As a part of the Chicago Recovery Plan, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) in partnership with The Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice (OERJ), has designed the Community Wealth Ecosystem Building (Community WEB) Program to invest in the organizations that start, sustain, and scale CWB models. The Community WEB program will fund an interconnected network of advisors to provide high-quality, specialized, and culturally-relevant technical assistance services at no cost to eligible non-profit and for-profit start-up and operating businesses leading CWB models such as worker cooperatives, limited-equity housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and community investment vehicles.

The City of Chicago recently granted $4.7 million to 17 local and national technical assistance organizations to design and implement specialized services in six categories. Ranging from $150,000 to $380,000, the grants will support the design and implementation of two-year technical assistance programs. The 17 finalists were selected from 47 total applicants based on organizational experience & values; program design & implementation strategy; and organizational capacity & budget justification:  

Research & Advocacy

• Center for Urban Economic Development at University of Illinois Chicago

Education & Outreach

• Center For Changing Lives 
• Urban Homesteading Assistance Board 

Business Development

• Centro De Trabajadores Unidos: United Workers Center 
• Democracy at Work Institute
• Lawndale Christian Development Corporation
• Manufacturing Renaissance 
• Project Equity
• Upside Down Consulting LLC 
• Urban Growers Collective

Financing & Fundraising

• Chicago Community Loan Fund 
• The Resurrection Project 
• The Working World Inc 
• Capital for Communities, LLC 

Legal & Governance

• Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Assets & Operations

• TREND Community Development Corporation