ALPHAWOOD FUND AT CHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN
Alphawood Fund at Chicago Foundation for Women supports organizations that work on gender-based violence in the region.
Apna Ghar, Inc. - $30,000
Apna Ghar, Inc. provides holistic and culturally sensitive services to survivors of gender-based violence across immigrant communities in the metropolitan Chicago area. Apna Ghar offers a 24-hour crisis line, emergency shelter, transitional housing, counseling services and legal advocacy. Services are designed to minimize the socio-cultural, linguistic, and legal barriers that prevent immigrant women from seeking help. In addition to direct service, Apna Ghar advocates for systems change at the policy level.
Arab American Family Services - $15,000
The mission of Arab-American Family Services (AAFS) is to empower and enhance the lives of Arab and Muslim people. AAFS addresses the many unmet needs and concerns of Arab American and other immigrant families in more than 30 communities in the South Suburban Chicagoland area. AAFS’ Domestic Violence Intervention and Prevention Program provides direct services, advocacy, and outreach for survivors of domestic violence. AAFS engages mainstream organizations to build their capacity to work with domestic violence survivors by providing training in the Arab American Culture, Islamic religion, and immigrant and refugee needs.
Between Friends - $40,000
Between Friends envisions a world without domestic violence, where all relationships are equitable, safe, and just. Between Friends works to break the cycle of domestic abuse through crisis intervention, prevention, and education services serving thousands of adults and youth every year. To ensure that outreach is responsive, healing, and effective, Between Friends connects with and listens to survivors of abuse. Between Friends invites individuals, families, and communities to join the movement to end domestic violence.
Center for Advancing Domestic Peace - $5,000
The Center for Advancing Domestic Peace works to stop domestic violence where it starts by helping those who abuse take responsibility for their behavior, create healthier relationships and strengthen their community. The Center is the only Chicago-area agency dedicated to rehabilitating individuals who have abused an intimate partner through evidence-based, culturally responsive services rooted in feminist principles. The Center also plays a key role in strengthening the coordinated community response to domestic violence through the facilitation of training for victim services and law enforcement professionals as well as engagement in the Chicago Battered Women’s Network and other coalitional efforts.
Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network - $25,000
The Network advocates for domestic violence survivors’ rights, support a comprehensive system of services, and works to reduce and ultimately end the violence.
Chicago Workers’ Collaborative - $10,000
Chicago Workers’ Collective (CWC) organizes and empowers low-wage temp laborers to take action and protect their rights. CWC works to build community power by bridging diverse communities and organizing across sectors to end gender violence, racial discrimination and economic exploitation. CWC combines economic justice, community engagement, and healing justice through leadership training and community building initiatives, with a particular focus on immigrant communities.
Connections for Abused Women and their Children - $25,000
Connections for Abused Women and their Children (CAWC) provides emergency response and comprehensive domestic violence services that enable survivors to increase their safety and establish independence. CAWC currently operates four programs at five locations throughout the city.
Ascend Justice - $30,000
Domestic Violence Legal Clinic (DVLC) provides skilled, compassionate legal representation to survivors of domestic violence. In addition to legal aid, DVLC connects survivors to necessary resources such as emotional support and safety planning. The Family Defense Center (FDC) serves parents and caregivers through legal services, policy initiatives, and collaborative projects. DVLC will integrate FDC's direct legal services into its Extended Services Division. FDC policy efforts form the foundation of systemic advocacy and reform focused on gender-based violence and the child welfare system.
Family Rescue - $30,000
Family Rescue is dedicated to eliminating domestic violence in the Chicago community by providing comprehensive support services and shelter to survivors of domestic violence, engaging in advocacy to promote future systems change, and encouraging prevention through community education.
Family Shelter Services - $40,000
As DuPage County's only comprehensive domestic violence agency, FSS serves about 2,000 clients every year. Its services include a 24-hour hotline, 41-bed safe emergency shelter, counseling for adults and children, case management, court/victim advocacy, community outreach, prevention education, and training
HANA Center - $10,000
HANA Center empowers Korean American, immigrant, and multiethnic communities through social services, education, and community organizing to advance human rights. The Womxn Moving Forward Together (WMFT) program takes an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to advance both gender and economic justice. WMFT will focus on a collective empowerment model, building immigrant womxn survivors’ financial capacity and wealth while pursuing community accountability and systemic change to advance human rights.
Haven House - $25,000
Haven House is a 24-hour emergency shelter for domestic violence victims and their dependents. It serves Hammond and the surrounding communities of East Chicago, Whiting, Munster, Griffith, and Highland.
KAN-WIN - $35,000
KAN-WIN empowers survivors of gender-based violence, with a particular focus on Asian immigrant communities. KAN-WIN’s mission is to eradicate all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual assault, by empowering Asian American survivors and engaging the community through culturally competent services, community education, and advocacy.
Lake County Crisis Center (A Safe Place) - $25,000
A Safe Place is the sole provider of services exclusively addressing domestic violence and human trafficking in Lake County, Illinois. A Safe Place offers comprehensive services that provide a safety net to meet the immediate and long-term needs of survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. Services include a 24-hour crisis line, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, counseling, advocacy, life skills training, and community education. A Safe Place helps survivors and their families achieve self-sufficiency and prevent future violence.
Life Span - $45,000
Life Span combines civil representation, criminal court advocacy, and counseling to provide a permanent solution to domestic and sexual violence. Its integrated service delivery uses an empowerment model to help clients create a plan for safety and a plan for services.
Mujeres Latinas en Acción - $25,000
Mujeres Latinas en Acción empowers survivors of violence to heal, thrive, and become leaders. Mujeres Latinas en Acción brings cultural competency and expertise rooted in empowerment to healing services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, including therapy, counseling, legal and medical case management. Community education and consultation services aim to improve responsiveness to and prevent domestic and sexual violence.
Sarah’s Inn - $5,000
Sarah’s Inn provides comprehensive domestic services to survivors and responds to the needs of families already affected by violence, while working proactively to prevent future violence. Sarah’s Inn approaches domestic violence as a societal issue that demands a holistic response and works to break the cycle of violence for future generations.
South Suburban Family Shelter - $30,000
South Suburban Family Shelter (SSFS) provides counseling, criminal and civil court advocacy, medical advocacy, emergency shelter and transitional housing, financial assistance, school-based prevention programs, abuser intervention, and a 24-hour hotline for survivors of domestic violence. All programs are offered in both English and Spanish.
Syrian Community Network - $15,000
Syrian Community Network (SCN) works to serve, connect and empower its clients by stabilizing and securing families, providing housing, social services, education, basic human needs, and food security. It also connects clients to psychosocial services and healthcare resources. Providing a warm welcome is crucial as SCN familiarizes its families with diverse communities beyond their own ethnic and cultural group. As the voice of Syrian refugees, its advocacy efforts locally/nationally include championing refugee resettlement, dismantling barriers to resettlement, and stabilizing and procuring support for refugees.
YWCA of Evanston/North Shore - $20,000
YWCA of Evanston/North Shore is a multicultural women’s organization dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting justice and dignity for all. The Domestic Violence Services program allows survivors to access emergency intervention services, including a crisis hotline and emergency housing, as well as trauma-informed counseling and legal services.
CATALYST FUND
Chicago Foundation for Women raises dollars to match funds provided by the Groundswell Fund’s core program, the Catalyst Fund, a national initiative to bring new funding to women of color-led reproductive justice work. Through this partnership, the Foundation provides funds for grants and technical assistance to Chicago-area reproductive justice projects led by women of color. This fund amplifies efforts to expand the reproductive justice platform and diversify the voices of communities of color on these issues.
Arise Chicago - $20,000
Arise Chicago educates, organizes, and develops the leadership of low-wage, primarily immigrant, majority female workers, and organizes a broad range of faith leaders to support workplace and policy campaigns. Arise organizes for economic and physical security for all workers, especially for women of color and immigrant women, by ensuring that workplaces are welcoming to parents; working toward jobs that provide economic stability, healthy and safe environments for women, including during pregnancy; and advocating for family-friendly policies such as paid sick days.
Cabrini Green Legal Aid - $43,000
Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) provides legal services and advocacy for individuals affected by the criminal justice system. CGLA ensures the voices and experiences of women impacted by incarceration are at the forefront of criminal system reform conversations.
Chicago Freedom School - $30,000
Chicago Freedom School provides training and educational opportunities for youth and allied adults to develop leadership skills through the lens of civic action and through the study of social movement history. Project HealUs activates and prepares young people of color ages 14-20 from marginalized communities to explore, engage and expand the work of the reproductive justice movement within their communities.
EverThrive Illinois - $37,500
EverThrive Illinois works to improve the health of women, children, and families across the lifespan. The Community Empowerment Project increases awareness of maternal and child health issues, with an emphasis on reproductive justice, through advocacy, outreach and education. EverThrive IL advocates for policies to address systematic inequities and barriers that prevent women and girls from achieving optimal sexual and reproductive health and to increase the capacity of women and girls in low-income communities to control their sexual and reproductive health and share information with their peers and community.
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health - $43,000
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH) is a network of empowered youth and allied adults who transform public consciousness and increase the capacity of family, school, and health care systems to support the sexual health, rights, and identities of youth.
Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force - $46,500
The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force works to address breast cancer survival disparities between Black and white women in Chicago by increasing access to quality health care. The Task Force supports education, quality measurement, and improvement for breast health care, as well as provides direct services to women through its Community Health Initiatives.
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum - $30,000
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is a national, multi-issue organizing and advocacy organization dedicated to organizing and building power of women-identifying Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) people to advance human rights and social justice. The Chicago Reproductive Justice Organizing Project continues to grow a base and build the capacity of AAPI activists working toward reproductive justice in Chicago.
Warehouse Workers for Justice - $20,000
Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ) works to transform work in the distribution industry from poverty-level temporary jobs into living wage jobs with dignity. The Women's Committee engages women of color as leaders in the movement for economic security.
ELEANOR NETWORK AT CHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN
The Eleanor Network works to expand women’s economic security through a variety of strategies, from direct service to grassroots advocacy. The Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency model focuses on workforce development as an essential economic security initiative within the Network. The combination of training opportunities and comprehensive support services ensures that women are able to secure living-wage jobs with benefits and have clear pathways for career advancement and professional development.
Accion Chicago - $15,000
Accion Chicago provides small business owners with the capital, coaching, and connections they need to grow businesses that generate jobs and wealth in communities in need of economic opportunity. The Female Entrepreneurship Program connects women, primarily minority and low-income entrepreneurs, with the services they need to grow their businesses, support their families, and create jobs in their communities.
All Chicago Making Homelessness History - $60,000
All Chicago Making Homelessness History (All Chicago) collaboratively addresses the complex issue of homelessness through its four signature approaches Emergency Financial Assistance, Community Partnerships, Data Analytics and Training, and Research. All Chicago targets a portion of its Self-Sufficiency Grants towards female-headed households where a woman is enrolled in an employment training or educational program, and a portion of its Crisis Solution Grants towards female-headed households.
Cara - $30,000
Cara is a dynamic workforce development agency and social enterprise providing transitional and temporary jobs and leadership development coaching grounded in socio-emotional health, workplace competencies, and self-actualization necessary for participants to pass opportunity onto the next generation. The Eleanor Career Advancement Program prepares employed Cara women for the next step in their professional journeys, whether that be additional training, enrolling in formal educational programs, or finding a more suitable job through which they can advance their compensation and benefits.
Chicago House and Social Services - $20,000
Chicago House and Social Services provides an array of services that address the most pressing issues of individuals and families disenfranchised by HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ marginalization, poverty, homelessness and/or gender nonconformity. Chicago House’s innovative TransWorks Program is the only employment program in the Midwest specifically addressing the barriers that trans people face in the workforce. Chicago House provides career counseling, support, mentorship and job readiness workshops, in addition to services that remove barriers to employment, including stable housing, name change services and access to health care.
Chicago Women in Trades - $65,000
Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) exists to improve women's economic equity by increasing their participation in skilled, blue-collar occupations traditionally held by men. CWIT creates opportunities for women to enter and advance in the industry through policy, advocacy and technical assistance initiatives, and by ensuring that women are informed about and prepared to compete for and succeed in these occupations through direct service programs.
Chicago Youth Centers - $15,000
Through out-of-school time and early childhood programs, Chicago Youth Centers (CYC) provides the experiences and resources needed for youth ages 3-18 to persist academically and develop socially and emotionally. Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) is a national club model that increases interest in STEM for girls in elementary and middle school through hands-on, project-based learning.
Chinese Mutual Aid Association - $15,000
Chinese Mutual Aid Association (CMAA) is a community-based social services agency serving low-income immigrants, refugees, people of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and all generations from youth to seniors. Young Women Warriors (YWW) is a group-mentoring program for young women of color ages 12-18 from low-income immigrant families. YWW provides young women access to older, female professionals of color who help guide mentees throughout high school, college and the beginning of their careers.
Community Organizing and Family Issues - $30,000
Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) develops the leadership and organizing capacity of low-income mothers and grandmothers of color through leadership training and direct action to make their voices heard in policy-making at the local, state and national level. The Public Policy Leadership and Advocacy Project develops the policy leadership skills of hundreds of low-income women of color and engages them in campaigns that address the root causes of family poverty and help to strengthen family economic security in this and the next generation. The Stepping Out of Poverty Campaign (STOP) engages the voices of hundreds of low-income women of color in identifying and advancing public policies to increase women’s economic security and address debt and its negative consequences on women and families.
Deborah’s Place - $20,000
Deborah’s Place opens doors for women experiencing homelessness as Chicago’s largest provider of supportive and interim housing exclusively for women. Supportive housing and services, and a Housing First approach offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals, and moving forward from the experience of homelessness. Teresa’s Interim Housing is a 120-day residential program that provides safe, short-term housing that addresses the immediate needs of women who are homeless with targeted interventions that help them transition into permanent housing and achieve long-term housing stability.
Enlace Chicago - $15,000
Enlace Chicago convenes, organizes and builds the capacity of Little Village stakeholders to confront systemic inequities and barriers to economic and social access. Enlace Chicago convenes and supports a network of Spanish-speaking Community Health Workers to build their skills in health promotion and education in the community, create more employment opportunities, mobilize as advocates on behalf of the community, and ultimately improve access to care and community health outcomes in Little Village.
Fund for Justice dba, Chicago Appleseed Fund - $15,000
Chicago Appleseed improves lives by advocating for courts that are fair for all people, efficient so justice is not delayed, and effective in seeking solutions to social justice problems. Chicago Appleseed works to make the court system accessible to low-income families without an attorney, with a focus on domestic relations court and women seeking child support.
GirlForward - $15,000
GirlForward is a community of support dedicated to creating and enhancing opportunity for girls who have been displaced globally by conflict and persecution. GirlForward Chicago provides safe spaces for girls to explore their identities, connect with other girls and access the resources they need, including English language education and mentorship.
Grow Your Own Teachers Illinois - $35,000
Grow Your Own Teachers Illinois (GYO) is a teacher training program that supports community members of color to become certified teachers in their neighborhood schools to help improve the educational outcomes of students. GYO removes barriers that prevent many working adults, particularly working women, from returning to school while creating a pipeline of highly effective, diverse, justice and community oriented teachers.
Healing to Action - $15,000
Healing to Action advances a worker-led movement to end gender-based violence. Healing to Action builds the power of low-wage workers to achieve economic and social equity by elevating gender violence as a priority in the labor movement, cultivating worker leadership to transform responses to gender violence and building coalitions to unite labor, legal and anti-violence organizations behind worker-led solutions. Healing to Action builds workers’ collective power to advocate for policies that address gender-based violence as an economic justice issue with their employers, elected officials and community members.
Heartland Human Care Services - $50,000
Heartland Human Care Services (HHCS) has 130 years of experience providing the most vulnerable populations with the services they need to build a stable, successful life. IDEA (Imagine Dedicate Earn Achieve) helps low-income female heads-of-household who earn less than $40,000 per year improve their financial stability through credit building, money management, access to affordable banking, decreased reliance on predatory products and increased earning potential.
Jane Addams Resource Corporation - $75,000
Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) provides high-quality manufacturing skills training and support services to help lower-income and unemployed workers achieve self-sufficiency. JARC’s Women in Manufacturing program (WMP) prepares low-income women for living-wage careers in the metal manufacturing sector.
Jane Addams Senior Caucus - $25,000
Jane Addams Senior Caucus (JASC) is Chicago’s largest grassroots community action organization led by seniors. Through leadership development, organizing and popular education, it uses the power of its collective voice to work for economic, social and racial justice for all seniors and communities. Standing Up for Illinois Women develops the power and capacity of low-income older women, especially older women of color, to address gender disparities in retirement security, to protect and expand Social Security benefits, to guarantee universal in-home care services for every senior, regardless of income, to ensure progressive revenues for the state to fulfill its primary functions and to pass the Senior Bill of Rights ordinance to ensure that older women have the freedom to live and age.
Kinzie Industrial Development Corporation - $70,000
Kinzie Industrial Development Corporation (KIDC) offers early stage small businesses affordable space to operate, business advising and workforce development services including job placement and training services. The Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) training program prepares students for an Illinois EMT-Basic license and is offered tuition free to women who are heads of their households.
Latino Union - $20,000
Latino Union collaborates with low-wage immigrant and U.S.-born workers to develop the tools necessary to improve social and economic conditions. The Chicago Coalition of Household Workers is a transformative organizing and leadership development program for household workers who are building power to create just conditions in their workplaces, homes and communities.
Logan Square Neighborhood Association - $15,000
Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) is a multi-issue community organization, directly serving more than 6,500 residents across the Logan Square, Hermosa and Avondale neighborhoods of Chicago, advancing diversity, leader development and models for engagement as the catalyst for social justice. The Parent Mentor program develops parents (mostly mothers) as leaders in homes, schools and communities by providing educational and leadership opportunities to parents as classroom-based academic and emotional support for students.
Northwest Side Housing Center - $20,000
Northwest Side Housing Center leverages resources to improve the economic well-being and quality of life in Belmont Cragin and the surrounding communities through financial education, first-time home buying classes, community organizing, income support services, job placement and workforce development, as well as business development programs to strengthen its local economy. Women Forward Chicago engages low- and moderate-income Latinas in building the financial and life skills necessary for economic security.
Restaurant Opportunities Center of Chicago - $10,000
Restaurant Opportunities Center of Chicago (ROC-Chicago) is a multiracial membership-based organization that combines worker advocacy, workplace justice campaigns, job training and research to improve wages and working conditions for the low-wage restaurant workforce. ROC-Chicago aims to address the barriers facing low-wage restaurant workers - predominantly women, youth and people of color - and shift the imbalance of power within the industry while lifting industry standards.
Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law - $30,000
The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law provides national leadership in advancing laws and policies that secure justice to improve the lives and opportunities of people living in poverty. The Women’s Law and Policy Initiative (WLPI) creates and promotes legal and policy solutions to improve the lives of low-income women and girls. The current WLPI agenda centers on three goals: ensuring economic justice for low-income women, particularly in the workplace; creating equal education and skill-building opportunities for women and girls; and promoting freedom from domestic and sexual violence.
St. Leonard’s Ministries - $15,000
St. Leonard's Ministries empowers formerly incarcerated women to lead whole and productive lives with the support of holistic services including interim and permanent supportive housing, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical health care, substance use treatment, education, employment training and transitional jobs. Grace House employs a two-step approach, preparing women with the internal tools to heal from past traumas, and providing job skills training, job placement, and long-term retention support to ensure the women remain gainfully employed.
Target Hope - $20,000
Target HOPE enhances educational opportunities for minority students attending public high schools in the Chicago metropolitan area. The STEM Initiative creates specific material and training for young women and girls to increase the number of female scholars who have an interest in or a demonstrated aptitude for mathematics and science, as well as mentoring opportunities and peer support.
The Night Ministry - $15,000
The Night Ministry provides housing, health care and human connection to members of its community struggling with poverty or homelessness. The Response-Ability Pregnant and Parenting Program increases the safety and stability of pregnant and parenting homeless youth ages 14-21 and their children.
Upwardly Global - $40,000
Upwardly Global is the country’s leading economic inclusion engine for immigrant professionals, helping job seekers translate their skills and experience towards the demand of middle-to-high-skilled jobs. The Women’s Empowerment Program equips immigrant and refugee women with the essential employability skills, confidence, networks and access to employers.
Women Employed - $25,000
Women Employed’s mission is to improve the economic status of women and remove barriers to economic equity. Current strategic priorities are winning changes in workplace practices that improve the quality of front-line jobs to increase the economic stability of low wage earners, and creating systems and programs that enable disadvantaged adults to increase their skills, leading to good jobs.
YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago - $15,000
YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago works to eliminate racism and empower women through services that benefit more than 200,000 women, children and families annually. Through one-on-one and group coaching, skills-based training, career placement and financial education, YWCA’s Economic Sustainability Services offer women help planning for a career, career advancement, small business development, financial sustainability and asset acquisition.
ENGLEWOOD WOMEN'S INITIATIVE
The Englewood Women’s Initiative (EWI) aims to increase the economic security of women living in the Greater Englewood area and their families. Through a strategic alliance of agencies, EWI will equip qualified women with the tools, skills and resources to put them on a path to good-paying jobs (earning at least $40,000/year, with benefits) and long-term economic stability.
Accion Chicago - $23,500
Accion Chicago provides small business owners with the capital, coaching and connections they need to meet their goals. Accion works in areas with limited economic opportunity to ensure that entrepreneurs have access to the support they need to grow their businesses, generate income for their families and uplift their communities. Accion’s provides one-on-one coaching and Credit Builder Loans to help clients build or establish credit while growing their businesses.
All Chicago Making Homelessness History - $20,000
All Chicago Making Homelessness History provides financial assistance via its Emergency Fund to provide assistance with needs such as rent, security deposits and basic home items, as well as employment related necessities such as child care, transportation and professional attire.
Chicago Women in Trades - $20,000
Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) provides career education and training to prepare women to enter fields such as welding and construction. All participants receive case management, job placement assistance and access to support services as needed.
Demoiselle 2 Femme, NFP - $20,000
Demoiselle 2 Femme (D2F) provides holistic services, education, instruction and training to girls ages 13-19 on the far South Side of Chicago and south suburbs. D2F will host pop-up youth development workshops on the power of choice, decision making and establishing life/career goals, including presentations from EWI partners on their programs and services.
Family Rescue - $20,000
Through advocacy, social service provision and health care, Family Rescue works to break the cycle of domestic violence. Family Rescue provides screening services and assists women affected by domestic violence with basic needs such as transitional housing, food, clothing and financial assistance.
Jane Addams Resource Corporation - $15,000
Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) offers adult education and job training in three manufacturing tracks: Welding, Computer Numerical Control and Press Brake. JARC provides free technical manufacturing training and job placement services to women participating in EWI. All trainees receive industry-recognized credentials and ongoing job placement and coaching support.
Kennedy King College: Dawson Technical Institute - $12,000
The Dawson Technical Institute at Kennedy King College (DTI) provides industry-validated training in the construction and utility trades. DTI educates students in both a classroom and a shop setting. Students are equipped with technical skills as well as basic job safety and ethics training. DTI students are encouraged to utilize Kennedy King College’s myriad support services.
Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing - $20,000
Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing (LCBH) protects the rights of women facing eviction through direct services, emergency funding and advocacy. LCBH will work with EWI participants and partner organizations through its Rentervention program, a new mobile, chat-box application that connects renters to information and advice relating to tenant-landlord issues. Rentervention supports self-advocacy and can connect renters with a pro-bono legal assistance. LCBH attorneys will provide a continuum of free legal services to EWI participants who are facing unjust evictions, unsafe housing conditions, and/or are living in a building that is in foreclosure.
Metropolitan Family Services - $24,500
Metropolitan Family Services and its Financial Opportunities Center based at Kennedy-King College will provide career services, including skills assessment, job readiness skills, job placement and transportation assistance; financial literacy, including one-to-one coaching, budgeting and assistance accessing public benefits; and education, with a particular emphasis on building employment bridges into health care and certified medical administrative assistant training.
Teamwork Englewood - $25,000
Teamwork Englewood offers workplace development, job placement and re-entry services to women with barriers to employment, housing and health services due to previous felony convictions. Utilizing its extensive experience in community organizing and its role as the lead agency of the Englewood Quality of Life Plan, it will continue to integrate EWI into the ongoing activities of the Quality of Life Plan Jobs and Economic Development task force.
FAMILY AND INTERPERSONAL RESILIENCE SAFETY AND TRANSFORMATION (FIRST) FUND
The Family and Interpersonal Resilience and Transformation (FIRST) Fund is a pooled fund supported by Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago Community Trust, Crown Family Philanthropies, the Ellie Fund at the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Chicago, The Michael Reese Health Trust, Polk Bros. Foundation and VNA Foundation, supporting planning for new and innovative strategies to address domestic violence.
Ascend Justice / The Family Defense Center - $25,000
Ascend Justice, formerly The Family Defense Center, advocates justice for families in the child welfare system. The Family Defense Center, in partnership with A Safe Place, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), as well as the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network, will plan for the expansion of a pilot project placing community-based domestic violence advocates in DCFS regional offices. Advocates will advise and work alongside staff on trauma-informed, supportive interventions for families impacted by domestic violence.
Between Friends - $18,150
Between Friends works to break the cycle of domestic violence and build a community free of abuse, and serves thousands of adults and youths every year through crisis intervention services, and prevention and education programs. In collaboration with survivors of domestic violence and community partners, Between Friends will engage survivors as leaders in developing an economic empowerment toolkit and learning modules that address domestic violence, restoring/rebuilding credit, job training and understanding debt.
HANA Center - $25,000
HANA Center empowers Korean American, immigrant and multi-racial communities through a continuum of social services, education and community organizing. HANA Center will work with KAN-WIN, which works to eradicate all forms of violence against women by empowering Asian American survivors and their community, to organize and support male-identified Asian American Pacific Islander youth to challenge traditional gender norms, and build male support and leadership to prevent domestic and intimate partner violence.
Healing to Action - $22,000
Healing to Action advances a worker-led movement to end gender-based violence by cultivating survivor leadership, elevating gender violence as a priority in the labor movement’s organizing agenda, and coalition-building to coordinate the efforts of the labor and anti-violence movements to support survivors. Collaborating with unions and grassroots organizations to connect with workers across industries and cultures, Healing to Action will cultivate and support survivor leaders in advancing grassroots advocacy campaigns and sustainable solutions to prevent sexual violence.
Lake County Crisis Center (A Safe Place) - $25,000
Lake County Crisis Center (A Safe Place) offers comprehensive domestic violence services that provide a safety net to assist survivors of domestic violence and their children. A Safe Place will conduct a planning process to explore the use of a community health worker program to better reach high-barrier and isolated populations, including Latino families, African-American families and the elderly population.
Latinos Progresando - $15,600
Latinos Progresando operates the largest Latino-led, family-based immigration legal services program in Illinois, including specialized services for immigrant survivors of domestic violence. Latinos Progresando will work with former clients, community members, and organizations to conduct a feasibility study for programs helping immigrant women and their families adjust to new immigration status, while leveraging assets and strengths of community-based organizations in Marshall Square.
Resolution Systems Institute, Inc. - $13,400
Resolution Systems Institute, Inc. strengthens access to justice by enhancing court alternative dispute resolution such as mediation. Resolution Systems Institute, Inc. will explore the development of an online intimate partner violence screening tool for mediators to meet the mediation needs of families impacted by violence.
YWCA of Evanston / North Shore - $25,000
YWCA of Evanston/North Shore has worked for over six decades to foster gender, racial and economic equity for women and girls. YWCA of Evanston/North Shore will conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and asset mapping to develop a coordinated response to domestic violence focused on preschoolers and their families.
THE GENERAL FUND
Grants from the General Fund focus on Chicago Foundation for Women’s three key issue areas: economic security, freedom from violence, and access to health services and information for women and girls.
Affinity Community Services - $5,000
Affinity Community Services is a social justice organization serving the needs of the Black LGBTQ community of Chicago with a particular focus on Black women. Founded to bring visibility and voice to Black people in LGBTQ communities and LGBTQ people in Black communities, Affinity Community Services operates from the South Side of Chicago and is one of the few organizations created and run by Black LGBTQ women.
Apna Ghar, Inc. - $20,000
Apna Ghar, Inc. provides holistic and culturally sensitive services to survivors of gender-based violence across immigrant communities in the Chicago region. Apna Ghar offers a 24-hour crisis line, emergency shelter, transitional housing, counseling services and legal advocacy. Services are designed to minimize the socio-cultural, linguistic, and legal barriers that prevent immigrant women from seeking help. In addition to direct service, Apna Ghar advocates for systems change at the policy level.
Arab American Family Services - $15,000
The mission of Arab-American Family Services (AAFS) is to empower and enhance the lives of Arab and Muslim people. AAFS addresses the many unmet needs and concerns of Arab American and other immigrant families in more than 30 communities in the South Suburban Chicagoland area. AAFS’ Domestic Violence Intervention and Prevention Program provides direct services, advocacy, and outreach for survivors of domestic violence. AAFS engages mainstream organizations to build their capacity to work with domestic violence survivors by providing training in the Arab American culture, Islamic religion, and immigrant and refugee needs.
Ascend Justice - $35,000
Formed from the merger of the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic (DVLC) and The Family Defense Center. DVLC provides skilled, compassionate legal representation to survivors of domestic violence. In addition to legal aid, DVLC connects survivors to necessary resources such as emotional support and safety planning. The Family Defense Center (FDC) serves parents and caregivers through legal services, policy initiatives, and collaborative projects. DVLC will integrate FDC's direct legal services into its Extended Services Division. FDC policy efforts form the foundation of systemic advocacy and reform focused on gender-based violence and the child welfare system.
Between Friends - $20,000
Between Friends envisions a world without domestic violence, where all relationships are equitable, safe, and just. Between Friends works to break the cycle of domestic abuse through crisis intervention, prevention, and education services serving thousands of adults and youth every year.
BUILD, Inc. - $15,000
BUILD, Inc. engages over 6,500 youth annually in efforts to escape gang violence and become leaders in their communities in five Chicago neighborhoods—Austin, Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Hermosa, and Bronzeville. The BUILDing Girls 2 Women (BG2W) program invites girls with previous involvement in gangs or the justice system to participate in mentoring and counseling sessions. Through intensive group and individual support to address trauma, prevent participation in crime and violence, and develop self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social-emotional health, BG2W teaches important skills like teamwork, anger management, and establishing healthy relationships, while creating a ‘BG2W Sisterhood’ that continues long after the core program is completed.
Center for Advancing Domestic Peace - $10,000
The Center for Advancing Domestic Peace (The Center) works to stop domestic violence where it starts by helping those who abuse take responsibility for their behavior, create healthier relationships and strengthen their community. The Center is the only Chicago-area agency dedicated to rehabilitating individuals who have abused an intimate partner through evidence-based, culturally responsive services rooted in feminist principles. The Center also plays a key role in strengthening the coordinated community response to domestic violence through the facilitation of training for victim services and law enforcement professionals as well as engagement in the Chicago Battered Women’s Network and other coalition efforts.
Chicago Women’s Health Center - $25,000
Chicago Women’s Health Center (CWHC) facilitates the empowerment of women and trans people by providing access to health care and health education in a respectful environment where people pay what they can afford. CWHC offers primary care that integrates mental health, gynecological care, trans health care, counseling, alternative insemination, and acupuncture. CWHC also works in Chicago schools to provide youth with comprehensive sexual health and healthy relationship classes.
Chicago Workers’ Collaborative - $10,000
Chicago Workers’ Collective (CWC) organizes and empowers low-wage temporary laborers to take action and protect their rights. CWC works to build community power by bridging diverse communities and organizing across sectors to end gender violence, racial discrimination, and economic exploitation. CWC combines economic justice, community engagement, and healing justice through leadership training and community-building initiatives, with a particular focus on immigrant communities.
Connections for Abused Women and their Children - $10,000
Connections for Abused Women and their Children (CAWC) provides emergency response and comprehensive domestic violence services that enable survivors to increase their safety and establish independence. CAWC currently operates four programs at five locations throughout the city.
Crossroads Fund - $7,500
To support Cultivate: Women of Color Leadership Program.
Family Rescue - $15,000
Family Rescue is dedicated to eliminating domestic violence in the Chicago community by providing comprehensive support services and shelter to survivors of domestic violence, engaging in advocacy to promote future systems change, and encouraging prevention through community education.
HANA Center - $15,000
HANA Center empowers Korean American, immigrant, and multiethnic communities through social services, education, and community organizing to advance human rights. The Womxn Moving Forward Together (WMFT) program takes an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to advance both gender and economic justice. WMFT will focus on a collective empowerment model, building immigrant womxn survivors’ financial capacity and wealth while pursuing community accountability and systemic change to advance human rights.
KAN-WIN - $25,000
KAN-WIN empowers survivors of gender-based violence, with a particular focus on Asian immigrant communities. KAN-WIN’s mission is to eradicate all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual assault, by empowering Asian American survivors and engaging the community through culturally competent services, community education, and advocacy.
Latinos Progresando - $20,000
Latinos Progresando (LP) delivers high-quality information and resources for people to build secure, healthy, and productive lives. LP runs the largest Latino-led immigration legal services program in Illinois, including an initiative serving immigrant victims of domestic violence. LP’s VAWA project provides high-quality, free legal support for immigrant survivors of domestic violence in order to help them achieve independent immigration status, obtain a work permit, pursue lawful employment and gain economic independence.
Life Span - $15,000
Life Span combines civil representation, criminal court advocacy, and counseling to provide a permanent solution to domestic and sexual violence. Its integrated service delivery uses an empowerment model to help clients create a plan for safety and a plan for services.
Midwest Access Project - $20,000
Midwest Access Project (MAP) envisions a society in which every person has access to patient-centered, quality reproductive health care within their community. As a Midwestern hub for training and advocacy, MAP fills gaps in medical education and clinical training, reducing barriers to care and improving access to reproductive health care by training providers in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health including contraception, pregnancy options counseling, miscarriage, and abortion.
Mikva Challenge - $19,000
Mikva Challenge develops youth to be informed, empowered, and active citizens and community leaders by engaging youth in action civics, an authentic and transformative learning process built on youth voice and youth expertise. The Young Women’s Leadership Council (YWLC) at Mikva Challenge builds the skills and leadership potential of young women while providing a platform for citywide advocacy. The YWLC directly connects young women from under-resourced communities with women in positions of leadership and creates a community of support that empowers its members to lead on the issues that affect them.
Mujeres Latinas en Acción - $15,000
Mujeres Latinas en Acción empowers survivors of violence to heal, thrive, and become leaders. Mujeres Latinas en Acción brings cultural competency and expertise rooted in empowerment to healing services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, including therapy, counseling, legal and medical case management. Community education and consultation services aim to improve responsiveness to and prevent domestic and sexual violence.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois - $15,000
Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) provides compassionate, comprehensive reproductive health care, education, and advocacy. PPIL’s Teen Birth Control Access Campaign is a multi-faceted, youth-driven outreach and service delivery campaign to reduce unintended teen pregnancy through education, improving access to birth control, and a proactive policy agenda to protect the ability of all Illinoisans to access confidential, affordable birth control.
Public Narrative - $10,000
Public Narrative teaches two distinct groups — journalists and nonprofits — how to tell better stories. It knows without people seeing their concerns and realities reflected in journalism, the full stories will never be told, those that are will not be relevant to people and there can never be meaningful change. And Public Narrative wants to change. It particularly intends to change the public narrative to ensure it is telling the full story about racism, sexism, and xenophobia — things that are historically and deeply woven into the fabric of society. Its goal ensures stories involving these issues are complete and include the voices of people, not just power. Public Narrative teaches community groups and leaders, it works on messaging and storytelling across platforms. By doing so, it reconnects people
Resilience (formerly Rape Victim Advocates) - $25,000
Resilience is committed to the healing and empowerment of sexual assault survivors through non-judgmental crisis intervention counseling, individual and group trauma therapy, and medical and legal advocacy in the Chicago metropolitan area. Resilience provides public education and institutional advocacy to improve the treatment of sexual assault survivors and to effect policy change. Its work addresses the entire spectrum of sexual violence, including assault, harassment, abuse, and prevention, with an additional focus on public education and institutional advocacy.
RefugeeOne - $15,000
RefugeeOne creates opportunities for refugees fleeing war, terror, and persecution to build new lives of safety, dignity, and self-reliance. The Women’s Health Project strengthens the mental, physical and social well-being of refugee women and girls. The program provides participants with therapeutic services, medical and intensive case management, and opportunities to build a sense of community.
Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU, Inc. - $25,000
The ACLU of Illinois works to protect and extend freedom, liberty, and equality to all through integrated advocacy efforts that combine litigation, legislative and regulatory advocacy, public education, and engagement. The Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project (WRRP) facilitates women’s full participation in society by safeguarding the right to medical privacy and bodily autonomy; removing the stigma that surrounds abortion, pregnancy, and lactation; and advancing policies that recognize the full range of reproductive health care—from contraception, to abortion, to childbirth—as health care.
Sarah’s Inn - $15,000
Sarah’s Inn provides comprehensive domestic services to survivors and responds to the needs of families already affected by violence, while working proactively to prevent future violence. Sarah’s Inn approaches domestic violence as a societal issue that demands a holistic response and works to break the cycle of violence for future generations.
South Suburban Family Shelter - $15,000
South Suburban Family Shelter (SSFS) provides counseling, criminal and civil court advocacy, medical advocacy, emergency shelter and transitional housing, financial assistance, school-based prevention programs, abuser intervention, and a 24-hour hotline for survivors of domestic violence. All programs are offered in both English and Spanish.
YWCA of Evanston/North Shore - $15,000
YWCA of Evanston/North Shore is a multicultural women’s organization dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting justice and dignity for all. The Domestic Violence Services program allows survivors to access emergency intervention services, including a crisis hotline and emergency housing, as well as trauma-informed counseling and legal services.
IRENE BAYRACH ANTI-VIOLENCE LEGACY FUND
The Irene Bayrach Anti-Violence Legacy Fund supports advocacy and services to address family violence. Through this Fund, the Foundation seeks to address the following types of violence: 1) Domestic abuse or violence between partners in an intimate relationship including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; 2) Girls' exposure to family violence and child abuse, including physical maltreatment and neglect by a parent or other caregiver; 3) Elder women abuse.
Lake County Crisis Center (A Safe Place) - $15,000
A Safe Place is the sole provider of services exclusively addressing domestic violence and human trafficking in Lake County, Illinois. A Safe Place offers comprehensive services that provide a safety net to meet the immediate and long-term needs of survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. Services include a 24-hour crisis line, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, counseling, advocacy, life skills training, and community education. A Safe Place helps survivors and their families achieve self-sufficiency and prevent future violence.
Youth Outlook - $10,000
Youth Outlook celebrates, empowers, advocates, and provides services for LGBTQ+ youth and their families, friends, and communities. The Healthy Relationships for LGBTQ+ Youth project facilitates discussion and education around healthy relationships, sexual harassment and assault, and the continuum of violence with a focus on the needs of LGBTQ+ youth.
SOPHIA FUND FOR ADVOCACY
In 1992, the Sophia Fund’s founder turned over part of the fund’s work to Chicago Foundation for Women to continue its support of advocacy and social policy efforts to allow women and girls to live to their full potential.
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation - $20,000
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) addresses the institutions and individuals that perpetrate, profit from, or support sexual exploitation, focusing specifically on sexual assault and prostitution. CAASE seeks to end sexual exploitation through free legal services, policy and legislative change, prevention education, and community engagement efforts.
Chicago Community Bond Fund - $15,000
Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) pays bonds for individuals charged with crimes in Cook County, educates the public about the role of bonds in the justice system, and advocates for the abolition of money bonds. CCBF prioritizes assistance for those most likely to experience trauma while incarcerated, including LGBTQI and gender non-conforming people, Black women, and mothers. CCBF is committed to building long-term relationships and organizing with people most directly impacted by criminalization and policing.
HEART Women and Girls - $20,000
HEART Women and Girls promotes sexual health literacy and sexual violence prevention in Muslim communities through health education, advocacy, research, and training. HEART makes accurate, culturally-sensitive sexual health and sexual violence information accessible through both in-person interactive workshops and a virtual resource center. HEART offers advocacy to survivors to direct them to the information and support they need to move toward healing and justice. HEART also offers trainings to build the capacity of leaders, professionals, and organizations to better serve the sexual health needs of Muslim communities.
National Immigrant Justice Center - $25,000
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) ensures due process and human rights protection for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. NIJC leverages a network of 1,600 pro bono attorneys to provide legal services for 10,000 individuals each year. The Gender Justice Initiative (GJI) fights to dismantle policies that disproportionately affect immigrant families, women, and LGBTQ immigrants.
Smart Policy Works - $20,000
Smart Policy Works believes sustainable systems change is possible through cross-sector partnerships and inclusive public policymaking. The Women’s Justice Institute convenes a statewide task force working to decrease the women’s prison population in Illinois; reduce the harm caused to women, children, and families involved in the justice system; and promote improved health and well-being for those touched by the justice system.
UCAN - $15,000
UCAN is an anchor organization for youth who have experienced trauma, working to build strong youth and families through compassionate healing, education, and empowerment. The Phenomenal Woman mentoring program brings together young women who have experienced trauma for group mentoring workshops in order to strengthen their self-esteem and self-image and to develop healthy and supportive relationships.
GIVING TUESDAY
Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving in which individuals, organizations, businesses, and communities take collective action to give back and support causes they believe in. Chicago Foundation for Women community members selected one organization to receive a special, one-time #GivingTuesday grant of $12,000, and two additional organizations to receive grants of $3,000 each.
ArtReach Chicago - $3,000
Project FIRE (Fearless Initiative for Recovery and Empowerment) is an artist development employment program combining glassblowing skills training, mentoring, and trauma recovery support for young women and girls impacted by violence.
Communities United - $3,000
Communities United develops mothers as community leaders to address the root causes of harmful interactions with the police and to develop solutions to create safe communities for all.
Salt and Light Coalition - $12,000
The Healing and Empowering All Lady Survivors (HEALS) program provides support and skills training for survivors of sex trafficking through a year-long curriculum centered on promoting healing through health and wellness, spirituality, job training, and entrepreneurship education.
POLK BROS. FUND FOR EMERGING ORGANIZATIONS
The Polk Bros. Foundation Fund for Emerging Organizations fosters early growth in promising nonprofits with annual operating budgets below $75,000.
Brave Space Alliance - $6,075
Brave Space Alliance (BSA) is a social justice collective run by and for transgender women and gender-nonconforming people of color. BSA strives to educate and empower each other through sharing skills, knowledge, and resources to generate opportunities, and to support community members organizing around their experiences with racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, incarceration, and other intersecting oppressions.
Chicago Period Project - $2,000
Chicago Period Project (CPP) collects and distributes menstrual products to low-income Chicagoans. CPP believes menstruating people should be able to experience their period with dignity through reliable access to menstrual products. CPP educates Chicagoans on how menstruation stigma increases racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in health.
Gyrls in the H.O.O.D. Foundation - $2,875
Gyrls in the H.O.O.D. aims to reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies among girls in under-resourced communities. The eight-week “Degrees B4 Diapers” program provides comprehensive, age-appropriate, and evidence-based sex education, as well as access to reproductive health care.
Sisters in Cinema - $2,050
Sisters in Cinema aims to entertain, educate, develop and celebrate Black women media-makers. The Black Lesbian Writers’ Room creates media that explores the lives of Black queer women and supports the development of Black women writers based in Chicago.
Sisters Network Chicago Chapter - $2,000
Sisters Network Chicago Chapter (SNCC) champions the health and well-being of Black women throughout Chicago, particularly on the South Side and in south suburban Cook County. SNCC works to increase access to and utilization of high-quality, culturally sensitive medical care through advocacy, education, and support efforts. The Breast Cancer Assistance Program (BCAP) provides financial assistance to breast cancer survivors in active treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation.
THE REV. WILLIE BARROW EMERGING LEADERS AWARD
The Rev. Willie Barrow Emerging Leaders Award recognizes organizations engaged in innovative work to support and strengthen the leadership of Black women and girls, and provides grant funding to further that work.
Ladies of Virtue - $25,000
Ladies of Virtue (LOV) invests in teen girls of color living in under-resourced communities by partnering them with professional women role models who bear similar racial backgrounds to act as caring mentors through the girls’ school years. LOV instills purpose, passion, and perseverance in girls, ages 9-18, while preparing them for college, career, and to become change agents in their communities. LOV uniquely prepares participants for leadership through mentoring, character development, and career preparation.
THE STRATEGIC RESPONSE FUND
Thanks in large part to generous support from the Polk Bros. Foundation, the Strategic Response Fund allows the Foundation to provide immediate support for projects that are outside of the Foundation’s spring and fall grant cycles. Grants of up to $7,500 are awarded on a rolling basis to local organizations addressing critical issues and concerns of women and girls. These rapid response grants are intended to be small, discrete, and timely. Thus, grants from this pool are “exceptional” and out of the ordinary course of business. This fund is competitive and an organization is limited to one Strategic Response Fund grant per year.
Chicago Community Foundation - $5,000
The Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative responds to the need for immediate action by, and capacity-building for, nonprofits to assist Illinois immigrants and refugees affected by executive orders and other policy changes related to immigration
Demoiselle 2 Femme - $4,250
Demoiselle 2 Femme (D2F), is a nonprofit organization with a rich history of providing community-based programs for girls on the far South Side of Chicago and south suburbs. The mission of D2F is to provide holistic services, education, instruction, and training to assist adolescent girls in a successful transition to womanhood.
Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence - $2,000
The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) is a 40-year-old membership organization whose mission is to build networks of support for and with survivors, and advance statewide policies and practices that transform societal attitudes and institutions to eliminate and prevent domestic abuse. ICADV envisions a statewide community committed to exposing the root causes of domestic abuse and ensuring safety for families by supporting the voices of all survivors.
Ladies of Virtue - $4,250
Ladies of Virtue (LOV) invests in teen girls of color living in under-resourced communities by partnering them with professional women role models who bear similar racial backgrounds to act as caring mentors through the girls’ school years. LOV instills purpose, passion, and perseverance in girls, ages 9-18, while preparing them for college, career, and to become change agents in their communities. LOV uniquely prepares participants for leadership through mentoring, character development, and career preparation.
Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force - $5,000
The Task Force works to address breast cancer survival disparities between Black and white women in Chicago by increasing access to quality health care. The Task Force supports education, quality measurement, and improvement for breast healthcare, as well as provides direct services to women through its Community Health Initiatives.
Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality: Northside - $5,000
Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality (ONE): Northside is a mixed-income, multi-ethnic, intergenerational organization that unites our diverse communities. ONE: Northside builds collective power to eliminate injustice through bold and innovative community organizing by developing grassroots leaders and acting together to effect change.
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble $3,500
Rivendell Theatre’s “Power UP .8” is an after-school arts education program for girls ages 8-12 to expose girls to new career paths while giving them the confidence to know their voice and strength in any industry.
South Asian American Policy & Research Institute - $3,000
The South Asian American Policy and Research Institute’s immigrant rights initiative emphasizes the benefits of the 2015 Obama-era policy that grants work authorization to H-4 visa holders and to defend the continuation of the program.
The Impact Alliance NFP - $3,000
The purpose of Speak Truth Summit is to provide women of color a platform to discuss issues that are often left out of mainstream women’s rights and issues forums. The Summit brings women of color together to identify how to navigate and overcome issues, hurdles, and traumas they face in the many systems they live and operate in on a daily basis.
DONOR-ADVISED FUNDS
Donor-Advised funds can be established when a person or family donates $5,000 or more to the fund. Chicago Foundation for Women assists the donor in awarding grants from that fund to support organizations helping women and girls.
Our DAFs include:
- Fay Clayton Fund
- Myah & Jaime Irick Fund
- Nancy M. Goodman Memorial Fund
- The Evelyn Appell Lipkin Endowed Fund
- Patricia McMillen Fund
- Jo and Art Moore Family Fund
- Eleanor Petersen Fund
- Berta Waese Endowed Fund
- The Patty Crowley Fund
- Elick and Charlotte Lindon Fund
- Lueavery Partee Fund
- Jessica Eve Patt Internship Fund
- Hedy and Rose Ratner Fund
EVELYN APPELL LIPKIN ENDOWED FUND
Syrian Community Network - $1,500
Syrian Community Network (SCN) helps Syrian refugees adjust to their new homes and build bridges between newly arrived refugees and communities. SCN stabilizes and secures families through access to housing, social services, education, food security, psychosocial services, and health care resources. As the voice of Syrian refugees, SCN advocacy efforts champion refugee resettlement, dismantling barriers to resettlement, and stabilizing and procuring support for refugees. DAF funds support SCN as they rebuild their office after a fire in their building.
FAY CLAYTON DONOR ADVISED FUND
Center for Reproductive Rights - $8,000
The Center for Reproductive Rights envisions a world where every woman is free to decide whether and when to have children; where every woman has access to the best reproductive healthcare available; where every woman can exercise her choices without coercion or discrimination. Since 1992, the Center’s attorneys have boldly used legal and human rights tools to create this world.
Human Rights Watch - $5,000
Human Rights Watch is a non-governmental human rights organization. Each year, Human Rights Watch publishes more than 100 reports and briefings on human rights conditions in some 90 countries. Human Rights Watch meets with governments, the United Nations, regional groups like the African Union and the European Union, financial institutions, and corporations to press for changes in policy and practice that promote human rights and justice around the world. Human Rights Watch is working toward the realization of women’s empowerment and gender equality through its Women’s Rights Division.
Midwest Access Project - $1,000
Midwest Access Project (MAP) envisions a society in which every person has access to patient-centered, quality reproductive health care within their community. As a Midwestern hub for training and advocacy, MAP fills gaps in medical education and clinical training, reducing barriers to care and improving access to reproductive health care by training providers in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health including contraception, pregnancy options counseling, miscarriage, and abortion.
NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation - $1,000
NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation's mission is to support and protect a woman's freedom to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois - $5,000
Planned Parenthood of Illinois provides compassionate, comprehensive reproductive health care, education, and advocacy.
Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU - $10,000
The ACLU of Illinois works to protect and extend freedom, liberty, and equality to all through integrated advocacy efforts that combine litigation, legislative and regulatory advocacy, public education, and engagement. The Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project facilitates women’s full participation in society by safeguarding the right to medical privacy and bodily autonomy; removing the stigma that surrounds abortion, pregnancy, and lactation; and advancing policies that recognize the full range of reproductive health care—from contraception, to abortion, to childbirth—as health care.
Still She Rises - $1,000
Still She Rises provides low-income mothers in North Tulsa with access to meaningful and effective legal representation in criminal, family, and civil court, and ensures they have the social support they need.
Syrian Community Network - $500
Syrian Community Network (SCN) helps Syrian refugees adjust to their new homes and build bridges between newly arrived refugees and communities. SCN stabilizes and secures families through access to housing, social services, education, food security, psychosocial services, and health care resources. As the voice of Syrian refugees, SCN advocacy efforts champion refugee resettlement, dismantling barriers to resettlement, and stabilizing and procuring support for refugees. DAF funds support SCN as they rebuild their office after a fire in their building.
Women Employed - $1,000
Women Employed’s mission is to improve the economic status of women and remove barriers to economic equity. Current strategic priorities are winning changes in workplace practices that improve the quality of front-line jobs to increase the economic stability of low-wage earners, and creating systems and programs that enable disadvantaged adults to increase their skills, leading to good jobs.
THE PATTY CROWLEY FUND
Bethany House of Hospitality - $5,000
The mission of Bethany House of Hospitality is to offer housing and supportive services to young immigrant women as they journey to independence. Bethany House of Hospitality specifically provides supportive housing services for young immigrant women ages 18-22 who are just being released from children’s immigration detention so they do not have to go to adult ICE detention on their 18th birthday.
Deborah’s Place - $10,000
Deborah’s Place opens doors for women experiencing homelessness as Chicago’s largest provider of supportive and interim housing exclusively for women. Supportive housing and services, and a Housing First approach offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals, and moving forward from the experience of homelessness. Teresa’s Interim Housing is a 120-day residential program that provides safe, short-term housing that addresses the immediate needs of women who are homeless with targeted interventions that help them transition into permanent housing and achieve long-term housing stability.
NANCY M. GOODMAN DONOR ADVISED FUND
CommunityHealth - $2,000
CommunityHealth is the leader in delivering comprehensive, high-quality, patient-centered health care at no cost to low-income, uninsured adults in need of a medical home.
Healing to Action - $2,000
Healing to Action advances a worker-led movement to end gender-based violence. Healing to Action builds the power of low-wage workers to achieve economic and social equity by elevating gender violence as a priority in the labor movement, cultivating worker leadership to transform responses to gender violence, and building coalitions to unite labor, legal, and anti-violence organizations behind worker-led solutions. Healing to Action builds workers’ collective power to advocate for policies that address gender-based violence as an economic justice issue with their employers, elected officials, and community members.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois - $2,000
Planned Parenthood of Illinois provides compassionate, comprehensive reproductive health care, education, and advocacy.
Syrian Community Network - $1,000
Syrian Community Network (SCN) helps Syrian refugees adjust to their new homes and build bridges between newly arrived refugees and communities. SCN stabilizes and secures families through access to housing, social services, education, food security, psychosocial services, and health care resources. As the voice of Syrian refugees, SCN advocacy efforts champion refugee resettlement, dismantling barriers to resettlement, and stabilizing and procuring support for refugees. DAF funds support SCN as they rebuild their office after a fire in their building.
PATRICIA R. MCMILLEN FUND
Life Span - $5,000
Life Span combines civil representation, criminal court advocacy, and counseling to provide a permanent solution to domestic and sexual violence. Its integrated service delivery uses an empowerment model to help clients create a plan for safety and a plan for services.
ELEANOR PETERSEN LEGACY FUND
Affinity Community Services - $15,00
Affinity Community Services is a social justice organization serving the Black LGBTQ community with a particular focus on Black women. The COIL program is a community-based intervention to engage peer groups in conversations about HIV education and prevention.
LBTQ GIVING COUNCIL
Through three Giving Councils, the LBTQ Giving Council, the Women United Giving Council, and the Young Women’s Giving Council, Chicago Foundation for Women foster a network of diverse leaders who raise funds for their communities. Each council’s fund awarded grants this past year to organizations that work in the communities they represent.
The LBTQ Giving Council of Chicago Foundation for Women is committed to fundraising in order to provide grants to organizations and programs benefiting lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning women and girls in the Chicago region.
Affinity Community Services - $4,100
Affinity Community Services is a social justice organization serving the Black LGBTQ community with a particular focus on Black women. The COIL program is a community-based intervention to engage peer groups in conversations about HIV education and prevention.
Sisters in Cinema - $4,100
Sisters in Cinema aims to entertain, educate, develop, and celebrate Black women media-makers. The Black Lesbian Writers’ Room creates media that explores the lives of Black queer lesbians and supports the development of Black women writers based in Chicago.
The National LGBTQ Workers Center - $2,500
The National LGBTQ Workers Center is an organization for LGBTQ workers to stand up to workplace discrimination and fight for economic justice. The National LGBTQ Workers Center facilitates multiple forums for LGBTQ workers in Chicago to come together, learn from one another and organize for a better tomorrow.
NORTH SHORE GIVING CIRCLE
The North Shore Giving Circle of Chicago Foundation for Women aims to increase awareness about the Foundation within the northern suburbs and to make use of the knowledge and skills of community leaders and members. The purpose of the giving circle is to provide a bridge between the Foundation and women leaders in Chicagoland communities and to provide specialized fundraising and grantmaking mechanisms for these communities through Chicago Foundation for Women.
Community Organizing and Family Issues - $10,700
Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) develops the leadership and organizing capacity of low-income parents of color, primarily mothers and grandmothers, in order to impact change on behalf of women, children, and families at all levels of public life. “Strengthening Mother Leaders for Equity in Evanston” engages low-income mothers of color in campaigns that address the root causes of poverty to strengthen family economic security.
Center for Independent Futures - $10,000
The Center for Independent Futures (CIF) creates person-centered programs giving individuals with disabilities and families skills and opportunities to realize full lives. CIF designs and implements support for women with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have experienced sexual and physical assault. This project will create organizational change focused on increasing disability responsiveness and provide organizational training specific to the issues and needs of women with disabilities experience sexual violence.
Fenix Family Health Center - $10,000
Fenix Family Health Center serves low-income Latino individuals through high-quality health care that deeply respects patients’ values and culture. Fenix approaches treatment with an understanding of the stresses that accompany immigration, including adjustment to a new language and culture, poverty, and loss of extended family. Fenix offers intensive health education programs, especially for Latina women.
North Suburban Legal Aid - $10,000
North Suburban Legal Aid offers pro bono legal services in the areas of domestic violence, immigration, and housing. The Clinic has two attorneys who represent survivors of domestic violence in Orders of Protection, divorce, child custody, and child support.
United Way of Lake County - $10,000
United Way of Lake County's mission is to unite leadership and resources to create lasting change that will improve lives in Lake County. Home Visiting delivers early intervention services to the homes of families with infants and preschool-age children who are struggling with poverty and who have limited access to health and community services.
SOUTH SIDE GIVING CIRCLE
The South Side Giving Circle of Chicago Foundation for Women mobilizes philanthropic resources of women primarily on Chicago's South Side and in the South Suburbs to invest in the economic, social, and political power of Black women and girls in metropolitan Chicago.
Assata's Daughters - $7,500
Assata's Daughters provides yearlong after-school political education programming to young Black girls and Black teens. Youth participants have the opportunity to use what they learn and participate in, create and lead citywide campaigns that promote the liberation of Black people.
Girls Like Me Project, Inc. - $5,000
Girls Like Me Project, Inc. aims to liberate urban African-American girls ages 11-16 through programming to become influential, independent digital storytellers. D.I.V.A.S (Digitally Innovative Voices of Advocacy Sisters) in the City is a 6-week collaborative group-mentoring summer program that uses digital storytelling as a tool of connectivity and leadership, and gives girls the tools to document their experience as they explore Chicago beyond their neighborhoods.
Polished Pebbles - $10,000
The Polished Pebbles mentoring program helps African-American girls resolve conflicts non-violently & teaches them effective communication, career, and life skills. The High School Girl's Career Connections program engages participants in mentoring activities that facilitate the development of strong, effective, and transferable communication skills with peers, adults, and employers; exposes participants to various potential career paths; and creates a community space for girls, their families, and community members.
Sisters Network Chicago Chapter - $7,500
Sisters Network Chicago Chapter (SNCC) seeks to eliminate disparities in breast cancer mortality for Black women in metropolitan Chicago through advocacy, education, financial assistance, and social support.
Violets in Bloom - $3,000
Violets In Bloom offers after-school programming for sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade girls in the Bronzeville area geared towards educational goals, mentoring, and self-awareness.
WESTERN SUBURBS GIVING CIRCLE
The Western Suburbs Giving Circle is a group of Chicago-area women who combine their funds to address the needs of women and girls in the western suburbs with a special focus on economic security and freedom from violence. By leveraging the power of collective gifts, their grants create meaningful impact and improve lives.
360 Youth Services - $15,000
360 Youth Services takes a “360” comprehensive approach in identifying its clients’ challenges and marshaling appropriate resources to help youth reach their full potential. The 360 Transitional Living Program provides young women struggling with homelessness with safe accommodation, health care, and strategies for a successful transition following the program’s end.
Teen Parent Connection - $10,000
Teen Parent Connection (TPC) offers teenage parents the necessary support, information, and resources to improve the overall health of their family and move towards self-sufficiency. TPC’s evidence-based Pathways to Prevention programs address both components of its mission: providing support and resources to adolescent mothers and fathers, and preventing teen pregnancy through reproductive health education. Its direct support services promote the physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being of teenage parents and their children through the delivery of doula services, perinatal education, home visiting, parent groups, and counseling services. TPC also delivers primary prevention education using a model that equips middle and high school students with the education they need to make informed decisions about their sexual health.
WOMEN UNITED GIVING COUNCIL
The Women United Giving Council of Chicago Foundation for women grew out of the unification of the African American, Asian American, and Latina Leadership Councils that led grantmaking in their communities from the early 2000s through 2013, and continues to meaningfully invest in women and girls of color.
A Long Walk Home - $1,500
A Long Walk Home uses art to empower young people to end violence against women and girls. The Girl/Friends Leadership Institute is the only program in Chicago that empowers teen girls (12-18) of color to use art and youth leadership to create campaigns to end gender violence in their schools and communities.
YOUNG WOMEN'S GIVING COUNCIL
Young Women’s Giving Council of CFW invests in and empowers girls and young women in the Chicago region to create social change.
Brave Space Alliance - $5,750
Brave Space Alliance (BSA) is a social justice collective run by and for transgender women and gender-nonconforming people of color. BSA strives to educate and empower each other through sharing skills, knowledge, and resources to generate opportunities and to support community members organizing around their experiences with racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, incarceration, and other intersecting oppressions.
Global Girls - $5,000
Global Girls provides arts education, rigorous theatre and dance training, and presentation opportunities to equip youth of color with capacities that nurture their individual growth and inspire them to use their talents for positive change in their communities. Four “Fearless Girls Momentum” conferences will use theatre games and practices to teach girls assertive communication skills, self-advocacy, peer support, as well as about science-based sexual health and nontraditional careers for women.
Gyrls in the H.O.O.D. Foundation (H.O.O.D.) - $5,750
Gyrls in the H.O.O.D. aims to reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies among girls in under-resourced communities. The eight-week “Degrees B4 Diapers” program provides comprehensive, age-appropriate, and evidence-based sex education, as well as access to reproductive health care.
