The Together Fund invites applications that present solutions to equip young people with the competencies, resources, and connections needed to secure meaningful employment.
Donor Name: The Chicago Community Trust
State: Illinois
County: Cook County (IL)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/13/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery is a coalition of public and private funders and communities accelerating equity in the Chicago region’s economic recovery so everyone who lives here can reach their full potential. To catalyze an equitable economic recovery from the COVID recession, We Rise focuses on grantmaking and engagement in communities hardest hit by COVID and those that are a majority Black and Latine because they are the places and people disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Goals
While this is a one-year grant, the activities supported through this funding should be designed to contribute to the broader, long-term goals of improving youth workforce development and creating sustainable organizations that serve youth. Work completed during the grant period should build a strong foundation for continued progress toward the following goals:
- Increase youth access to competency-building opportunities, including certifications, apprenticeships, and quality job placements that lead to a livable wage.
- Enhance youth financial independence through job retention, soft skill development (e.g., communication, teamwork, problem-solving), and readiness for employment.
- Reduce barriers to employment by addressing systemic challenges such as transportation, childcare, housing support, and digital access.
- Foster economic resilience by creating pathways for long-term career growth and strengthening partnerships with local businesses, educational institutions, and community organizations.
- Improve stakeholder engagement to build stronger community relationships and increase retention of youth in programming.
- Strengthen the financial resilience of youth-serving organizations by diversifying funding streams, collecting impact data, and demonstrating measurable outcomes.
- Cultivate supportive organizational cultures by investing in staff retention, leadership development, and competitive compensation.
Priority Strategies & Activities
We Rise Together seeks to support initiatives that address the following priority strategies. They encourage applicants to propose innovative, actionable approaches aligned with these strategies to strengthen economic resilience in disenfranchised communities.
- Youth Workforce Development: To create sustainable employment pathways for youth through competency-building, training, and wraparound support. Activities may include:
- Facilitating paid, short-term (<15 weeks) training program designed to transition youth into careers in high-demand fields such as healthcare, technology, and skilled trades.
- Providing paid, on-the-job training opportunities, including apprenticeships, to support skill development and career advancement.
- Building general career readiness through goal-setting, mentorship, digital literacy, financial literacy, entrepreneurship programming, leadership development, or interpersonal skills.
- Providing industry-recognized certifications (e.g., logistics, advanced technology, or trade-specific competencies) aligned with current labor market demands.
- Developing strong partnerships between youth-serving organizations and workforce development programs to offer career-focused programming, dual-enrollment opportunities, and tailored training.
- Addressing barriers to participation, such as income constraints, lack of transportation, childcare needs, or mental health challenges, to ensure successful program engagement and completion.
Funding Information
The funding structure includes two tiers to ensure both local organizations with strong connections to hard-to-reach youth and more established organizations with evidence-based youth workforce development programs have the opportunity to participate in the grant opportunity. All grants are for a 12-month grant term in this funding program:
- For organizations with operating budgets under $1,000,000: Grants of up to $75,000 are available to support smaller, community-based organizations that are deeply embedded within the communities they serve and have strong relationships with youth who are often hard to reach. Partnership grants are encouraged and eligible for the larger grant award amount.
- For organizations with operating budgets over $1,000,000: Grants of up to $200,000 are available to support larger, established organizations with proven track records of delivering evidence-based workforce development programs for youth.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for a grant award, an applicant must:
- Represent that it is, and shall remain through the Grant Period, (i) an organization in good standing, (ii) either a governmental unit or an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), (iii) not a “private foundation” within the meaning of Section 509(a) of the Code, (iv) an organization exempt from taxes under 501(c) of the Code; or for purposes of this grant (v) is fiscally sponsored by a Section 501(c)(3) organization.
- Ensure the grant does not benefit any private person or entity in violation of Section 501(c)(3) of the Code.
- Be located within and/or primarily serving residents of Cook County, Illinois.
For more information, visit CCT.
