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.
-
Grant Recipient
Gift of Hope Community Foundation
The Gift of Hope Community Foundation mission is to support Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network (Gift of Hope) through community engagement, awareness, and charitable giving. Gift of Hope’s mission is to save and enhance as many lives as possible through organ and tissue donation. Our commitment to ensuring equal access to organ and tissue donation stems from our core diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives which drive our community outreach education programs. The Community Outreach team creates events to ensure our outreach supports all marginalized communities in our service area including African American, Latinx/Hispanic, and LBTQIA+. We need funding for specific education and well-being programs that support and serve communities of color on the South and West sides of Chicago. These black and brown communities disproportionately suffer from chronic illnesses that often lead to the need for lifesaving organ transplants. Communities of color represent the largest number of transplant patients on the waitlist yet remain the lowest number of communities on the donor registry. Through targeted outreach and education programs, our goal is to increase the number of donor registrations from these communities while reducing the number of transplant waitlist patients from communities of color through preventative health education.
-
Grant Recipient
YOUTH CROSSROADS INC
Beginning in January 2024, Youth Crossroads will honor its 50th Anniversary with a yearlong celebration including a kickoff event in February, gala in April, alumni reunion in July and youth mental health conference in October.
-
Grant Recipient
Chicago Cultural Performing Arts and Media Alliance
Honoring City of Chicago Violence Prevention Organizations
-
Grant Recipient
Sisters in Cinema
The Sisters in Cinema Media Arts Center grand opening, March 10 - 17, 2024, includes a wide range of events over 5 days that will bring people to the South Shore neighborhood to celebrate cinema, culture, and community.
-
Grant Recipient
Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council
Our Third Annual Anti-Violence summit will focus on community violence prevention, with sessions on 1) education on root causes; 2) opportunities for advocacy and creative solutions; and 3) trauma-informed healing led by multimedia art practitioners.
-
Grant Recipient
UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
In 2023, with support from The Chicago Community Trust, United Way of Metro Chicago successfully launched the 211 Metro Chicago program. The 211 System is a partnership between the City of Chicago, Cook County, United Way of Metro Chicago, and other philanthropic partners to connect residents of the Chicago/Cook region to essential services. After years of planning, design, and development, the 211 Contact Center opened in January 2023 and was fully operable by March 2023—providing all Cook County residents with a caring, confidential, and accessible resource to get the basic health and social service support they need, when they need it. In the first year of implementation, 211 Metro Chicago connected 106,000 residents of Cook County—more than 80% from Chicago’s south- and west-side communities—to trauma-informed, equity-focused referrals to help navigate the county’s social safety net. The program saw steadily increased utilization and made powerful data and reporting available to providers, partners, and the public. In year two, with Chicago Community Trust support, 211 Metro Chicago will continue to address the region’s critical needs by expanding 211 utilizations, increasing numbers and quality of referrals, and developing partnerships with local service providers/government agencies to build a stronger, more coordinated system. It will ensure the program’s financial sustainability, improve data systems and reporting to better identify need areas, demographics, and regional service gaps, and continuously scale and improve operations. In time, the 211 system can increasingly impact the region by arming Chicago-area service providers with accurate and timely data to inform local needs. This will support adjustment or expansion of existing programs and development of new services. Its data resources will be able to support policy changes that minimize barriers and increase access to essential human services. Leveraged effectively, the 211 Metro Chicago system can address regional needs and drive system change.
-
Grant Recipient
Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition
Beyond Books is scaleLIT’s (formerly Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition) annual fundraising event where we invite members and supporters of scaleLIT to join us for drinks, appetizers, awards, and a silent auction.
-
Grant Recipient
Chicago Commons
Chicago Commons celebrates 130 years of providing essential human services to the Chicago metropolitan area.