Polk Bros. Foundation’s longstanding funding strategies — like the one featured on this page — are being phased out. In fall 2024, the Foundation announced new goals focused on making more progress toward racial equity and justice in Chicago. Our new grantmaking strategies will be fully launched in fall 2026.

Before we begin to put any resources toward our new goals, we have first entered a two-year transition period to provide grantee partners with time and resources to enable them to plan for upcoming changes. 

During this transition, which ends in fall 2026, we are unable to accept unsolicited proposals.

Strong Communities

Why We Focus on Strong Communities

Only when all people feel part of safe, cohesive, and strong communities, can Chicago and its residents fully thrive. Yet many communities grapple with chronic disinvestment and high rates of poverty, unemployment, housing instability, homelessness and violence. As a result, people across Chicago neighborhoods experience profoundly different opportunities and life trajectories.

Our Approach

What does it take to build a strong community? Research points to quality jobs that provide economic mobility, stable and affordable housing, local economic vitality, access to legal expertise when needed, and personal and public safety. These components are the focus of Polk Bros. Foundation’s support for Strong Communities, which includes direct services to help meet Chicagoans’ immediate needs as well as systems-level improvements that address root causes of persistent challenges.

What We Support

To strengthen Chicago communities, Polk Bros. Foundation invests in workforce development, housing, community and economic development, legal services and safe communities.

Workforce Development
Preparing people for jobs in growth industries that need workers and providing them with long-term support can make all the difference in jobseekers’ ability to get, keep, and advance in jobs with good pay and long-term career potential. Under our Workforce Development program area, we support high-quality programs focused on:

  • Pre-employment training and placement that provides basic job readiness preparation and training for jobseekers with low literacy and numeracy skills and limited or no work experience, and helps them enter transitional or subsidized employment.
  • Occupational skills training and placement designed with employer input to prepare and train jobseekers for permanent, full-time, quality jobs, often with industry-recognized certifications.
  • Systems improvement and innovation to plan and implement proven structural reforms that can increase resources, improve policies and service delivery, and lead to better employment outcomes system-wide.

    Explore our Workforce Development Program Area Guide
Housing
When a home becomes too expensive to keep or when a place to sleep is something that needs to be found on a daily basis, people struggle to focus on longer-term needs. Having a reliable place to call home provides the stability from which people can hold a steady job, find nutritious food, maintain their health, learn and grow. Under our Housing program area, we support high-quality programs focused on:

  • Housing and services to prevent or end homelessness, prioritized for organizations that use harm reduction principles, which eliminate requirements that can become barriers for those seeking help with housing (such as treatment preconditions or behavioral contingencies).
  • Affordable rental housing production and preservation that develops or preserves affordable rental units and improves living conditions for Chicagoans earning less than 60% of the area median income.
  • Homeownership support and preservation that enables low- to moderate-income Chicagoans to buy and keep their homes and increases the supply of new and rehabilitated units for sale.
  • Systems improvement and innovation to plan and implement proven structural reforms that can increase resources, improve policies and service delivery, and lead to more housing and better outcomes system-wide.

    Explore our Housing Program Area Guide
Community and Economic Development
Local economic vitality depends not only on individuals’ ability to access good jobs, housing and services but also on a thriving mix of local businesses, asset and wealth creation, and community engagement that stimulate job creation and financial stability. Under our Community and Economic Development program area, we support high-quality programs focused on:

  • Business development that fosters job and wealth creation through the startup and growth of businesses and enterprise in low- and moderate-income communities.
  • Financial capability and wealth creation that enables residents living on low and moderate incomes to access income-enhancing tax credits, improve their credit, establish banking relationships, and build savings.
  • Community planning that informs and engages local stakeholders – residents, local business owners and community organizations – in local development decisions, with positive economic results.

    Explore our Community and Economic Development Program Area Guide
Legal Services
Each year in Illinois, people living on low incomes confront more than a million legal issues by themselves, without an attorney’s advice. Many of these matters are complex and have potentially devastating consequences that may involve deportation, eviction or domestic violence. Our investment in legal services supports success across all of our focus areas. Under our Legal Services program area, we support high-quality programs focused on:

  • Direct legal assistance that provides culturally-competent legal help to Chicagoans living on low incomes, including immigrants, people with disabilities and those impacted by discrimination, domestic violence or abuse.
  • Advocacy and impact litigation that pursues cases that can achieve lasting effects in public policies that protect and advance the constitutional and civil rights of vulnerable communities.
  • Systems improvement and innovation to plan and implement proven structural reforms that can increase resources, improve policies and service delivery, and lead to more effective and equitable legal services and justice systems.

    Explore our Legal Services Program Area Guide
Safe Communities
Building the capacity of communities and systems to prevent and reduce crime and violence creates safer neighborhoods where all residents can live and thrive. Under our Safe Communities program area, we support evidence-based interventions and high-quality programs focused on:

  • Youth justice to reduce arrests and increase resources for youth already involved in the justice system and those at risk of involvement, especially through age-appropriate and trauma-informed interventions, and to strengthen youth reentry into communities and their connection to educational and job training opportunities.
  • Adult justice to reduce arrests and increase resources for adults already involved in the justice system and those at risk of involvement, and to strengthen adults’ reentry into communities and their connection to educational and job training opportunities.
  • Community justice to increase resources, interventions and services for people who have experienced violence in their communities.
  • Systems improvement and innovation to plan and implement proven structural reforms that can increase resources, improve policies and service delivery, and lead to more effective and equitable justice systems.

    Explore our Safe Communities Program Area Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Explore our Grantmaking