Grant Recipients

For nearly 40 years, A Safe Place has provided services to victims of domestic abuse and their families as the sole provider exclusively addressing domestic violence in Lake County. A Safe Place offers comprehensive domestic violence services that provide a safety net to assist victims and their children. They provide a 24-hour crisis line, shelter, transitional & permanent housing, individual & group counseling and therapy, art therapy, orders of protection, safe custody exchanges, supervised visitations, community education, and supportive services. HPCF’s grant supports counseling for local residents.

Big Brothers Big Sisters develops high-impact mentoring relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people facing adversity. Mentors (“Bigs”) work with children (“Littles”) in the community, workplaces, their schools, and many places in between. Big Brothers Big Sisters provides ongoing professional support to volunteers, children, and parents/caregivers throughout the life of the match. 100% of the grant funds from the Highland Park Community Foundation directly supports the Highland Park Neighborhood Mentoring Program through which Highland Park and Highwood youth are paired in one-to-one relationships with caring mentors.

Blessings in a Backpack is designed to feed school-age children whose families qualify for Federal programs and have little or no food at home on weekends so every school-aged child in America has the nourishment needed to learn and grow. As a leader in the movement to end childhood hunger, Blessings strives to ensure children don’t go hungry on the weekends by empowering individuals and communities to take action. Funds from the Highland Park Community Foundation were used to support this program.

Cancer Wellness Center provides counseling, group support, educational lectures, classes, and workshops free of charge to assist cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones.

Collaborative Community Housing Initiative (CCHI) is grassroots collective made up of families with young adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and community members who desire a community that is inclusive and diverse. CCHI envisions communities where individuals of all abilities live collectively, each determining their own path to a meaningful life. CCHI is about housing as well as inclusive opportunities in living, working, and socializing.

Community Partners for Affordable Housing provides safe affordable housing services that residents can access including rental housing, affordable home ownership, home repairs, accessibility improvements, and financial counseling.

Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. They supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities. New and nearly new children’s items are collected through grassroots community drives and corporate donations. Donations are then processed and packaged by volunteers in our warehouse, The Giving Factory. Packages from The Giving Factory are distributed to local children through a collaborative network of diverse service partners.

Community – The Anti-Drug Coalition (CTAD) is a community coalition that is comprised of parents, local government, school officials, clergy, and health providers. CTAD’s mission is to generate conversation and provide accurate information about alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use in our community. CTAD is a volunteer-led organization, which strives to build and sustain a safe and drug-free community in which our youth feel protected, confident and empowered to make healthy choices. They bring together input and contributions from all sectors of the community—schools, parents, youth, government, healthcare, faith, law enforcement, youth-serving organizations and more—to transform the environment around our youth so that the drug-free choice is the easy choice. The grant from the Highland Park Community Foundation supports CTAD’s youth program through which Highland Park High School students are trained in and work together to implement evidence-based, drug-prevention strategies in their school and community.

Curt’s Café provides unique work and life skills training, social-emotional support, and job placement for young adults 18-24 living in at-risk circumstances.

Direct Giving Lab (DGL) provides unrestricted cash transfers to low-income working households that are looking for a path out of poverty. DGL places equal emphasis on social impact and evidence collection. With each cohort of families they assist, DGL evaluates outcomes using both qualitative and quantitative feedback, and the results inform their approach for the next cohort. To date they have provided families with $100/month and $150/month cash transfers and families have participated for 12 or 24 months.

Gratitude Generation (G2) is a nonprofit organization that encourages the volunteer efforts of children and families with a special emphasis on cultivating community leadership in children. Founded in 2018, G2 initiates community service projects and also partners with existing, local nonprofit organizations, providing volunteers and donations to support their efforts.

Founded in 1930, Family Service of Lake County responds to the ever-changing needs of the community with professional social services, educational programs and case management referrals for all ages. Family Service of Lake County continues to evolve to address critical community needs in Highland Park and Highwood. Clients come from diverse communities and across the full economic spectrum and life cycle. Their history is to serve all in need, regardless of ability to pay. Most services are available at no out-of-pocket cost to the client. Family Service annually serve over 6,000 clients of all ages. Family Service works to ensure that their supportive services can be affordable for all who need them. Supporters like the Highland Park Community Foundation help make that possible. With the Foundation’s help, they are able to make counseling available even to a significant number of clients who are uninsured or underinsured or cannot pay their minimum sliding-scale fee of $15.

Response is a safe, welcoming space where teens receive support to deal with life’s challenges, meet new friends, and above all, feel free to be themselves. Their mission is to support adolescents and their families in the Jewish and general community by providing prevention, outreach, counseling and medical services in a teen-friendly environment that empowers teens to make healthy life choices. The grant from the Highland Park Community Foundation supports Operation Snowball which is a year-long leadership program for teens culminating in a 3-day retreat, which addresses topics including bullying, alcohol abuse, identity, diversity, communication, and drug prevention.

Kids Rank provides military children with a sense of stability through interactive group learning experiences and community service. Kids Rank’s goal is to recognize and celebrate the positive characteristics that military children often develop in light of the numerous changes and challenges they face while living a military lifestyle. The program is open to school-aged military children from all branches of service including active duty, reservists, retirees and Families of the Fallen. The Community Outreach Initiative targets non-registered military children, their families and potential Community Partners. To cultivate and build relationships between Kids Rank and families with the goal of integrating them into our member programming while promoting awareness throughout the community to the needs, challenges, and strengths of military children. The Foundation’s grant assists with expenses of the program that addresses a gap in services for military children by engaging them in hands-on, skill building projects and volunteer opportunities designed to encourage resilience through the program’s core pillars of Connect, Lead, and Serve.

Mothers Trust Foundation partners with over 200 social workers, school counselors, public health nurses, and other professionals who work with children and families and submit requests on their behalf. Service requests can be for basic needs like clothing and underwear; stable housing including rent; security deposits or utility assistance; enrichment opportunities including playing a sport or musical instrument or attending summer camp; education-related assistance; and medical assistance including eye glasses, prescriptions and counseling. HPCF’s grant will assist in funding summer camp, education and enrichment activities.

Since May of 2015, the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic has served hundreds of members of the community, primarily in the areas of housing, immigration, and domestic violence. The Clinic provides pro bono legal services to all qualifying individuals who live in Highland Park and Highwood. Highland Park Community Foundation’s funding will help to design and implement a domestic violence program to address the many legal and social issues involving family stress, domestic abuse, and intimate partner disturbances.

With the help of the Highland Park Community Foundation, the food bank’s mobile pantry program provided regular distributions on the second and fourth Fridays of each month at the Highwood Recreation Center, serving between 100-120 families at each distribution.

Operation Warm provides warmth, confidence and hope to children in need through the gift of brand-new winter coats. Operation Warm partners with individuals, community organizations, and corporations across North America to provide children in need the gift of a brand-new coat. Through this, they provide these children with physical and emotional warmth, confidence to socialize and succeed, and hope of a brighter future. In 2019, the organization distributed approximately 410,000 coats to 1,200 different communities with the help of 800+ partners in the US and Canada.

Project Shop N’ Drop is a service program that provides groceries and personal items on a weekly basis to approximately 315 people in 70 families who are food insecure and economically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Shop N’ Drop develops ongoing relationships with all supported families in order to best understand their present and future needs; provides messages of hope and encouragement through weekly themes; and engages community volunteers in the support of local families.

Rainbows for All Children serves children 3-18 who are struggling with emotions following the loss of a family member through death, divorce/separation, deployment, incarceration, or illness.

The Save A Star Drug Awareness Foundation educates and increases awareness about drug abuse/addiction, provides prescription drug disposal programs, and offers support and resources for adults recovering from substance disorders.

The Josselyn Center provides affordable, high-quality psychiatric & mental health services for local youth and adults, including low-income residents who are underinsured, uninsured, or rely on Medicaid.

Youth Services provides programs focused on early intervention & crisis response for youth & families, including a Pride Youth Program for LGBTQ+ youth, & workshops on sexual health & relationship education.

Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center (ZCenter) is the only rape crisis center in Lake County. Built on the courage of survivors, staff, volunteers and donors, ZCenter has been serving the community as a non-profit center against sexual assault and abuse since 1983. The Highland Park Community Foundation’s grant supports ZCenter’s Children’s Program. Through counseling and community education, this program helps survivors of sexual assault heal, prevent re-traumatization, and change assumptions and attitudes about rape and sexual abuse.