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…
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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 2101–2108 of 4466 results
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Grant Recipient
The Asian American Foundation
In July 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act. The first legislative directive of its kind in the nation, the TEAACH Act requires the instruction of Asian American history in all Illinois K-12 public schools. Starting in the 2022-2023 school year, all elementary and high schools in the State of Illinois are required to include in its curriculum, a unit of instruction studying the events of Asian American history. The TEAACH Implementation Collaborative (‘the Collaborative’) was formed earlier this year to ensure the availability of curricular resources on Asian American history and to support and prepare Illinois public teachers with the integration of this content into current instruction. Over the next two academic years (2022-23; 2023-24), the Collaborative’s goal is to support a majority of Illinois English / Language Arts (ELA) and social sciences teachers in their implementation of the TEAACH Act with both curricular resources and associated professional development. This group of 9,000 represents 4,800 ELA and 4,100 secondary level (grades 9 - 12) social science educators across the state.
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Grant Recipient
NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES OF CHICAGO INC
To support the creation of sustainable homeownership opportunities in underserved and distressed communities, Neighborhood Lending Services and Transform Capital will create a secondary financing market, funded by impact investors (e.g. donor-advised funds, philanthropic organizations, high net worth donors, etc.), into which a lending entity may sell non-conventional home loans. These home loans will be packaged as a security and sold to funders. The typical secondary mortgage market is where lenders and investors buy and sell primarily conventional mortgages and their servicing rights. By being able to originate and sell the flexible loans that better serve a LMI target population to a non-conventional secondary market, the sale would provide a recycled stream of capital to originate more community home loans as the originator would not have to portfolio these loans. The lending entity could customize the lending product and the underwriting guidelines and they would not have to continually capital raise or take out lines of credit to their replenish fund. The lending entity would also provide case management for the potential home buyers and retain the servicing of the loans to generate additional income for the pool or to cover costs. Interest fees, if higher than market, and fund administrative costs can also offset management costs and/or be recycled to support additional lending activity. The sponsoring lending entity for this project will utilize the $250,000 to pay for planning and implementation of the community impact fund and provide an estimated 15% loan loss reserve to attract an estimated $1-$1.5MM in impact investing capital.
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Grant Recipient
Greater Chatham Initiative Inc
This project will support Black-owned restaurants and food businesses to strengthen and grow Black food culture on Chicago’s South Side. The proposed project is comprised of four components that provide Black restaurants with the tools they need to be successful: (1) Cost effective local food delivery services for South Side restaurants through the Soul Delivered platform; (2) Black cultural trail storytelling and communications avia marketing training and visioning through FoodLab Chicago; (3) Technical assistance focused on food labeling and nutrition innovation; and (4) A youth-focused culinary skills and internship program to build a greater talent pipeline for local food businesses in the FoodLab Chicago network and beyond.
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Grant Recipient
The Chicago Community Trust
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Grant Recipient
Inner-City Computer Stars Foundation
i.c.stars respectfully requests $60,000 from the Chicago Community Trust to support our market-facing technology training program with wraparound support for underserved adults. Through i.c.stars’ 4-month intensive technology bootcamp, followed by 20-months of additional targeted wraparound support, marginalized Chicago adults will launch careers with household sustaining wages, allowing them to attain stability and prosperity and to grow their household wealth. Research has shown that to be successful, workforce development programs must address not only job skills training and connection to employers, but the “social determinants of wealth” including access to quality child care, transportation, counseling, and case management. i.c.stars provides a technology workforce training program with wraparound support and continuing resources following job placement, ensuring that participants are successfully launched into high-growth careers and on track to growing their household wealth. Our proposed project is an expansion of i.c.stars’ existing model and will develop teaching strength and capacity at i.c.stars while further developing our alumni relations and stewardship of the organization. First, the support of the Trust will enable us to provide intensive technology training and wraparound support to underserved Chicago adults while also providing the capacity to explore launching program enhancements that will deepen and expand the training, including the Sprint Leader’s Model. In the Sprint Leader’s Model, i.c.stars graduates would be incorporated into two staff areas: 1) Subject Matter Experts, who would become specialized in different segments of the training and would provide instruction ranging from one day to one week within a specific “Sprint”; and 2) Sprint Leader Facilitators, who would either be 6-month contractors or permanent staff. This expanded staff capacity would strengthen our program delivery and allow us to serve more individuals. It would also provide an additional skills-building opportunity for alumni and demonstrate successful career progression to participants, providing motivation and improving program outcomes. Second, the investment from the Trust would support marketing activities for our 50th cohort celebration and beyond. Over 23 years and 50 cohorts, i.c.stars has launched the technology careers of hundreds of underserved young adults from our Chicago communities. Our 50th cohort celebration campaign is highlighting this work and impact, and our marketing efforts are increasing our visibility and engagement with new audiences.
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Grant Recipient
B U I L D INCORPORATED
BUILD THE FUTURE is a bold $24 million strategy to invest in Chicago’s West Side youth by dramatically expanding BUILD’s facilities, capacity, programming, and community engagement. On September 1, 2021, BUILD broke ground on Phase I of the project: the renovation of our existing 10,000-square-foot building in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood and the construction of an additional 41,000-square-foot facility, while remaking the surrounding greenspace on our full city-block site. This phase completes all critical infrastructure and youth spaces, including the specialized STEAM workshops, gym and fitness center, café and kitchen, youth lounges, technology labs, restorative justice space and mental health center. With a budget of $20M, fundraising goals have been met, and construction is on schedule, expected to be completed before Thanksgiving, 2022. Phase II is smaller but plays an outsized role in the community: 7,780-square-feet of reservable office and workspace for community partners. On the disinvested West Side, there is a profound need for safe, professional spaces where smaller neighborhood groups can work and meet; or host events, trainings, and open houses. Extending the third floor all the way to the West wall will help meet this need, while also expanding the positive community around our young people. BUILD has a current budget gap of nearly $5M for Phase II. The resulting transformed campus will be a hub for the South Austin community, and for BUILD’s own wraparound programs of Violence Intervention and Prevention, Education, Creative Enrichment, Mental Health Care, and Community Outreach. The increased capacity, longer hours, and expanded offerings available in our new facility will dramatically increase the number of youth, families and residents BUILD serves - from 100 to over 2,000 daily, providing facilities and a base of operations for staff to support hundreds more young people at sites and schools across the region. It will also provide badly needed space for our community partners to do the critical work of expanding the resources available to Austin residents – and reimagining its future.
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Grant Recipient
The Neighborhood Network Alliance
This grant continues the capacity-building in conjunction with the Community Accelerator Program of the University of Chicago, including: Leadership Development Strategic Planning Board Development Fundraiser Staffing Plan
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Grant Recipient
Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA)
The LUCHA New Office project will revitalize a vacant commercial building as a community facility on the North Avenue corridor in Humboldt Park. The building is a 2-story masonry building totaling 11,232 square feet, and the first phase of the project is a substantial rehabilitation focusing on the site, the building envelope and the first floor and basement. The proposed use is commercial/office as LUCHA's flagship headquarters for the long term, plus shared community meeting space. The project will serve as an anchor institution supporting community resilience and self-determination through the critical housing services LUCHA provides. On a high-profile corner in the middle of a busy commercial corridor with few public- and pedestrian-oriented spaces, the site will be activated with installations, furniture and art, focusing on the Karlov streetscape to create gathering spaces for neighbor-focused programming and spontaneous social activity.