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
Gary Comer Youth Center Inc.
Xchange Grand Crossing builds on two decades of community engagement and development that has realized an exceptional education corridor on South Chicago Avenue. Xchange aims to empower residents with the skills and opportunities needed to access high-earning jobs in thriving tech sectors. Xchange’s innovative and scalable model harnesses commercially driven revenue to drive workforce development and community revitalization. Located adjacent to the Comer Education Campus, a 28,000 square foot warehouse building at 7247 South Chicago Ave will be renovated into Xchange Grand Crossing, an innovation hub for training diverse talent at scale, creating jobs in IT and tech-adjacent fields, and providing anchor businesses in the community. The building is designed for commercial office space (with two committed anchor tenants), talent development, and new enterprises that include a retail café, commercial kitchen and IT HelpDesk service. There will be onsite parking. This stretch of South Chicago Avenue was identified by community stakeholders and partners as an ideal location for further development and innovative workforce solutions.
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Grant Recipient
Roseland Community Medical District
To implement the work outlined in the Roseland Community Medical District Master Plan, an executive director and limited staff needs to be hired. This funding request will cover the expenses associated with hiring and employing full time and part time staff, along with associated office expenses, necessary to implement the Master Plan as contemplated by the Roseland Medical District Commission.
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Grant Recipient
Ladies of Virtue NFP
Ladies of Virtue (LOV) is a nationally recognized, award-winning, mentoring and leadership development program serving over 2,000 young women and girls in Chicago annually (600 girls enrolled in leadership programming and 1500+ served via community outreach). Additionally, LOV is founded and led by a Black woman, rooted in Black communities, and serves historically disinvested neighborhoods including those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Unfortunately, LOV is at a disadvantage when it comes to applying for - and stewarding - essential federal and other government funding. This funding is needed to support the vital workforce and community development services LOV provides. Requested funds would build LOV's capacity to apply for and manage government funding by increasing our financial management capacity, further developing our Salesforce data management CRM and data integration tools, easing the process of data collection, storage, analysis, and reporting.
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Grant Recipient
P33
P33 is requesting funds for General Operations to support our efforts to increase the representation of Black and Latinx individuals in the tech sector and to fulfill our mission of making Chicago a top-tier tech hub driving inclusive economic growth.
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Grant Recipient
ILLINOIS HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION
The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation, serving as a fiscal agent for the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, seeks support to strengthen the organizations' internal capacity to identify and apply for grant opportunities generated by the availability of American Recovery Act Plan (ARPA) funding at the federal, state and local level. Support from this grant will also enable the organizations' to hire a dedicated staff person to support the management, coordination and reporting responsibilities for the organizations' existing grant-funded programs. Building this capacity internally will enable the organizations to allocate resources and remain focused on the broader goal of ensuring that a bilingual, culturally-sensitive business technical assistance ecosystem is available and accessible to the growing number of Latino small businesses and entrepreneurs in Northeast Illinois.
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Grant Recipient
LiftUp Communities
LiftUp Communities, LUC, the c3 arm of an employment social enterprise, accelerates the stability and mobility of low-wage workers, their family and friends, by addressing generational poverty head-on, expediting trusted social services referral, and concurrently finding and swiftly addressing gaps in resource access and delivery. LiftUp Communities’ works symbiotically with a growing portfolio of employment social enterprises and MBEs where our primary client pipeline works, as well as their social fabric: household, extended family, and self-identified support networks. In this grant period, LUC’s gap-filling priorities include incorporating human-centered program design to scale pilots; Concierge Services, potentially adding Health-Medical billing and Education-FAFSA to current Financial Wellness and Immigration and Legal Services tracks; Confidence Program, language and digital literacy; Barrier Reduction Fund and Program; Baby Bonds-529 Savings Program; Stability Skills Workshops; Youth Internship, and; our initiatives to formalize the Side Hustle. Clients are supported with 1:1 family-centered case management combined with stability coaching to navigate and access wraparound services addressing their specific needs. Additional goals this grant period include implementing use of Apricot case management software, fortifying program evaluation and analysis for faster iteration and innovation, and a keen focus on guiding clients in their progressively increasing use of services, as well as expanding our reach within our clients’ social fabric. We plan to socialize our insights and learning, both progress and failures, within the nonprofit and social impact sectors.
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Grant Recipient
E. G. Woode, L3C
E.G. Woode L3C, with guidance from Upside Collaboration Company (UPSIDE) and numerous community partners, is looking for better ways to leverage our real estate development to support the Englewood community. We are doing that through the establishment of a community benefit trust (CBT) that will take the profits from our developments and put it directly into use by the community. This grant application is to provide funds to seed and administer the CBT while the underlying properties are completed and become profitable.
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Grant Recipient
CENTER FOR DISABILITY AND ELDER LAW INC
Over the past three years, CDEL’s funding has grown, thanks to additional government funds from the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan funds from the state, county, and city. In 2022, CDEL received more than $500,000 from various government funders. Each new grant brought additional compliance issues and more intensive reporting, stretching the time and capabilities of the executive director and legal director. Meanwhile, CDEL's staff has doubled in size, and the additional human resource needs have also strained organization leadership. CDEL hired an operations manager in December 2022 to provide more support to the leadership team, but this role requires additional funding. A capacity building grant from CCT will enable CDEL to 1. configure its case management system (LegalServer) to better support compliance with government grants; 2. stay on top of changes in human resources with a membership to the Society for Human Resource Management; 3. train leadership staff on human resources and federal grant compliance; 4. cover grant writing costs associated with preparation and submission of large grant applications; 5. enable CDEL's outside bookkeeper to keep up with the number of vouchers CDEL must submit monthly or quarterly; and 6. cover a portion of the salary of the new operations manager.