After receiving 25 applications for this 49th Ward Community Ca$h funding opportunity, the results are in! A total of $100,000 was made available for this microgrant opportunity, which allowed direct investments to our community. More information on the scope, timeline, eligibility requirements, and scoring committee are available on this website below the recipients. 

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The following organizations were awarded as recipients for the 2022 Fiscal Year
 

• Barrel of Monkeys - $10,527

  • Barrel of Monkeys received a grant to provide 45-50 students access to a free after-school program at Loyola Park. The program will introduce participants to the performing arts and provide opportunities to engage in writing and storytelling. This camp focuses on youth with lived experiences of violence and trauma and provides them a creative and therapeutic outlet to tell their stories. 
     

• Care for Real - $5,000

  • Care for Real received a grant to help cover the costs of its pop-up food pantry at the United Church of Rogers Park on Ashland and Morse. Care for Real opened the food pantry at this location in 2020 during the height of COVID to ensure that neighbors suddenly facing hard decisions of whether to pay rent or buy groceries could still access food. What was supposed to be a temporary service during the pandemic has remained as people continue to struggle with the fallout from COVID and inflation levels at an all-time high. Care for Real has seen a 332% increase in first-time food panty visits just this year. The grant will help them maintain a presence in the 49th Ward and continue to fight hunger in the 49th Ward. ​
     

• Circles & Ciphers - $15,000

  • Circles & Ciphers received a grant to provide an opportunity for 30 young people impacted by violence to participate in the Rogers Park Young People's Peace Brigade. The program provides participants with stipends and a safe space for support, education, and training. Trainings will include practices in restorative justice and leadership. Participants will have the opportunity to share their stories and express them through artistic mediums, including hip hop, drawing, fashion, and more. Circles & Ciphers will partner with neighborhood organizations to recruit youth to participate from our community and to help connect them to additional resources. ​
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• Family Matters - $10,000

  • Family Matters received a grant for costs associated with their Project RISE program. This is a youth-led teen job skills training and leadership development program. The program offers teens ages 14-18 an opportunity to build job-readiness skills and to practice those skills at local businesses while receiving a stipend.
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• Indo-American Center - $5,000

  • Indo-American Center (IAC) received a grant to engage 30 youth from the South Asian community (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Sri Lankan, etc.) to collaborate with a core group of youth leaders from the organization. The youth-led organization will conduct voter outreach in the Asian American community and provide political engagement education. IAC will host voter education events where they will provide training on how individuals can register to vote, how to fill out a ballot, and how to use a ballot machine. IAC will also conduct outreach to the South Asian community to serve as election judges in upcoming elections.  ​​
     

• Lifeline Productions - $5,000

  • Lifeline Productions received a grant for its summer drama camp for youth ages 5-13. The grant money will go towards full and partial scholarships to attend the summer drama camp. The grant money will specifically go to youth that reside in the 49th Ward. ​
     

• Loyola Park Advisory Council (fiscal sponsor of the Chicago Parks Foundation) - $5,000

  • The Loyola Park Advisory Council is a 100% volunteer-run organization. The grant will go to help cover the costs of community-building events they are hosting in 2022, including the Annual Artists of the Wall festival and a movie in the park. 
     

• Northside Community Resources - $10,000

  • Northside Community Resouces received a grant to help cover the costs of onboarding an additional staff member for its housing program. The new position will work under the Housing Director to help individuals identify available affordable housing units. They will also work to strengthen community relations by educating landlords and tenants in strategic areas such as mediation, first-time homebuyer trainings, landlord training, and foreclosure and eviction protection trainings. 
     

• ONE Northside - $9,535

  • ONE Northside received a grant to host workshops that provide life skills on financial literacy, legal advocacy, civic engagement, and organizing through their violence disruption arm, Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P). The grant will provide 8-10 young people in the 49th Ward an opportunity to receive trainings and mentorship through the CP4P program while receiving stipends for their participation.
     

• Rogers Park Business Alliance - $5,000

  • The Rogers Park Business Alliance (RPBA) received a grant for its Glenwood Sunday Market matching program for SNAP/Link recipients. This will allow 49th Ward residents who receive SNAP/Link benefits to have their purchases at the Glenwood Sunday Market matched dollar for dollar. This allows individuals with these benefits access to a variety of fresh and locally-grown produce. 
     

• The Recyclery (fiscal sponsor of After School Matters) - $15,938

  • The Recyclery received a grant to provide a youth bike program based at Sullivan High School and to reinstate The Recyclery Collective's Youth Open Shop. The partnership with Sullivan High School allows 45 students to participate in an apprenticeship for 6 weeks in the summer and 10 weeks in the fall, during which they will receive a stipend. The grant also re-instates the Youth Open Shop, which is a dedicated youth space in the community that had to abruptly close in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. ​
     

• Synapse Art Collective - $4,000

  • Synapse Art Collective received a grant to provide a suite of guided creative, fun, and therapeutic art activities for members of the public during outdoor neighborhood festivals. These activities will be inclusive for all people, no matter their age. 
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