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
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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.
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Grant Recipient
Shriver Center on Poverty Law
The Shriver Center on Poverty Law (Shriver Center) requests a $150,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust to support its leadership and meaningful work across multiple coalitions, including the Transit Table, Cost of Living Refund Coalition, Housing Policy Roundtable, Illinois Domestic Workers Coalition, and Responsible Budget Coalition. We will leverage these networks throughout the grant period as they strive to promote economic and racial justice, strengthen families and communities, and advance policies and reforms that address the racial wealth gap. Our advocates generally serve as the primary legal and policy experts of these tables, increasing the strength and ultimate success of each coalition.
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Grant Recipient
PRO Publica, Inc.
ProPublica respectfully requests a grant of $150,000 over two years to support accountability journalism that makes a meaningful difference for the people of Chicago and the region. Our award-winning team of Midwest journalists, based out of a newsroom in Chicago, are dedicated to exposing the systems that fuel injustice and inequality in the city and across our region, and to holding accountable those in power to enact meaningful change.
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Grant Recipient
HOUSING ACTION ILLINOIS
Housing Action Illinois seeks support for our co-leadership of the CRA Coalition, which works toward policies to increase the availability of credit and institutional investments in low- and moderate-income communities, particularly communities of color. The coalition will also work to hold banks accountable to community needs. Coalition partners focus on various needs and constituencies, including banking, lending, and the financial sector; small business; community development; financial wellness education; and racial equity. Housing Action’s knowledge and expertise relates to housing issues, such as residential mortgage lending, housing counseling, and the needs of homebuyers, homeowners, renters, and people experiencing homelessness.
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Grant Recipient
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights
We seek renewed support for our Research and Policy Division, which leads our policy work to close the racial wealth gap in Illinois, such as work on economic security, income supports, asset building, ending wealth stripping, consumer protections, and fines/fees reform. This has included retirement and Children’s Savings Account programs, EITC expansion, lending/debt reforms, and driver's license suspensions. Our priorities are developed in coalition and with an equity lens. We use data to understand racial disparities, and center and engage impacted people in our work. We seek support for leading the Illinois Asset Building Group and participating in leadership roles in the Illinois Cost-of-Living Refund Coalition and the Transit Table.
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Grant Recipient
YOUNG INVINCIBLES
In an effort to continue the momentum towards the implementation of the Mental Health Early Action on Campus Act (“Act”), NAMI Chicago & Young Invincibles propose to establish a Learning Collaborative (“Collaborative”) comprised of interested and engaged campuses to provide technical assistance in implementing the Act’s requirements. Our goal is to secure funding that supports building programs on campuses that can ultimately be sustained through state funding as originally intended in the Act.
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Grant Recipient
Growing Home, Inc.
This project will increase the profitability and sustainability of Growing Home’s social enterprise by improving its business model and facilities through new marketing efforts as well as earning a Good Agricultural Practices certification.
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Grant Recipient
WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC
Window to the World Communications respectfully requests The Chicago Community Trust’s consideration of a one-time grant of $200,000 to support WTTW News and its expanded news platform. Financial support from The Trust will enable WTTW to sustain and advance our local affairs and journalism programming that includes the broadcasts of Chicago Tonight, the newly launched Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices and Chicago Tonight: Black Voices, digital segments of these programs and other stories on WTTW News, and community engagement activities surrounding our news content.
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Grant Recipient
Economic Security for Illinois
In response to the worsening economic climate, there is growing public and political support for using cash to help Americans make ends meet. Research has shown that when given unconditional cash, the financially vulnerable take care of their needs and focus their energy on climbing up the economic ladder. As the leading organization in Chicago/Illinois focused on cash, Economic Security for Illinois is leveraging its IL Cost-of-Living Refund Coalition to put more cash in the pockets of low- and middle-income Chicagoans by securing cash-based relief for those facing acute economic hardship due to the pandemic and expanding the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as the Cost-of-Living Refund.