Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson, alongside the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) Commissioner, Dr. Olusimbo Ige and the Mayor’s Office of Reentry director Joseph Mapp and United Way of Metro Chicago announced a $600,000 investment in a new microgrant that will support Chicago organizations who are working to expand mental health care and other wraparound supports for formerly incarcerated people.
The inaugural Returning with Hope Microgrant program aims to strengthen Chicago’s reentry support by investing and focusing on smaller community-based organizations that are not always eligible for larger city grant opportunities, the Mayor’s Office wrote in a press release.
“Returning residents face a unique set of challenges that they must navigate all at once while dealing with systems which, too often, are designed to shut them out,” Johnson said in a press statement. “We know that our city succeeds when Chicagoans returning from incarceration are given the chance to turn their lives around. These microgrants will expand support programs, and, crucially, mental health care for Chicagoans returning to their communities.”
The grant award will allow organizations to maintain or expand mental health services and programming that aim to increase participants’ self-confidence, connect individuals with peer mentors, and help returning residents access safe and stable housing.
“This funding is more than an investment in programs, it is an investment in people, in healing, and in the belief that communities thrive when everyone has a path forward,” Mapp said in a written statement. “As these partners navigate rising needs and complex challenges, we are committed to walking with them, ensuring they have the resources necessary to continue opening doors, rebuilding lives, and strengthening the future of our city.”
The Johnson administration announced the 32 organizations that were selected as grantees. The grantees include individual applications and collaboratives. Individual awardees will receive between $10,000 and $20,000, while collaborators will receive $50,000 to $60,000 to be split between them.
The grant program was made possible through a collaboration between United Way of Metro Chicago and the CDPH. The city’s health department helped develop and coordinate funding with the Office of Reentry.
“This investment reflects our shared commitment to breaking cycles of incarceration and expanding opportunity for every Chicagoan,” Ige said in a written statement. “We are inspired by the organizations leading this work, and are proud to support the innovative, community-rooted solutions they deliver.”
A full listing of the inaugural Returning with Hope Microgrant recipients is available here.
