Vital Communities

A woman shopping for produce in a grocery store.

A woman shops for groceries as part of the Chicago Community Loan Fund’s Englewood Commercial Corridor.

Overview

The Chicago Commitment team invests in people, places, and partnerships to advance racial equity and build a more inclusive Chicago. The Vital Communities focus of the strategy draws on these three elements to support a diverse and resilient metropolitan area.

Chicago is a global city with vibrant, diverse neighborhoods and a strong civic culture. And yet historical and current systemic disparities create unequal access to resources and opportunities for many groups, including Black, Latine, Indigenous, Asian, LGBTQIA+, and disabled people and communities—especially when these multiple identities intersect.

We believe that a dynamic metropolitan area is dependent upon equitable community development. The Vital Communities focus of our work stimulates development in historically disinvested neighborhoods by making early investments towards physical development in response to community needs that contribute to economic growth. We support place-based economic development and creative placemaking and placekeeping initiatives to improve the quality of life for individuals in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment. We also support organizations whose research and analysis informs socially beneficial and equitable development.

Our Strategy

Building on a long history of support for neighborhoods, we direct grant resources to a small number of the following efforts.

Place-Based Initiatives

Place-based initiatives, which address the unique characteristics and needs of people within a specific location. We will concentrate resources primarily on pre-development of commercial corridors and industrial clusters in ten communities. These initiatives may include comprehensive planning; land use planning and management; community outreach; or urban design that attracts commercial and industrial real estate investment. In determining where to invest in place-based economic development, our team analyzed an array of different indicators related to Chicago neighborhoods, including levels of community engagement, income and wealth, demographic shifts, public safety, and the history of investment and/or disinvestment, among others. This process led us to focus our economic development grantmaking in these neighborhoods:

Austin
Belmont Cragin
Gage Park
Garfield Park (East Garfield Park and West Garfield Park)
Greater Englewood (West Englewood and Englewood)
Greater Roseland (Roseland and West Pullman)
Humboldt Park
North Lawndale
South Lawndale/Little Village
South Shore

Chicago map with neighborhoods shaded in orange and purple

View accessible version of map data ›

Place-Based Cultural Projects

Place-based cultural projects that utilize creative placemaking and placekeeping techniques to engage community members in initiating physical development, elevate cultural awareness, and spur economic growth in communities that have experienced disinvestment and in low- or middle-income places where the current population is at risk of displacement.

Infrastructure Support Organizations

Infrastructure support organizations, which conduct planning, management and technical assistance, policy research, evaluation, data analysis, or other assistance offered to groups working at the community, citywide, or regional level.

We support community-based organizations engaged in economic development and community development financial institutions that aid those organizations with loans and other forms of support for socially beneficial development. We also support seasoned and effective community development organizations poised to work at greater scale or to take on new challenges. We believe that seeding early investment in commercial corridors and industrial clusters and providing support to creative placemaking and placekeeping initiatives, particularly when responsive to community needs, can help to spur comprehensive community and economic development.

While we are utilizing geographic areas for our place-based economic development work, our other grantmaking programs are offered citywide and reflect and address the broad diversity of Chicago.

View Vital Communities Grant Guidelines

Evaluation for Learning

Evaluation of our work is a critical tool for informing our decision-making, leading to better results and more effective stewardship of resources. We develop customized evaluation designs for each of our programs based on the context, problem, opportunity, and approach to the work. Evaluation is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process of collecting feedback and using that information to support our grantees and adjust our strategy.

Findings and analyses from evaluation activities are posted publicly as they become available.

Updated June 2024