s mission is to advance economic equity through rigorous training for tech careers, and to connect skilled talent to leading businesses. We prepare individuals historically excluded in tech—women, people of color, & those with at most a high school diploma—for high-growth careers in IT. We partner with employers to build diverse talent pools, connecting our graduates to career opportunities at businesses ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups. Our training supports long-term career growth, & we aim for graduates to be employed in positions that offer competitive compensation and benefits packages, inclusive work environments, & work-life balance. Nationally, in 2022, our employed graduates represented $100 million in earned wages added to their local economies across the US. They accumulated savings, purchased cars and homes. When individuals earn a thriving wage, they can make active choices—investing in themselves, their families, and their communities. We respectfully request a $150,000 Bridges to Brighter Futures grant in support of our work to provide technology training to individuals from the City of Chicago and surrounding counties over a 12-month period, leading to middle-skills employment and thriving-wage careers in tech.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Women in Trades
Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) requests a Middle Skills Grant of $150,000 from the Bridges to Brighter Futures Fund to support advancing women in the construction trades. Founded in 1981 and a provider of pre-apprenticeship training since 1987, CWIT has placed thousands of women, particularly women of color, in the construction trades. Our most successful stories include women who first enter CWIT training either unemployed or earning wages at or below poverty level and, having graduated and earned a paid trade apprenticeship, move to $20/hour for their first year in apprenticeship toward $40 after four years in apprenticeship. Once journey level is reached in the trades, women earn $50/hour, providing economic security to their families. Our proven ability to secure placement and retention into these living wage jobs (defined by Bridges to Brighter Futures as $25/hour or above) for an average of 80% of CWIT pre-apprenticeship program and welding trainees, not to mention returning alumnae, is the strength of this proposed project. Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) offers three different workforce development programs at no cost to participants. Two focus on bridging women to construction apprenticeship programs, including the 12-week/180-hour Technical Opportunities Program (offered during after-work evening hours since 1987) and the 10-week/280-hour Women Build Illinois Program (offered during daytime with stipends since 2022), both certified by North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU). The 10-week/280-hour Women in Welding Program (established in 2014), which includes daytime beginning classes and evening advanced skills open shops, builds skills in all welding processes (MIG, Stick, and TIG) and metal working processes (cutting, bending, and finishing), which leads to American Welding Society Certification that is in demand across many sectors of the economy. Our training provides the math and workplace readiness instruction, strength training, and the hands-on exposure needed to become an electrician, plumber, sprinkler fitter, bricklayer, laborer, pipefitter, sheet metal worker, painter, drywall finisher, millwright, and welder. Job placement and retention at a living wage that advances to building wealth is our goal. Efforts to reach this goal include but are not limited to: 1. Job Placement, Re-Placement, and Supportive Services – In CY2022, CWIT placed over 115 women pre-apprenticeship graduates and out-of-work tradeswomen. 2. Barrier Reduction – In addition to childcare, transportation, and equipment/tool support, women who enter unpaid pre-job apprenticeships with some unions (e.g., 9-week indentured carpenters) need the support of stipends. 3. Mentorship & Leadership Development – Finding support among fellow tradeswomen and learning skills to retain employment and advance is key. Workshops such as Stepping Up to Foreman, Public Speaking, and Conflict Resolution, led by successful peers provide confidence. 4. Additional Skills & Certifications – Tradeswomen are more marketable when they have skills such as Appraising, Estimating, Foreman, ProGrid/ProCore (software) E Board, Delegates, Union Reps, CDL, business development, etc. and certifications such as aerial lift, OSHA-30, CDL permit, welding inspector, flagger. 5. Incentive-based Programs that Encourage Contractors to Hire Women – Workforce development partnerships around major projects such as the Obama Presidential Center, Bally’s Casino, Clayco, etc. Funding from the Bridges to Brighter Futures Fund will be used to implement CWIT’s placement and retention plan that will allow CWIT to increase tradeswomen’s placement and retention success short-term to at least 150 in 2024 and, in the long-term, to an anticipated 200-250 in subsequent years. This increased capacity will be successful, as long as current economic conditions persist, by effectively replicating our nationally recognized model with expanded retention staff, additional student barrier reduction funds, and increased opportunities to attain certifications and leadership development.
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Grant Recipient
This Old Farm
This Old Farm, Inc (TOFI) is seeking funds to continue a network of small meat processors and industry stakeholders originally started in 2022. The network consists of several small to mid sized meat processors looking to expand collaboration through continuing education and networking with the goal of collectively developing strategies to increase local processing capacity while developing markets for co-packing of value-added meat products. Supporting processing business sustainability ultimately will reduce barriers to growth of small to medium-sized farmers and meat processors serving the Chicago foodshed.
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Grant Recipient
NeighborSpace
The project, a partnership between NeighborSpace (NBSP) and Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC), will provide support to implement actionable land access strategies for growing local food on underutilized land in Chicago and Cook County using a community-based framework rooted in values of equity, sustainability, and collaboration.