COVID-19 Response and Recovery Grants List of Awardees

The Center for Community Health (CCH) and Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research (CFAAR) at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine have awarded COVID-19 Response and Recovery Grants to 28 Illinois nonprofits that are providing critical services in many low- and moderate-income areas of Chicagoland that have been severely impacted by COVID-19.

These awards were funded in collaboration with NUCATS, GIM, NMH, IPHAM, and Lurie Children’s Hospital.

Below are all of the organizations and programs funded:

1. Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center will expand telehealth technology to continue addiction recovery treatment services for patients with unstable housing.
   
   
2. Allergy & Asthma Network will continue services and education for families who are experiencing the stress and anxiety of living with food allergies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
   
   
3. Asociación Latina de Asistencia y Prevención del Cáncer de Mama (ALASWINGS) will provide remote education and psychosocial support groups and yoga in Spanish for cancer survivors.
   
   
4. Black Girls Break Bread will provide mental health resources and meals for Black women and girls to mitigate maternal and infant mortality rates on the South and West sides of Chicago.
   
   
5. Brighton Park Neighborhood Council will act on their community-informed needs assessment conducted during COVID-19 to provide emergency financial assistance to community members.
   
   
6. Chicago Torture Justice Center will address the traumas of police violence and institutionalized racism through access to healing and wellness services, traumainformed resources, and community connection.
   
   
7. Citizens of Can will create and distribute a virtual copy of a COVID-19 educational book to Chicago Public School students.
   
   
8. CJE SeniorLife will be providing telephone counseling and behavioral services to older adult clients without a smartphone or home internet.
   
   
9. Common Threads will be providing free, healthy, chef-prepared dinners for 500-770 Chicagoans living in Southside neighborhoods.
   
   
10. Distinctively Me will provide care packages with self-care items and material to assist with anxiety and depression to boost the mental wellbeing of Black girls.
    
    
11. Enlace Chicago will provide emergency cash assistance to immigrant families in Little Village.
    
    
12. Food Equality Initiative will provide access to families to obtain allergen-free food.
    
    
13. Gilda’s Club Chicago will convert support programming for individuals and families impacted by cancer to online platforms.
    
    
14. Greater Chicago Food Depository is providing resources to food pantries in communities where there have been long-term disinvestments so they can continue operating safely and address surging demands.
    
    
15. Healthcare Alternative Systems will expand behavioral telehealth services for lower-income families and people.
    
    
16. Hope Community Advent Church will continue operating a food pantry in the Austin community to meet the growing demands for food distribution and provide food delivery to seniors.
    
    
17. La Casa Norte will provide a food pantry, community meals, emergency shelter, transitional supportive housing, permanent supportive housing, case management and supportive services for youth and families on the West and South sides of Chicago.
    
    
18. New Moms is providing emergency assistance to young moms and their children, who are experiencing poverty and homelessness in Chicago and the near western suburbs.
    
    
19. Northwest Side Housing Center (NWSHC) will provide housing assistance and public benefits counseling to the Belmont-Cragin community.
    
    
20. Health and Medicine Policy Research Group will work with public and private organizations to acquire PPE, identify populations and sectors most in need of PPE, and identify the most efficient and effective distribution paths.
    
    
21. Renz Addiction Counseling Center will be using funds to provide virtual substance abuse treatment and provide PPE for in-person observed drug tests.
    
    
22. The Boulevard of Chicago will continue sheltering chronically homeless individuals over the age of 60 and helping them recover physically, mentally and emotionally.
    
    
23. Thresholds will expand behavioral telehealth services for people with mental illness and substance use disorders.
    
    
24. Universidad Popular will support an instructor to provide virtual group yoga lessons to isolated senior citizens and to lend a small number of iPads to participants.
    
    
25. Spokin will create a campaign to increase allergy-friendly food and dollars to food pantries that serve the food allergic community.
    
    
26. Syrian Community Network is providing emergency case management services and outreach to refugees.
    
    
27. YogaCare will provide online trauma-informed yoga programming to improve the emotional, mental, and physical health of community members of color.
    
    
28. Youth Guidance will provide emergency discretionary assistance to students and their families experiencing food, technology, and other basic non-food household goods insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CCH and CFAAR are a part of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM), and CFAAR is also a part of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. CCH and CFAAR collaborated with the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, (GIM), and Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) to provide financial resources to support these grants.

If you are interested in contributing support for future awardees of COVID-19 Response and Recovery Grants, please consider making a donation to the IPHAM general fund. All contributions will support additional awards to community-based organizations.