For Immediate Release
For more information contact:
Aletra Nicholson at <email obscured>
Seven Low-income Communities will get Help
Organizations serving low-income individuals in the East and West Garfield
Park, Humboldt Park, Near West Side, North and South Lawndale, and Pilsen
target area qualify for capacity building services
Chicago, IL-The University of Illinois at Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative
(UICNI) receives a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Children and
Families Compassion Capital Fund to help serve seven low-income Chicago
community areas. The proposal seeks to create ChiWest ResourceNet (CWRN), a
targeted capacity building initiative, to work closely with about 60
community-based and faith-oriented nonprofits presently ingrained in East and
West Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Near West Side, North and South Lawndale,
and Pilsen.
"The focus will be on serving those organizations with budgets under $500,000
with whom UICNI has forged a solid bond of trust and respect among the
leadership of these seven culturally diverse, low-income neighborhoods," said
Nacho Gonzalez, assistant director of the UICNI, a program of Grant Cities
Institute.
The average poverty rate of the cluster of communities where CWRN aims to
provide support in the form of curriculum development, technical assistance,
and training is a staggering 32%. As an active member in the community, the
university-based program intends to build a solid infrastructure on the
well-rooted frame developed by the 60 organizations working fervently with
residents to tackle a gamut of issues.
"CWRN expects to improve the individual organization's ability to increase
services to their respective needy populations," added Gonzalez.
The residents living in the targeted regions, which encompass almost 13 percent
of the total population for the City of Chicago, aim to benefit directly from
the increase in knowledge and skills that CRWN will offer their service
providers.
CWRN's focus is to provide well-rounded and balanced support in a variety of
areas to improve the range and quality of help that these sustainable
organizations can provide to their clients. The 60 currently undefined groups
working with CWRN will have an opportunity to assess and improve their
managerial and organizational skills, expand and diversify their funding
sources, enhance their range of social services, and increase the leadership
capacity of their board members, staff and volunteers.
"Specifically, these groups will increase their ability to collaborate, do
research, develop asset maps, and buy software and hardware for
infrastructure," described Gonzalez.
CWRN's commitment to the culturally diverse, but economically consistent
target area extending from UIC on the East to Cicero Avenue on the West, and
then stretching southward to 35th Street, and north to Armitage Avenue,
translates into better-served residents, and well-prepared and financially
confident service providers.
For more information about ChiWest ResourceNet, please contact Aletra Nicholson
<email obscured>.
More about UIC- Great Cities Institute
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding
and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and
staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of
the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students
and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners
in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas
around the world.