CHICAGO \u2014 Several community-led business plans, including a worker cooperative\u2019s manufacturing center and a live-work building for young Black Chicagoans, will receive six-figure grants through a new city-backed fund.<\/p>\n
Six projects were announced last week as the inaugural recipients of Wealth Our Way grants. The first round of the initiative, funded by city housing bond proceeds<\/a>, aims to support worker co-ops, community investment vehicles and other development.<\/p>\n The grants:<\/p>\n Construction on each project is expected to start early next year, said Ja\u2019Net Defell, president and CEO of Community Desk Chicago, the city\u2019s technical assistance provider for the grant program.<\/p>\n Community Desk Chicago will help grantees navigate their permit and financing needs, Defell said. The nonprofit will also offer a real estate coach and an operations coach to each recipient and organize sessions for grantees to learn from each other and from similar models across the country, she said.<\/p>\n The Midwest is \u201cway behind\u201d major coastal cities in funding and supporting shared ownership models like co-ops and collectives, Defell said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using this [program] as an economic development tool,\u201d Defell said. Chicago and other Midwestern cities \u201chaven\u2019t historically looked at shared-ownership models as a way to revitalize neighborhoods, so we want to continue that work.\u201d<\/p>\n Another round of grants is expected in late 2026, while Community Desk Chicago is working with Illinois and philanthropic institutions to sustain the program for future rounds, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese brick-and-mortar projects will help activate a variety of underutilized spaces as Chicago Quilombo secured the $500,000 to support its small business marketplace and resource hub the same week it received a $100,000 pre-development grant from the Chicago Community Trust, cofounder Cosette Ayele said.<\/p>\n The Wealth Our Way grant offers \u201cnot only money, but also connections\u201d between the Quilombo project and others in the cohort, Ayele said. The CrossTreats facility is just about a mile away from the Quilombo, offering an opportunity for the organizations to become neighbors and partners, she said.<\/p>\n The grant program will \u201chelp propel us towards a full-scale opening and demonstrates that we\u2019re doing what we set out to do, so we can secure other funding to help us finish the total development,\u201d Ayele said. \u201cIt contributes to my feeling that we\u2019re going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Several community-led business plans, including a worker cooperative\u2019s manufacturing center and a live-work building for young…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-403844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115610989654830497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
part of a national movement toward community-driven investment through shared-
ownership models,\u201d Chicago Planning Commissioner Ciere Boatright said in a statement.<\/p>\n