Grant Recipients

The Community-based behavioral health program provides bilingual, trauma-informed clinical counseling for at-risk children and youth in vulnerable communities in Chicago’s south and west sides. The program helps youth cope with past trauma and strengthen their resiliency; gain stability; achieve healthier emotional and behavioral functioning; develop healthy, stable relationships; and build the life skills they need to succeed in their homes, schools, and communities.

Grant supports Safe Start program, which provides family-based therapy to low-income children who have experienced trauma, with a primary focus on children exposed to violence. Funding is utilized for family-centered services, including therapy sessions, case management, crisis support and intervention and follow-up support services.

The Trauma Treatment Program (TTP) reduces disparities in mental health treatment for children from highly stressed, under-resourced communities. TTP provides intensive mental health services to children who experience violence in their homes and communities.

Grant supports Children’s Program, which provides therapeutic assistance to children residing in the agency’s emergency shelter and transitional housing as well as those receiving services through its Community Outreach Program. The program’s main goal is to increase the resiliency of children who have been dually traumatized by domestic violence and/or homelessness.

Heartland Human Care Service’s (HHCS) Violence Recovery Services (VRS) provides comprehensive crisis intervention services to more than 200 children and adults each year who are impacted by domestic violence, sexual violence, and trauma throughout the Chicagoland area.

Hephzibah cares for children who have experienced serious trauma due to severe abuse and neglect. An essential part of its mission is to ensure that children are placed in stable and supportive foster care homes. Grant supports its Family-Based Services, which are committed to supporting and strengthening the relationships between foster children, foster parents, and their biological families.

Juvenile Protection Association’s (JPA) Project CARES provides school-based therapy, trauma-informed teacher consultation, parent support, and social connection to the vulnerable residents of North Lawndale and Humboldt Park. This program provides the systems-level support necessary to improve the social emotional well-being and functioning of at-risk children so they can look forward to achieving future success.

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) is one of the largest child welfare providers in the state. Families Together uses evidence-based interventions focused on the child, birth parent, and foster parent who will receive individualized assessments, training, and support.

Midway Domestic Violence Services provides domestic violence counseling. Individual and family counseling helps families experiencing domestic violence find strength, resources, and opportunities to maximize safety for themselves and their families. Services are client-centered, culturally sensitive, bilingual, and respect the survivor self-determination rights.

Latin Women in Action serves as the longest standing Latina-led, Latina-serving organization in the US. Grant supports its Children’s Therapy program, which provides support to children who are survivors of sexual violence, have witnessed domestic violence or have parents enrolled in its healing services.

One Hope United offers a diverse array of early childhood education, prevention, intervention, and community-based programs for families in Cook County. Grant supports the Extensive Community Home Outreach program, which empowers families to effectively demonstrate positive family functioning through enhancing communication and conflict resolution skills.

The Child & Family Counseling Program provides children and teens with individual and group counseling, both in-person and virtually, when necessary, to support them as they heal from the trauma they have experienced, build a renewed sense of safety, and develop healthy emotional and behavioral responses. The program also provides support and guidance for parents to enable them to help their children overcome experienced trauma.

Strong Families Chicago serves families with children prenatal to 5 residing in the Chicago area. The services are deliberately provided to families who are at risk of child abuse, neglect, ACES (adverse childhood experiences), and in most cases are young mothers and fathers learning how to parent effectively. The program is conducted through home visiting and peer group learning services utilizing research-based parenting curriculum, trauma-informed services, child sex abuse prevention training, and promoting positive interaction and communication amongst caregivers and children.

Grant supports Triple Play, a dynamic health and wellness program that demonstrates how eating right, staying fit and forming positive relationships lead to a healthy lifestyle. Triple Play occurs every day throughout the year at all 20 Clubs.

Center on Halsted will support the continuation and refinement of specialized programming, including supporting service on the Youth Advisory Board; attendance at the 2025 summer leadership academy, youth drop in, and new gender-affirming clothes closet and LGBTQ+ lending library. The agency also offers LGBTQ+ youth and their families and caregivers a range of directed programs in behavioral health services.

Girls in the Game engages girls from childhood through adolescence through a variety of physical activities. Grant supports its Sports and Leadership National Summer Camp, which provides 120+ girls with the opportunity to experience new sports, learn about healthy lifestyles and attend field trips.

Rooted in LGBTQ+ liberation, Howard Brown Health provides affirming healthcare and mobilizes for social justice. With an emphasis on LGBTQ+ people and their allies, uninsured and under-insured individuals, and people living with HIV/AIDS, the agency serves more than 40,000 adults and youth each year.

Premier Kids at La Rabida is a hospital-based, outpatient program which offers primary care for infants and children who are at risk due to developmental problems and/or medically complex conditions. Each child in the Premier Kids program receives routine check-ups, immunizations, and urgent care through a board-certified pediatrician who also coordinates the care for the child’s unique medical condition.

NWSCDC works with residents to develop, design, and execute sustainable strategies for the comprehensive development of the community. Over the past 10 years, Near West has carried out strategies in rebuilding the neighborhood’s social infrastructure, improving the physical and aesthetic identity, improving access to education for everyone and attracting more jobs to the area.

Spectrios empowers children and adults with vision loss, regardless of income, to optimize their visual capabilities and independence through the use of prescriptive tools, technology, rehabilitative training, and inspiration. Grant supports its Seeing is Believing program, which provides free services to 7,800+ visually impaired low-income children attending CPS schools.

After School Matters provides Chicago public high school teens opportunities to explore and develop their talents, while gaining critical skills for work, college and beyond. Grant supports its Out-of-School Time programming in Arts, Communications & Leadership, Sports, and STEM.

Bottom Line helps first-generation, degree aspiring students from low-income backgrounds get into college, graduate, and go far in life. Its Access and Success programs provide one-on-one guidance from college applications until college graduation for each of its students.

Center for Companies That Care’s signature program, AIM High, advances educational equity by increasing access to educational opportunity and high-quality education. AIM High begins working with CPS students in 9th grade and continuing until college graduation, an average of ten years.

College Possible makes college admission and success possible for low-income students through a curriculum of coaching and support beginning junior year of high school through college graduation. Grant supports its Chicago program at six local high schools. AmeriCorps service members serve as coaches and are trained to assist with the challenges students face navigating higher education.

Building leaders and Junior Building Leaders provides interactive out-of-school-time STEM experiences to youth ages 5-18. Both program models place a great emphasis on social-emotional skills, and mental wellness. The out-of-school time programs provide students, with year-round academic enrichment and after school and summer activities through two cohorts.

Genesys Works’ mission is to provide pathways to career success for high school students in underserved communities through skills training, meaningful work experiences, and impactful relationships. The organization creates career pathways and opportunities for youth from underserved communities while simultaneously helping employers fill critical talent gaps within their companies.

The Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching, founded in 1985, is committed to making a material difference in resolving the teacher shortage by expanding the pipeline of highly effective, diverse educators, especially in schools-of-need. Golden Apple provides teacher preparation and college tuition assistance for students with a goal of becoming teachers.

iMentor builds mentoring relationships that empower first-generation students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions. Grant supports its Post-Secondary Program, which is designed to provide mentors and students with the knowledge, resources, and tools to successfully complete a two- or four-year degree.

Mercy Home saves young lives by providing a residential treatment home for children and young adults that have experienced abuse, homelessness and neglect or are struggling with family issues. Grant supports its Academy Program, which helps youth gain the academic and personal skills to harness their education for future success.

Network for College Success (NCS) partners with educators and school leaders to build transformational high school experiences that prepare all students for post-secondary success. Housed at the UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, its mission is to cultivate post-secondary readiness and success for all students by supporting high school leaders to organize their schools for improvement and innovation.

Grant supporters RUMC Scholars Program, which aims to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the next generation of healthcare workers by creating pipeline programming for junior and senior high school students from local public schools with interest in pursuing medical career pathways. Program provides personalized mentorship, clinical immersion, and community service opportunities.

Grant supports Becoming a Man (BAM) and Working on Womanhood (WOW) Programs, school-based group counseling and clinical mentoring programs that serve students in grades 7-12. Both programs provide effective, evidence-based services that have the ability to move the needle on academic readiness and crime reduction in our city.