HHF Welcomes (7) New Grantees in 2024
CYP’s mission is to improve at-risk youths’ life opportunities and health using a comprehensive approach to develop their capabilities. The goal for each child is to complete a higher education degree, providing the opportunity to escape poverty and avoid all the health risks associated with poverty. CYP’s commitment is to shepherd at-risk youth from preschool through college, cultivating the healthy lifestyles and skills necessary to overcome poverty.
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School has provided a college preparatory education and professional work experience to Chicagoland students from Spanish-speaking families with limited financial means. The cornerstone Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) ensures a professional work experience for every student. This innovative program has allowed low-income students to earn their education costs while giving them early access to professional skills and networks well ahead of their peers.
Located along the lakefront within Chicago’s Jackson Park, La Rabida Children’s Hospital provides specialized, family-centered health care to children with medically complex conditions, disabilities, and chronic illnesses and those who have suffered abuse and trauma. As the only hospital of its kind in Chicago, La Rabida provides exceptional medical care and compassion with a unique understanding of our families' challenges. Raising a child with unique healthcare concerns is difficult in the best of circumstances, and approximately 95 percent of La Rabida’s patients and their families are in financial need and dependent on Medicaid for their medical care.
LIFT-Chicago began in 2000 with a mission to break the cycle of poverty by investing in parents. It partners with parents to achieve economic stability and mobility through a holistic, two-generation coaching model with wraparound supports, including financial capabilities workshops and quarterly cash infusions. Through 1:1 financial coaching and group workshops, LIFT-Chicago members work with coaches to identify goals and develop individualized action plans to achieve them, including obtaining higher education, securing family-sustaining employment, and developing critical financial capabilities that promote long-term economic security.
Lion’s Pride Mentoring is a community organization founded on the needs of individual schools and communities in Chicago. Using ideas from the University of Chicago’s To & Through Initiative, Lion’s Pride Mentoring leverages students' natural leadership to provide additional support to 9th graders through peer mentoring. Lion's Pride Mentoring seeks to change the educational landscape in Chicago by connecting young people to mentors just like them, helping more ninth graders stay on track to graduate from high school and cultivate economic sustainability.
For over 50 years, Nourishing Hope has connected people facing hunger with nourishing food. It is one of Chicago’s most extensive and longest-running food pantries, providing more than 5.7 million pounds of food annually to Chicagoans facing hunger. Its mission is to Nourish Hope through food, mental health, and social services so that all its neighbors can thrive. Nourishing Hope’s vision is a city where everyone has the resources for a dignified life.
Sunshine Enterprise’s mission is to empower high-potential entrepreneurs living in under-resourced neighborhoods to grow businesses and transform communities. SE’s vision is to establish five neighborhood-based business hubs catalyzing free enterprise in Chicago’s under-resourced neighborhoods. SE currently runs three strategically placed business hubs that provide economic stimulus to communities by supporting local entrepreneurs. It serves hundreds of unique entrepreneurs throughout Chicagoland.
HHF Made (21) Grants to Returning Grantees in 2024
These nonprofits are grouped according to HHF's focus areas.
Good Health and Well-Being
Mobile Care Chicago's mission is to deliver no-cost medical and preventative care, education, and support to low-income children and families within their communities aboard mobile medical clinics. Utilizing partnerships with local schools, Mobile Care Chicago provides a convenient and trusted location for children with complex needs whose parents may not have the time, transportation, or work flexibility to access more distant brick-and-mortar clinics.Centro Sanar's goal is to address the impacts of trauma and violence and to work in partnership with communities to be active agents of structural transformation. Centro Sanar is dedicated to providing comprehensive mental health services to underserved communities, focusing on supporting uninsured or underinsured individuals and facilitating access to healing resources among community residents who face systemic oppression. Chinese American Service League
Chinese American Service League (CASL) builds on the wisdom of generations and catalyzes the transformation of individuals, families, and the community for an equitable future. CASL has 29 programs that strengthen families, lead to economic self-sufficiency, ease the cultural transitions of individuals and families as they integrate into American society, and advocate for positive social systemic change. Focus Fairies Mentoring provides young ladies from under-resourced neighborhoods on Chicago's south and west sides with the guidance and support they do not receive at home or school. Focus Fairies Mentoring aims to provide a multi-phased mentoring experience that serves as a safe space to help increase the mentee's self-confidence, spirituality, emotional health, and personal development. Green City Market's (GCM) mission is to secure the future of food by deepening support for local farmers, educating the community, and expanding access to locally grown food. GCM was founded to improve the availability of sustainably grown food for Chicagoans. GCM envisions a future where sustainable farmers are thriving; everyone knows who grows their food, how it is grown, and why this knowledge matters, and where all Chicagoans — regardless of zip code or income level — have access to locally-grown, sustainably-produced food. The Puddle Project is a woman-of-color-led nonprofit organization that provides mentorship and supportive services to pregnant and parenting teens. The Puddle Project's network of health, academic, and financial resources provides teen mentees with the tools they need to prepare for parenthood and adulthood successfully. The Puddle Project has provided mentorship and support to dozens of pregnant and parenting teens through partnerships with schools throughout the Chicagoland area. Quality Education
With creativity at the center of everything, SkyART provides free, safe, open spaces where people are empowered, nurtured, and connected through art. Guided by four core concepts: accessibility, responsiveness, totality, and stability, SkyART believes that all youth, regardless of their economic status or geographical location, should have access to free, safe, nurturing, open spaces to create and participate in quality arts programming. The People's Music School (TPMS) cultivates hundreds of young, growing minds through high-quality, intensive, free music education. TPMS is a tuition-free music school that aims to provide radically inclusive access to the benefits of intensive music education and safe after-school programming to students who otherwise could not afford it.John G. Shedd Aquarium's mission is to spark compassion, curiosity, and conservation for the aquatic animal world. Guided by a vision of a world thriving with aquatic life, sustained by people who love, understand, and protect it, Shedd has connected people to the world of water for 93 years. Shedd learning specialists bring the Shedd’s research to communities through educating students annually with quality, standards-aligned environmental STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) education.BandWith's mission is to promote wellness in under-resourced Chicago communities by providing lasting access to exceptional performing arts instruction and ensemble play. BandWith connects young people with outstanding arts instructors and mentors, providing them with the performance opportunities and support they need to be successful. BandWith endeavors to amplify the voices of the community, draw positive attention and resources, and empower its community members through the arts for generations to come.Genesys Works Chicago aims to provide pathways to career success for high school students in underserved communities through skills training, meaningful work experiences, and impactful relationships. Genesys Works Chicago envisions a future where all young adults are equipped and empowered with the knowledge and skills required to achieve career success, upward mobility, and a lifetime of economic self-sufficiency.Meaningful Work and Economic Growth
Ladder Up aims to alleviate poverty by increasing the financial stability of Chicago-area communities. For many, the resolution the clinic negotiates for clients is the fresh start needed to work out of poverty. By helping clients avoid relying on predatory services at high fees, put their refund dollars to best use, and start thinking about longer-term planning, such as establishing bank accounts and applying for financial aid for college students, this model provides the tools, assistance, and know-how to gain a stronger financial footing.Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project (FLAP)
The Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project's (FLAP) mission is to improve working conditions and opportunities for low-income workers and their households in the cannery, farms, greenhouse, landscaping, meat, nursery, packinghouse, poultry, restaurants, and snow plowing industries. FLAP's vision is to ensure a good quality of life for Latino immigrant workers and their children, keeping them living and working in Illinois, paying local taxes, frequenting local businesses, and attending local schools.Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) works together with community and institutional leaders to re-imagine the workforce system so all people can thrive through employment. CJC's vision is to create an anti-racist workforce development system and employment equity so everyone can realize their unique pathway out of poverty. CJC works alongside its members to change policy, develop innovative practices, reform systems, strengthen organizations, and support workforce professionals. Manufacturing Renaissance's (MR) mission is to advance inclusive, sustainable development anchored in manufacturing. MR's vision for the future includes a new paradigm for development where MR's programs serve as prototypes that contribute to tangible increases in racial equity, economic, and social inclusion in our communities while fostering innovation and sustainability in making the things we need every day. The mission of Mujeres Latinas En Acción is to empower Latinas by providing services that reflect their values and culture and advocate on the issues that make a difference in their lives. Mujeres Latinas En Acción programs and services include the Healing and Prevention of Domestic Violence, the Healing and Prevention of Sexual Assault, Parent Support, Community Engagement and Mobilization, Latina Leadership, Survivor Financial Wellness and entrepreneurship training, Empresarias del Futuro.Lawrence Hall is a community-based organization committed to helping Chicago's youth, families, and communities heal from the adverse effects of childhood trauma. Lawrence Hall has evolved into a multi-service organization focusing on children and youth through many organizational collaborations and mergers. Lawrence Hall serves youth and families, with core programs to help peel back the different, difficult layers of childhood trauma. Fostering a Sustainable Community
Boxing Out Negativity's (BON) mission is to empower youth to realize the best within themselves in a safe and supportive environment where all youth are valued and supported in becoming their best selves. BON is dedicated to empowering youth through a combination of sports programming, direct street outreach and intervention, and large-scale community anti-violence activities with the belief that no child should be in a position to see the streets as their best and only option.Onward Neighborhood House (ONH) is a community hub where residents of Belmont Cragin can access the programs and services they need to build a better life for themselves and their families. Today, ONH is a trusted access point for the community's most serious necessities by providing affordable early childhood education, adult education, refugee settlement services, food security, and a co-located free healthcare clinic. Something Good In Englewood (SGIE) was organized by parents, Englewood residents, and educators looking to harness the power of community organizing to advocate for equitable resources and programs within Englewood. SGIE believes that the Englewood community can create a new view and effective guide for community trajectory when properly resourced in critical areas of social development.Kolbe House provides a constant ministerial presence to men and women detained in Cook County Jail, along with various other ministries serving families of the incarcerated and individuals recently released from incarceration. While the people and specific ministries of Kolbe House have changed over time, the mission has remained the same: to respond to the Gospel mandate, "I was in prison and you visited me." Kolbe House envisions a world marked by reconciliation: within us, within our families and communities, and with God.