Triple Aims Catalyst Seed Grant 2024
This grant opportunity will support community-engaged partnerships in the Chicago Metropolitan area around our Triple Aims--community health, equity/environmental justice, and care for our land.
These are Planning Grants,--Funds to support a community engaged planning process. Grant awards will range $3,000 - $ 5,000. Allowable costs include transportation (public transportation, miles traveled), babysitting, shared meals, compensation for planning time, and local site visits. Timeframe for planning will be up to 6 months. Take a look at the successful Triple Aims Seed Grantees from our First Round!
Second Round of Catalyst Seed Grants
A description of this grant in Spanish and English.
Timeline
November 8, RFP available--application is available in Spanish and English.
November 28, Catalyst Seed Grant Information Session 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Recording of this session is Here.
December 14, Seed Grant Information Session 6:30 p.m. Register Here.
December 22, All applications due by 5:00 p.m. CST
Early February 2024, Awardees announced.
Who Can Apply?
1. Applicants should ensure that their collaboration includes one nonprofit organization that can serve as the administrator of the grant.
2. Any group or organization in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area. Check here to see if you qualify!
3. All program planning and implementation in an application should also occur in the Chicago Metro Area.
4. Any organization or group that has not previously received NCH2 grant funds.
Ideas that include the Three Aims (see above for First Round Grantees)
These are Planning Grants,--Funds to support a community engaged planning process. Grant awards will range $3,000 - $ 5,000. Allowable costs include transportation (public transportation, miles traveled), babysitting, shared meals, compensation for planning time, and local site visits. Timeframe for planning will be up to 6 months. Take a look at the successful Triple Aims Seed Grantees from our First Round!
Second Round of Catalyst Seed Grants
A description of this grant in Spanish and English.
Timeline
November 8, RFP available--application is available in Spanish and English.
November 28, Catalyst Seed Grant Information Session 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Recording of this session is Here.
December 14, Seed Grant Information Session 6:30 p.m. Register Here.
December 22, All applications due by 5:00 p.m. CST
Early February 2024, Awardees announced.
Who Can Apply?
1. Applicants should ensure that their collaboration includes one nonprofit organization that can serve as the administrator of the grant.
2. Any group or organization in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area. Check here to see if you qualify!
3. All program planning and implementation in an application should also occur in the Chicago Metro Area.
4. Any organization or group that has not previously received NCH2 grant funds.
Ideas that include the Three Aims (see above for First Round Grantees)
- Planning an urban farm with a youth group and including education about nutritious food, food security, and future professions in the field
- Exploring ways to create, restore, spruce up outdoor nature spaces that are safe and welcoming in communities that do not have ready access.
- Figuring out how to make communities with high pedestrian and bike accidents more safe and trustworthy for commuting, recreating, and fun.
- Partnering with indigenous organizations to better understand their practices of how they care for their land and ensure food security for their families and spreading these practices into the Chicago region.
- Creating affinity communities around outdoor activities in areas that have low accessibility.
Funded Projects
NCH2 Catalyst Seed Grantees, First Round
Stein Learning Gardens, St. Sabina Church
Project Lead: Richard Kirkpatrick
Since 2018, Stein Learning Gardens has built a successful educational and urban farming projects in the Auburn, Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The NCH2 Catalyst grant will help them collaborate with UIC Neighborhood Health to develop and implement a Produce Prescription Program. Fresh produce on a regular schedule will serve as a dose of prevention and a boost for health to eligible patients due to diet-related health risks or food insecurity. The planning grant will also allow them to develop a plan to have a permanent home for their farmstand in the new Auburn Gresham healthy Lifestyle Hub building, which is a focal point of community health in Auburn Gresham on 79th street. These funds will allow access to fresh organic produce and the Learning Gardens where classes are offered about growing food and provides a beautiful and safe outside space to enjoy nature and expose community members to the joys of community gardens.
Women for Green Spaces Mujeres por Espacios Verdes
Project Lead: Claudia Galeno-Sanchez
Women for Green Spaces (WfGS) developed during the COVID pandemic as women in Pilsen on Chicago’s near South Side observed how nearby nature was essential to their family’s health and well-being. Initially a women’s committee of Working Family Solidarity of Mexican and Latinx immigrants, WfGS cultivated new green spaces in the neighborhood as well as offered education workshops to families. With the NCH2 Catalyst grant WfGS plans to deepen expand the work of Women for Green Spaces with nearby communities and organizations in nearby communities. We will plan how to carry out planning with the ABLA Homes area (on the north/northeastern edge of Pilsen), where the population is African American; and in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, where the populations are primarily Mexican/Latinx. Funds will be applied to educational workshops on the importance of more green spaces in Pilsen, and to the organizations in these communities.
Gateway to the Greater Outdoors
Project Lead: Bridget Grabowski
Gateway will use Catalyst Seed Grant funds to plan a community-sanctioned expansion of its nature-engagement programming at Mozart Elementary School located in between the Logan Square and Hermosa neighborhoods. Currently Gateway works on Chicago’s South side with Chicago Public Schools where they aim to increase equitable opportunities to engage in nature and environmental education. The project will be planned in collaboration with Mozart Elementary’s staff, teachers, and students and DePaul University’s Stean Center. Their programming focuses on improving student health by empowering them to live healthy lifestyles through physical activity, healthy foods, nature contact, and meditation and on caring for nearby lands and habitats through hosting nature-contact field trips and environmental maintenance events.
Femme Defense and Pilsen Solidarity
Femme Defensa (FD) and Pilsen Solidarity Network (PSN) will collaborate on their Catalyst Seed grant to develop a Grow Club among a cohort of intimate partner violence survivors and others. The Grow Club will cooperatively build safe community spaces or support survivors in their interest in home growing, whichever is more possible for the individual. Femme Defensa is a group of survivors of intimate partner violence who work towards collective freedom through community self-defense, land connection, and supporting survivors. Femme Defensa considers Little Village and South Chicago as home bases. Pilsen Solidarity Network is a mutual aid group based in Pilsen which provides free food, clothing, and resources to residents of Pilsen but also other neighborhoods such as Back of the Yards, Englewood, Little Village, and Bronzeville. Demographics we prioritize in our work include youth, women and femmes, survivors of domestic and/or intimate partner violence, BIPOC people, queer people, people living in food deserts, people with little or no resources for growing their own food, people who visit free stores for food.
YMEN Garden to Table Farm
Project Lead: Kimberly George
Garden to Table (G2T) Farm will use their Catalyst Seed funds to engage North Lawndale neighbors and stakeholders to plan, design and build an urban agriculture hub on five adjacent vacant lots and 18 community gardens that make up the Garden To Table Pipeline. The final design concept will not be created until input from neighbors and stakeholders is solicited and absorbed. This is a collaborative project between the Young Mens Educational Network (YMEN) and the North Lawndale Greening Committee (NLGC). This project is endorsed by the NLCCC GROWSS Committee, Chicago Community Garden Association, and the Bionutrient Food Association, Chicago Chapter. The G2T Pipeline is a resilient circular and sustainable food system that connects proven, community, grassroots organizations to combine locally grown nutrient rich produce with donated/rescued food in order to feed the community.
Project Lead: Richard Kirkpatrick
Since 2018, Stein Learning Gardens has built a successful educational and urban farming projects in the Auburn, Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The NCH2 Catalyst grant will help them collaborate with UIC Neighborhood Health to develop and implement a Produce Prescription Program. Fresh produce on a regular schedule will serve as a dose of prevention and a boost for health to eligible patients due to diet-related health risks or food insecurity. The planning grant will also allow them to develop a plan to have a permanent home for their farmstand in the new Auburn Gresham healthy Lifestyle Hub building, which is a focal point of community health in Auburn Gresham on 79th street. These funds will allow access to fresh organic produce and the Learning Gardens where classes are offered about growing food and provides a beautiful and safe outside space to enjoy nature and expose community members to the joys of community gardens.
Women for Green Spaces Mujeres por Espacios Verdes
Project Lead: Claudia Galeno-Sanchez
Women for Green Spaces (WfGS) developed during the COVID pandemic as women in Pilsen on Chicago’s near South Side observed how nearby nature was essential to their family’s health and well-being. Initially a women’s committee of Working Family Solidarity of Mexican and Latinx immigrants, WfGS cultivated new green spaces in the neighborhood as well as offered education workshops to families. With the NCH2 Catalyst grant WfGS plans to deepen expand the work of Women for Green Spaces with nearby communities and organizations in nearby communities. We will plan how to carry out planning with the ABLA Homes area (on the north/northeastern edge of Pilsen), where the population is African American; and in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, where the populations are primarily Mexican/Latinx. Funds will be applied to educational workshops on the importance of more green spaces in Pilsen, and to the organizations in these communities.
Gateway to the Greater Outdoors
Project Lead: Bridget Grabowski
Gateway will use Catalyst Seed Grant funds to plan a community-sanctioned expansion of its nature-engagement programming at Mozart Elementary School located in between the Logan Square and Hermosa neighborhoods. Currently Gateway works on Chicago’s South side with Chicago Public Schools where they aim to increase equitable opportunities to engage in nature and environmental education. The project will be planned in collaboration with Mozart Elementary’s staff, teachers, and students and DePaul University’s Stean Center. Their programming focuses on improving student health by empowering them to live healthy lifestyles through physical activity, healthy foods, nature contact, and meditation and on caring for nearby lands and habitats through hosting nature-contact field trips and environmental maintenance events.
Femme Defense and Pilsen Solidarity
Femme Defensa (FD) and Pilsen Solidarity Network (PSN) will collaborate on their Catalyst Seed grant to develop a Grow Club among a cohort of intimate partner violence survivors and others. The Grow Club will cooperatively build safe community spaces or support survivors in their interest in home growing, whichever is more possible for the individual. Femme Defensa is a group of survivors of intimate partner violence who work towards collective freedom through community self-defense, land connection, and supporting survivors. Femme Defensa considers Little Village and South Chicago as home bases. Pilsen Solidarity Network is a mutual aid group based in Pilsen which provides free food, clothing, and resources to residents of Pilsen but also other neighborhoods such as Back of the Yards, Englewood, Little Village, and Bronzeville. Demographics we prioritize in our work include youth, women and femmes, survivors of domestic and/or intimate partner violence, BIPOC people, queer people, people living in food deserts, people with little or no resources for growing their own food, people who visit free stores for food.
YMEN Garden to Table Farm
Project Lead: Kimberly George
Garden to Table (G2T) Farm will use their Catalyst Seed funds to engage North Lawndale neighbors and stakeholders to plan, design and build an urban agriculture hub on five adjacent vacant lots and 18 community gardens that make up the Garden To Table Pipeline. The final design concept will not be created until input from neighbors and stakeholders is solicited and absorbed. This is a collaborative project between the Young Mens Educational Network (YMEN) and the North Lawndale Greening Committee (NLGC). This project is endorsed by the NLCCC GROWSS Committee, Chicago Community Garden Association, and the Bionutrient Food Association, Chicago Chapter. The G2T Pipeline is a resilient circular and sustainable food system that connects proven, community, grassroots organizations to combine locally grown nutrient rich produce with donated/rescued food in order to feed the community.