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Our Grantees

The Chicago Teachers Union Foundation awarded $1M in grant funding to thirty-eight community-based organizations located throughout the Chicago area in 2018. Our 2018 Grantees offered community services that ranged from creating opportunities for unemployed youth, promoting the develop of new education policies that would support the reduction of school expulsions and suspensions to offering after-school arts program and leadership training workshops for students and parents.

For 2018, Grantees are continuing success and growth with programs sure to make a significant impact in the lives of educators, youth/students and parents. To learn more about the amazing community work done by our Grantees or to connect with a specific organization, click on the any of the informational blocks below.

Access Living

Access Living is a cross–disability organization governed and staffed by a majority of people with disabilities.

Action Now Institute

Action Now’s mission is to educate, inspire and engage community residents of Illinois’ low- and moderate-income communities to take a public stance on the issues that affect their neighborhoods, city and state.

Adjoin Fund

The Adjoin Fund is an emerging community-based organization that was founded one year ago in 2014. What began as a conversation among three people has grown to more than 150 people who have joined together and is expanding. The sole purpose of the Fund is to help African American boys, grades six to eight, become more competent readers.

ARISE Chicago

Arise Chicago builds partnerships between faith communities and workers to fight workplace injustice through education and organizing and public policy changes.

BPNC

BPNC’s mission is to create a safer community, improve the learning environment at public schools, preserve affordable housing, provide a voice for youth, protect immigrants’ rights, promote gender equity, and end all forms of violence.

Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth

The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth is a national coalition and clearinghouse that leads, coordinates, develops, and supports efforts to implement just alternatives to the extreme sentencing of America’s youth with a focus on abolishing life-without-parole sentences for all youth.

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Chicagoland Laborer

The Chicagoland Laborers’ District Council Training and Apprentice Fund provides quality training and their mission to ensure that our members meet the highest standards and exceed the expectations of their signatory contractors.

Chicago Federation of Labor

The Chicago Federation of Labor Workforce and Community Initiative (“CFL Initiative”) was founded by the Chicago Federation of Labor in 1994 to assist manufacturing workers displaced by massive layoffs due to plant closures regain meaningful and sustainable employment.

COFI

COFI’s mission is to strengthen the power and voice of low-income families at all levels of public life – from local institutions and communities to city and state policy arenas.

Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange

CCRx is a nonprofit organization committed to the creative reuse and redistribution of surplus materials for arts, non-profit, education in the Chicago-area.

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ENLACE Chicago

Enlace Chicago is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of the residents of the Little Village community by fostering a physically safe and healthy environment in which to live and by championing opportunities for educational advancement and economic development.

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eta Creative Arts Foundation

Our mission is to feed, clothe and assist the needy while providing uplifting services to the Chicago Englewood community.

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Grassroots Collaborative

The Grassroots Collaborative is a coalition of community and labor power organizations representing a broad and diverse set of communities, working to build a movement for economic and racial justice in the city of Chicago, its metropolitan region and the state of Illinois.

Grow Your Own Illinois

The mission of Grow Your Own Illinois is to support the education and excellence of GYO teacher candidates and graduates; advocate for policies that facilitate increasing the number of teachers of color; and coordinate and align the work of innovative partnerships among universities, community colleges, school districts and community organizers that make up the GYO consortia across the state.

Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization

Through the sustained engagement of low-income and working families, KOCO develops multi-generational leaders who impact decision-making processes and public policies, improving the quality of life in our local communities.

La Casa Norte

La Casa Norte’s mission is to serve youth and families confronting homelessness. We provide access to stable housing and deliver comprehensive services that act as a catalyst to transform lives and communities.

Local-Motions

Founded in 2001, Local-Motions Inc. is a non-profit organization (501(c)3), dedicated to the promotion of performance arts among school-aged children in Chicago.

Manufacturing Renaissance

Manufacturing Renaissance is an independent nonprofit organization working to build thriving sustainable communities, by connecting them to manufacturing through education, training and local ownership.

Mikva Challenge

Mikva Challenge develops youth to be informed, empowered, and active citizens and community leaders. We do this by engaging youth in action civics, an authentic and transformative learning process built on youth voice and youth expertise.

New Moms

New Mom’s mission is to express the love of God by surrounding young moms and their children with all they need, to transform their lives. We provide housing for 40 homeless families; individualized case management and parenting support; child health and developmental screenings; and job-readiness training, paid work experience, and permanent employment placement.

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Northeastern University

Educate students for a life of fulfillment and accomplishment
Create and translate knowledge to meet global and societal needs

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Parents 4 Teachers (P4T)

Parents 4 Teachers has come together to stand up for teachers, defend public education, and fight for quality schools for ALL Chicago children.

Profound Gentlemen

Profound Gentlemen is an incentive based program designed to retain male educators of color through peer development, community building, and career opportunities.

Project Fierce

Project Fierce’s mission is to reduce LGBTQ youth homelessness in Chicago by providing transitional housing and support services to LGBTQ-identified young adults.

Raise Your Hand Action

Our Mission is to help parents become advocates for their children by providing information on policies that impact them, building networks to share ideas, and creating tools to elicit change.

ReFund America Project

The ReFund America Project focuses on researching how Wall Street’s predatory practices contribute to public budget distress and drive austerity policies, and partners with community organizations and unions to develop campaigns to fix these problems so that we can fully fund public services.

St Paul Church of God in Christ Community Development Ministries (SPCDM)

The mission of the organization is to provide human and social services geared towards empowerment.

Telpochcalli Community Education Project

The mission of the Telpochcalli Community Education Project (TCEP) is to mobilize youth and adults for social justice work by building individual capacity, collective power, and mutual responsibility through culturally relevant and community-directed education, leadership development, and organizing.

The Night Ministry

The Night Ministry compassionately provides housing, health care, outreach, spiritual care, and social services to adults and youth who struggle with homelessness, poverty and loneliness.

The Well of Mercy

We help single mothers in need to understand their purpose in life and enable them to take great strides towards successful life changes.

Young Chicago Authors

Young Chicago Authors (YCA) transforms the lives of young people by cultivating their voices through writing, publication, and performance education.

FairTest

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) advances quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools. FairTest also works to end the misuses and flaws of testing practices that impede those goals.

Storycatchers Theatre

Storycatchers prepares young people to make thoughtful life choices through the process of writing, producing and performing original musical theatre inspired by personal stories. In a year-long process of storytelling, song and scene writing, youth participants examine their lives, relationships, environments, choices and the consequences of those choices.

Sojourner Scholars

Sojourner Scholars is a free program that provides students enrolled at public high schools the opportunity to take college-level courses in the humanities with local college and university professors and earn college credits over the span of three summers, beginning the summer following their freshman year.

USHLI

Since May 1982, USHLI has worked to empower the Latino community and similarly disenfranchised groups by promoting education, servant leadership development, civic engagement, and research.

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