Trust Talks

From 2021 to 2025, We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery (We Rise Together), a funder collaborative led by The Chicago Community Trust, invested $47 million in brick-and-mortar development, small business support, and workforce programs in underinvested communities, which are predominantly on Chicago’s South and West sides. These investments improved economic activity and expanded opportunity--and raised an essential question for philanthropy, communities and developers: What does meaningful impact look like at the neighborhood level? 

In this episode of Trust Talks, we explore new research from the University of Illinois Chicago’s Great Cities Institute examining both the economic activ...

In Illinois, nearly 80 percent of community college students say they plan to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree, yet only about 35 percent actually transfer, and just 20 percent complete a four-year degree. Students from underinvested neighborhoods and low-income backgrounds are even less likely to reach the finish line. While research shows that strong transfer pathways are essential to degree completion and economic mobility, many students still encounter lost credits, added costs, and uneven support along the way.

In this episode of Trust Talks, we examine why improving the community college-to-four-year transfer process is a critical but often ov...

Chicago is one of the most influential cultural cities in the United States, known for its distinctive blend of architecture, visual arts, music, theater, and deeply rooted neighborhood culture. Widely recognized as the birthplace of modern architecture, it is also home to one of the nation’s strongest museum ecosystems and a vibrant grassroots arts scene that celebrates the city’s diverse ethnic communities. Chicago’s global cultural impact spans music — from Blues to House— renowned theater and murals, street art, and festivals. The city’s cultural ecosystem fuels its identity, community, and economic vitality. 

This ecosystem plays a criti...

When most people picture hunger in America, they think of food pantries. Yet for every meal a pantry provides, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – SNAP – quietly supplies nine more. Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger initiative, helping more than 42 million Americans put food on the table each month. In Illinois alone, about 1.9 million people rely on SNAP, receiving an average monthly benefit of $192 per household. While designed to supplement rather than fully cover a family’s food needs, SNAP remains a crucial lifeline for millions of low-income households — many of which include working ad...

As Chicago neighborhoods continue to expand with newly built businesses and homes, new opportunities emerge for residents to shape their communities. Yet, traditional development often leaves residents with little to no say on – or stake in - what gets built in their neighborhoods. Shared ownership flips the traditional development script by allowing residents to help improve their communities while also benefiting from new investment. Community members can take a stake in housing, business, and land, ensuring long-term community control, preserving affordability, and building community wealth. 

In this episode of Trust Talks, host Mariah Van Ermen, the Trust’s pro...

Over the past decade, homelessness in the Chicago area has been on the rise, and the latest numbers are especially troubling. According to the City of Chicago’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count, the number of longtime Chicago residents without stable housing jumped by 38 percent in just one year. In Suburban Cook County, homelessness rose by 15 percent, with chronic homelessness — people stuck in long-term housing instability — up by 16 percent. These aren’t just statistics. They represent families with children, young people, survivors of domestic violence, recent immigrants, and even folks who are working but still cannot afford a place to live. And while th...

Although nonprofit organizations play a vital role in recognizing and addressing the needs of the community, research shows the percentage of nonprofits involved in advocacy or lobbying has dropped considerably over the past two decades. However, nonprofits working together on an issue are more likely to engage in policy advocacy. Over the past few years, The Chicago Community Trust has successfully supported nonprofit organizations in working together to advance systems and policy changes that facilitate economic mobility. However, policy change is a long road. Passing new laws is a step in the process, but implementing these policies and holding...

While homeownership is often viewed as a pathway to building wealth, a range of challenges can hinder its effectiveness, particularly for specific groups. These include financial burdens such as rising property taxes and ongoing maintenance costs, neighborhood-based appraisal disparities, and the need to meet family responsibilities. While increasing homeownership is critical to the region’s economic health, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to increasing homeownership in disinvested communities. 

In this episode of Trust Talks, host Matt Shomo, program manager for Homeownership & Home Equity at The Chicago Community Trust, is joined by Noreen Sugrue, research fellow at the Lat...

The truth about immigration in the United States is that unless you are Native American, we all came from somewhere else. Yet, in 2025, the country finds itself roiled in trying to determine who we are as a country when it comes to welcoming immigrants to our shores and across our borders. The subject is rife with misunderstanding and alternative facts, and yet today, both documented and undocumented immigrants work and pay taxes that benefit all of us. Above all, both documented and undocumented immigrants are our neighbors.

In this episode of Trust Talks, we share insights into...

The Chicago Community Trust’s strategic focus on addressing the racial and ethnic wealth gap was informed by data on the stark differences in health, education and wealth, how those differences were impacting our region, and – most importantly – where we, as a community foundation, were best positioned to support change that would benefit the entire region. The Trust continues to invest in data to shed light on disparities impacting our community, leverage policy change, track progress, inform gaps in knowledge, and drive innovation with our community partners working to address those systemic factors. 

For example, the Trust-funded Color o...

Community safety is an issue that affects all Chicagoans, but especially Black and Latine communities. According to a 2023 report, more than half of Black and Latine residents have witnessed a shooting by age 40. Further, violence not only impacts the health and safety of residents, but it also has a detrimental effect on the city’s economic vitality.  

While there is no one-size-fits-all method to addressing this issue, a grassroots approach that centers the voices of the people most affected by violence is necessary to make our neighborhoods safer. Launched in 2016, the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful (PSPC) is...

Launched in 2020 in response to the economic instability caused by COVID-19, We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery is a Trust-led funder collaborative working with communities to respond to the urgent economic needs of long-disinvested Black and Latine neighborhoods. Through grants to community-directed real estate development projects, workforce development, and support for small businesses, We Rise Together is helping build thriving neighborhoods and a stronger Chicago. To date, We Rise Together has provided $46 million in grants, including support for 40+ real estate projects worth more than $500 million, 13 of which have already opened.  

In this episode of Trust T...

Across the nation, local news outlets have been folding at an alarming rate. In response, philanthropy has stepped up funding efforts to address this decline as America becomes increasingly polarized and trust in institutions plummets. Against this backdrop, Chicago has been experiencing a media resurgence, with dozens of community-driven and nonprofit outlets popping up over the past 20 years. However, many are still under-resourced and require alternative funding opportunities.  

In the fall of 2023, a group of 10 funders launched Press Forward Chicago to strengthen and sustain local news organizations and ensure residents have access to multiple reliable news sources. T...

Thriving neighborhoods where residents have access to essential services, amenities, and jobs are vital to creating an equitable and prosperous Chicago region. As part of the Trust’s efforts to address disinvestment, we are supporting opportunities that lead to resident-driven neighborhood revitalization.

Through our Flexible Funding Program, the Trust has has supported planning initiatives, ranging from neighborhood plans to zoning assessments, that help create environments in neighborhoods where investment can take place. These planning efforts also play an instrumental role in incorporating resident voices into the development process to ensure their needs are being meet. 

In...

Homeownership is one of the most important vehicles for building generational wealth and helping families achieve economic stability; however, Black and Latinx families often face barriers to accessing and maintaining homeownership. Since The Chicago Community Trust launched its strategic focus on closing the Chicago region’s racial and ethnic wealth gap in 2019, affordable and equitable homeownership has been a key priority.  

Connecting Capital and Community (3C) is a community-driven initiative housed at the Trust that collaborates with partners across multiple sectors to test innovative solutions that will increase Black and Latinx homeownership in East Garfield Park and Hum...

The federal government has allocated trillions in federal funds toward relief and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Plan Act’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund alone has made about $19 billion dollars available to the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois for the purpose of economic recovery. These funds present a unique opportunity for the city, county, and state to invest in an equitable and inclusive recovery, especially for Black and Latinx communities that have experienced historic disinvestment and felt the greatest economic burden from the pandemic. Community-based organizations that are working on...

For more than a century, individuals and families have partnered with The Chicago Community Trust to transform gifts—from wills, trusts, and other vehicles—into lasting impact for our region. Through unrestricted gifts to our endowment, donors ensure that the Trust has the flexibility to respond to the region’s evolving and urgent needs. These bequests have allowed us to support our neighbors through the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and to tackle the region’s racial and ethnic wealth gap. 

In this episode of Trust Talks, we will explore how the Trust's endowment and beque...

There is a long-held notion civic engagement is declining in the Chicago region. The 2010 Chicago Civic Health Index report even stated “Chicagoland’s civic health is on life support.” However, research measuring civic health tends to be rooted in a framework that focuses on voting and giving one’s time, labor, and money to formal organizations. That is only one part of the civic engagement picture. 

Under the Trust's Building Collective Power strategy, The Chicago Community Trust commissioned the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago to dig deeper into the curre...

The Trust’s Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment strategy is focused on closing the region’s racial and ethnic wealth gap at the neighborhood level by fostering an environment that leads to more inclusive development in historically disinvested Black and Latinx communities. 

Last year—in partnership with Community Desk Chicago—the Trust conducted a study of philanthropy's role in supporting community ownership models for neighborhood development. We were particularly interested in learning how we could support community wealth building through the ability of residents to share ownership in commercial real estate. Not only do these models provide an alternative to raisin...

The Trust’s Growing Household Wealth Income Strategy supports closing the racial wealth gap in Chicago through a commitment to innovations in workforce development, inclusive business practices, and education. Along with reducing the debt burden of students and households in educational attainment, we prioritize implementing solutions that increase the income stability and wage growth of all Chicagoans. Workers of color make up 47 percent of the Chicagoland workforce ages 25 – 64, and 59 percent of the next-generation workforce, but Black and Latinx workers are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to earn wages under $15/hour. Wages aren’t the only part o...

The Trust’s Growing Household Wealth Income Strategy supports closing the racial wealth gap in Chicago through a commitment to innovations in workforce development, inclusive business practices, and education. Along with reducing the debt burden of students and households in educational attainment, we prioritize implementing solutions that increase the income stability and wage growth of all Chicagoans. Workers of color make up 47 percent of the Chicagoland workforce ages 25 – 64, and 59 percent of the next-generation workforce, but Black and Latinx workers are more than twice as likely as their White counterparts to earn wages under $15/hour. Wages aren’t the only part o...

The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered the disparities created by segregation and systemic racism.  We are witnessing a taxed public health infrastructure that has been woefully underinvested in over generations. Currently, 75 percent of Chicagoans are fully vaccinated. However, the disaggregated data indicates stark disparities across race and ethnicity, with 63 percent of Latinx and 52 percent of Black Chicagoans fully vaccinated. Similarly, COVID-related hospitalizations and severe consequences, including death, disproportionately impact Black and Latinx communities. This trend extends to the county, state, and nation. The Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership is working to close the gap in vaccine rates across geographies and populations--and address t...

The Trust’s Philanthropic Services team works with many types of donors, including individuals with Donor Advised Funds, family foundations, corporations, and those interested in giving to specific causes. The Trust advises donors on every aspect of their giving strategy. Its philanthropic advisors also leverage the Trust’s expertise and community connections to identify organizations that will make the biggest difference, ensuring donors are effectively fulfilling their philanthropic goals.

Production by Juneteenth Productions. 

The “Voice” strand of The Chicago Community Trust's Building Collective Power strategy supports community-centered media platforms that allow the authentic narratives of communities to emerge and be amplified not just in neighborhoods but across the city. Those community-centered platforms likewise bring vital information into communities to inform their agenda-setting. 

In three segments, this episode of Trust Talks will explore the different ways the Trust is strengthening local media and storytelling platforms to amplify community narratives. It features Daniel Ash, associate vice president at the Trust, who leads the Building Collective Power strategy; Lolly Bowen, journalist, who oversees the F...

In this episode of Trust Talks, Michael Davidson, senior director of community impact who’s leading the Trust’s Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment team, sits down with Lennox Jackson, founder and CEO of Urban Equities Inc, Ja’Net DeFell, program manager of Community Desk Chicago; and Juan Saldana principal at P3 markets, to discuss the role real estate development plays in our communities.

In this episode of Trust Talks, guests Constance Simms-Kincaid, owner and operator of 5 Loaves Eatery, Eya Louis, contract development coordinator at Elevate Energy, and Mambu Sherman, vice president of global philanthropy at JP-Morgan Chase, sit down with the Trust’s Shandra Richardson, a program manager on the Growing Household Wealth team, to discuss how the Fund for Equitable Business Growth is supporting the small business ecosystem in Chicago. 

In the first episode of Trust Talks, Charlotte Spaeth sits down with Anna LauBach, program director at the McCormick Foundation, Deborah Bennett, senior program officer at Polk Bros Foundation, and Anna Lee, director of community impact at The Chicago Community Trust for a discussion on the role grassroots organizations have in violence prevention in Chicago’s neighborhoods.

Helene Gayle, President and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, is excited to announce the launch of Trust Talks.