Creating Systems-Level Change to Improve How People Receive Social Services

Since our inception, The Chicago Community Trust has supported the health and human services sector. From our very first grant to United Charities of Chicago in 1916 to spearheading responses to crises like the Great Depression and the COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging philanthropic resources to address the region’s immediate needs has been foundational to our work.  

Currently, Black and Latinx residents in Chicago are more likely to deal with financial instability, as well as experience homelessness and food insecurity. With the Trust’s focus on closing the region’s racial and ethnic wealth gap, we also saw an opportunity to go deeper into how we support social services.  

In December 2020, the Trust launched the Systems and Policy Innovations funding program to support organizations working in coalitions, partnerships, or through a membership structure to advance systems-level changes to how basic human services are deployed – and even reform how these services sometimes exacerbate the challenges communities of color face. To date, the portfolio has made $7.3 million in grants to 25 organizations. 

“We know that policy work is underfunded, so we instituted a new approach of incorporating policy solutions into our strategy to strengthen the policy landscape and the health and human services sector,” said Joanne Otte, program manager for Trust’s Addressing Critical Needs strategy.  

NAMI Chicago, Access Living, and The Network Advocating Against Domestic Violence are three organizations emblematic of Systems and Policy Innovations grant making.  

NAMI Chicago 

Founded in 1979 as an affiliate of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health), NAMI Chicago helps individuals and families seek mental health treatment rooted in equity and compassion. The organization also provides education to dispel mental health stigmas and leads advocacy efforts that improve how people are being served by the mental health system.  

According to Executive Director Alexa James, when people seek treatment for the first time, it’s often when they are experiencing crisis – a moment of feeling loss of control. This can lead to unnecessary hospitalization or even arrest, which only adds to their trauma. James notes that people of color make up a disproportionate number of psychiatric hospitalizations. 

With a grant from Systems and Policy Innovations, NAMI Chicago has been coordinating with mental health care providers to identify gaps and opportunities in their capacity and standard of care, using findings to inform policy initiatives such pushing for local governments to ensure first responders are properly trained to handle mental health calls.  Additionally, the organization is leveraging its Helpline, a free hotline where mental health professionals provide callers with emotional support and service referrals, to help them with case management and recovery planning.  

“There are so many components to mental health recovery,” James said. “This grant allows us to link all our work in a meaningful way.”  

Access Living 

For more than 40 years, Access Living has been at the forefront of the disability rights movement in Chicago, advocating for an inclusive society that sees residents with disabilities living fully engaged, self-directed lives. Access Living provides individuals with support services like housing and legal assistance, as well as leads coalition work to advance policy at the local and national level.   

A core value of the organization is employing staff of which the majority are people with disabilities. According to Director of Advocacy Amber Smock, having people with disabilities lead the organization’s work is important to moving the needle. 

“You need the right people in place who understand that lived experience with disability, who understand what it takes to get people’s attention, and who can say ‘we have a solution for that,’” she said.  

Funding from the Trust has supported several of the organization’s advocacy efforts around increasing access to housing, transportation, and affordable health care. It has also helped the organization’s work to push for more accountability and transparency on how Chicago Public Schools budget for the needs of students with disabilities. Smock underscores that the organization’s work around disability rights goes hand in hand with racial equity, especially because two-thirds of people in Chicago with disabilities are Black or Latinx.   

The Network Advocating Against Domestic Violence 

The Network Advocating Against Domestic Violence (The Network) is a collaborative membership organization committed to improving the lives of people impacted by domestic violence through education, policy and advocacy, and connecting them to support services. The organization works with 40+ community-based domestic violence service providers to help survivors impacted by the intersection of state and systemic violence, as well as gender-based violence. 

The Network also operates the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline, which received more than 36,000 calls in 2022. Of that number, people of color made up the majority of callers; in Chicago, 57 percent of callers were Black residents, while 19.2 percent were Latinx residents. 

The Policy and Innovations grant has helped The Network expand its policy and advocacy arm, including hiring a director of housing advocacy to address issues around the intersection of housing instability and gender-based violence. It has also bolstered its work around data reporting, which Executive Director Amanda Pyron says underpins their policy and advocacy efforts. Additionally, the organization has been able to go deeper with court reform to improve how survivors are navigating the Cook Country court system.  

“We’re working to make sure that Chicago and Illinois have the strongest safety net for survivors in the country,” said Pyron.  

Elevating Voices for Systems Change 

An important component of systems-level change in the health and human services sector is including people most impacted by the issues being addressed through these services. Whether it is hiring people from impacted populations or creating an intentional community engagement with program participants, all three organizations say this is integral to their work.  

According to Otte, one of the longer-term outcomes the Trust hopes to achieve through the Systems and Policy Innovations portfolio is seeing grant recipients spearhead meaningful change because they elevated the voices of impacted communities to shape their efforts.  

“Leading with the voices of people with lived experience will lead to more humane and tangible solutions,” she said.