2021 Vital Communities Grants
Chicago’s communities are vibrant, but in some neighborhoods, residents experience a lack of services and resources. People in neighborhoods with less investment—community leaders, entrepreneurs, families, students—want to see more opportunities and resources to help their neighborhoods thrive.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality. As we work to jumpstart recovery in Chicago’s neighborhoods, we must recognize that investment has been uneven in the past. Organizations rooted in their communities are best positioned to meet needs if they have appropriate resources.
In 2021, we supported these Vital Communities with more than $8 million in grants. Our Vital Communities awards infused neighborhood organizations with economic development resources and aided organizations that provide planning, technical assistance, and research support to place-based initiatives. As in 2020, we emphasized organizations with the potential to facilitate an equitable recovery during and after the pandemic.
Place-Based Economic Development Initiatives
- Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives: $250,000 over one year for the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago.
- Elevated Chicago: $400,000 over two years in support of community outreach, engagement and ownership in equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) near Chicago Transit Authority stations across the city.
- Endeleo Institute: $500,000 over two years for Washington Heights and adjacent neighborhoods across the 95th Street Corridor.
- Enlace Chicago: $500,000 over two years for the Little Village community.
- Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation: $500,000 over two years for the Auburn Gresham and adjacent neighborhoods of Chicago.
- Latinos Progresando: $500,000 over two years for Marshall Square and Little Village.
- Northwest Side Housing Center: $500,000 over two years for the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.
- Southland Development Authority: $250,000 over one year for the South Suburbs of Chicago.
- South Shore Works: $297,545 over one year for the South Shore community through an award to Resilience Partners, its fiscal sponsor.
- Southwest Organizing Project: $250,000 over one year for the Southwest Chicago region neighborhoods of Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, and West Englewood.
- Teamwork Englewood: $500,000 over two years for the Englewood neighborhood.
- Urban Juncture Foundation: $500,000 over two years for the Bronzeville community.
- West Side United: $500,000 over two years for economic development on the West Side of Chicago, via an award to Rush University Medical Center.
Supporting Organizations’ Infrastructure Needs
The following organizations each received $300,000 over three years to provide planning, technical assistance, and research to aid in the success of place-based initiatives.
- Center for Neighborhood Technology
- Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
- Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University
- Local Initiatives Support Corporation
- Metropolitan Planning Council
- United Way of Metropolitan Chicago
Additional Awards to Support Vital Communities
- Chicago Community Loan Fund: $100,000 over one year for its work leading the Chicagoland Opportunity Zones Consortium.
- Community Programs Accelerator at the University of Chicago: $300,000 over two years for the nonprofit capacity building and technical assistance provided by the Office of Civic Engagement to strengthen the resiliency and to support the success of South Side nonprofits.
- German Marshall Fund of the United States: $120,000 over two years for an exchange between Chicago, IL and Turin, Italy to explore the costs of segregation in both cities.
- Living Cities: National Community Development Initiative: $500,000 over two years in support of general operations.
- Rebuild Foundation: $200,000 over one year in support of planning efforts toward creative placemaking and economic development in Greater Grand Crossing.
