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.
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Grant Recipient
Tools Up Foundation, INC
In keeping up with the evolution of the construction workforce, our organization will use funds for capacity building, recruitment, participant support services, and accredited competency training material. We dedicate ourselves to continued capacity building, because it is an ongoing investment into a stronger organization that desires to deliver year-round programming without lapses. We plan to onboard additional instructional staff, such as experienced construction instructors and licensed therapists, to support our trauma-involved teenagers. Additional use of funds will go towards continued collaboration and curriculum with Chicagoland workforce transition partners, who continue to place our program graduates into their comparable career positions.
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Grant Recipient
Michael Reese Health Trust
Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness (CFTEH) respectfully requests $200,000 over one year from The Chicago Community Trust to support emergency rental assistance for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Chicago and CFTEH’s general operating expenses. Over the next year, CFTEH will regrant $150,000 to All Chicago, a key partner in administering emergency rental assistance. Additionally, CFTEH will complete a strategic refresh and dismantle silos by growing CFTEH’s partnerships with philanthropy, government, and community partners.
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Grant Recipient
Erie Neighborhood House
Erie Neighborhood House is hereby applying for matching general operating support for use in covering the indirect costs (i.e., administrative, financial and compliance requirements) of a single government grant. The grant we have selected has been extended through December 31, 2025, for a total grant life of 36 months. For this reason, we are requesting the full amount of the match.
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Grant Recipient
Elevate Energy
Elevate requests funding from the Chicago Community Trust to cover the administrative and compliance costs associated with managing the ARPA-funded LeadCare Cook County grant, in order to complete lead service line replacements at child care facilities and ultimately achieve safe drinking water for children so that they can grow and prosper.
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Grant Recipient
Greenwood Archer Capital, Inc.
Greenwood Archer Capital (GAC), a mission-driven CDFI dedicated to equitable economic development, seeks funding to offset administrative and compliance costs associated with managing the Chicago Neighborhood Rebuild 2.0 program, funded by ARPA. This grant will enable GAC to overcome operational barriers, enhancing its ability to rehabilitate vacant properties, promote affordable homeownership, and create workforce opportunities. By strengthening its capacity to manage government-funded initiatives, GAC will advance its mission to foster economic stability and inclusive community development in historically disinvested Black and Latine communities in Chicago.
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Grant Recipient
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
The proposed project seeks to advance research centering the lived experiences of residents from Chicago’s most socially and economically under-resourced communities. By doing so, our goal is to support research that impacts the basic needs of these individuals to help identify solutions that can improve health and empower residents in this work. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) can shift historical power inequities by making community members—particularly those from Chicago’s neighborhoods facing the highest levels of social and economic hardship-- active and valued members of the research team. By supporting community-led, participatory research of issues affecting basic needs, grassroots teams and academics can better partner to identify solutions that improve health, an integral component to addressing the racial wealth gap. The Community Citizen Scientist Certificate Program was developed at UIC as part of the citywide, Chicago Department of Public Health-led, hyperlocal COVID-19 response. Central to this work was the empowerment of Community-based Organizations (CBOs) and community members to provide COVID-19 outreach to their neighbors while building their capacity to accomplish career goals. Community members were paid to be trained on self-selected medical, public health and medical research career pathways they could pursue post-pandemic. The UIC School of Public Health (SPH) created the Community Citizen Scientist Certificate Program to train community members in public health and medical research fundamentals and prepare students for careers in public health, medicine and medical scientific research. We now seek to relaunch the Community Citizen Scientist Certificate Program at UIC to meet the citywide demand to build public health, medicine and medical scientific research capacity at the neighborhood level through the Healthy Chicago Equity Zones (HCEZ) and other hyperlocal public health practice initiatives.
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Grant Recipient
NIJC NFP
As the new administration dramatically increases immigration enforcement, immigrants and service providers are seeking legal guidance on how to respond to rapidly changing immigration laws. Immigrants and service providers frequently turn to the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) for its expert legal guidance. NIJC has experienced a surge of requests from community members and service providers—including hospitals, social service agencies, and schools—seeking training and information about their own rights and the rights of their patients, clients, students and participants. Legal counsel is critical as immigrants are facing an unprecedented danger of detention and deportation. NIJC’s legal experts quickly analyze new laws and policies, provide guidance regarding the on-the-ground implications, and educate the community and service providers through presentations (live and virtual), videos and written resources. With CCT’s support, NIJC will increase the number and reach of its Know Your Rights presentations, create and disseminate new materials highlighting law and policy changes, and provide legal representation to immigrants and refugees facing enforcement, detention and deportation.
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Grant Recipient
Crisis Center for South Suburbia
The Crisis Center for South Suburbia respectfully submits this letter of inquiry (LOI) to the Chicago Community Trust (CCT) as a part of the Match General Operating Support for Recipients of Government Grants program for the amount of $50,000. The Crisis Center for South Suburbia serves individuals and families that have been victimized by domestic violence, and it our ultimate goal to eliminate domestic violence in our community. Victims of domestic violence require comprehensive support services such as emergency shelter, transitional housing, counseling, education and training, financial literacy, credit repair, transportation assistance, case management, and advocacy to become self-sufficient as they set out to achieve a life free from abuse. Other needs may include access to legal, medical, mainstream, and social resources to ensure economic security and foster independence. We are committed to being a ‘safety net’ and providing these services, therefore alleviating some of the obstacles that stand in front of victims of domestic violence.