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
CENTRO ROMERO
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Grant Recipient
CHICAGO CARES INC
Chicago Cares respectfully requests support to expand our signature community collaboration initiative, co-design. A unique approach to volunteer engagement, co-design is a facilitated process by which multiple stakeholders from diverse sectors create or evolve a service initiative together, building transformational relationships at the same time. The result of this bridge-building process is that service and learning opportunities come to center community voice and grassroots collective action – highlighting what service can make possible for our community and our relationships over the long-term, rather than just what service can accomplish in a single instance. Co-design has proven to be an effective strategy for deepening relationships, shifting resources to Black and brown led and serving organizations, and building multi-stakeholder buy-in for service. Co-design is how we democratize the design and development of service opportunities, ensuring that they are as diverse, creative, and unique as our communities. At Chicago Cares, we believe that service can help us build the city we all deserve. By equipping and engaging volunteers, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, and corporations in the hard, sometimes uncomfortable, work to dismantle and challenge the things that divide us, we can reimagine what it truly means to serve one another and build community power. Through innovative strategies like co-design, Chicago Cares is building the empathetic and connected community that is required for an inclusive and healthy city and democracy.
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Grant Recipient
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
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Grant Recipient
Goldin Institute
With the support of the Chicago Community Trust, the Goldin Institute will continue to collaborate with the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities to host the Chicago Peace Fellows program to promote real and authentic community safety in the neighborhoods most impacted by violence. In particular, we will host a annual cohorts of Chicago Peace Fellows while expanding the Mutual Aid Collaborative as an ongoing platform for shared learning and collaboration for the network of 60 Alumni and growing.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
In response to enormous challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for the transportation system in northeastern Illinois and as required by Public Act 102-1028, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is now preparing to develop and submit a Transit Recommendations Report (Report) of legislative recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly of the State of Illinois on or before January 1, 2024. The Report will cover several topics related to the transit system of northeastern Illinois, ranging from long-term funding strategies to racial equity, climate change, and economic development. Per the Public Act, the Report developed by CMAP must include meaningful public engagement and the support of a Steering Committee composed of “representatives of business, community, environmental, labor, and civic organizations.” CMAP requests support for the initial phase of the project which includes partnership with Civic Consulting Alliance to advise on how the Steering Committee is structured, created, and governed to ensure adequate and meaningful public engagement in the development of the Report.
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Grant Recipient
Chicago Jobs Council
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Grant Recipient
Fresh Taste
Chicago Region Food System Fund respectfully requests $2,000,000 over 2 years [$1,000,000 a year for 2 years] to support the Fund’s regional food system grant work. CRFSF is a collaborative project that will continue to build on the success of its first two years, in which $11,438,150 was granted to 156 non-profit organizations who are working to strengthen the regional food system. CRFSF is working to secure two- to three-year funding to ensure the continuation of its work as the CRFSF shifts into a participatory grantmaking model.
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Grant Recipient
Legal Action Chicago LLC
Legal Action Chicago ("Legal Action") seeks a $75,000 general operating grant for its program of policy and systemic advocacy on behalf of people in poverty in Cook County, with priority on racial justice and the racial wealth gap. Legal Action is a close partner of Legal Aid Chicago ("Legal Aid"), provider of free legal help to tens of thousands of people every year. Legal Action's agenda arises from the real-world problems presented by Legal Aid's clientele and from other community partners. The program uses litigation, organizing, legislative and administrative advocacy and other tactics to change systems and policies to solve those problems. A major racial wealth gap focus in the coming year is reform of the debt collection system.