Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation answers the call
Tiffany Hightower is the Executive Director of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. Photo provided by Tiffany Hightower.
In 2021, ILBCF hit an important milestone, it gave its millionth dollar in scholarship money to students. “That was one of the core reasons why the Foundation was created in the first place, it was to make sure they were answering the call to educational research,” Hightower said.
ILBCF has launched an Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Fellowship Program. The program is aimed at students from Illinois who attend an HBCU. Those students were able participate in a virtual fellowship opportunity. The first co-hort was the Ahadi Class. Ahadi means promise in Swahili. The next co-hort is set for February 2023.
During COVID, ILBCF distributed more than half a million masks to Black communities across the state. Also during the pandemic, ILBCF provided 600 families with Chromebooks and tablets so that the students could fulfill their remote learning requirement.
With ILBCF’s Representation Matters Focus, the foundation is looking at health, getting into the communities and making sure issues surrounding health are being discussed. In addition to that, ILBCF launched the Brain Trust on Health initiative in November. The goal of the initiative is to create collaborative efforts to eliminate systemic barriers to equitable healthcare with immediate and long-term solutions to improve health outcomes, by providing 11 qualified Black medical professionals with a $5,000 grant.
“When the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus issued their four pillars to end systemic racism, their fourth pillar was on healthcare and human services. In that, it was found that with a lot of Black medical professionals, one of the obstacles to coming back and working and engaging in the community is the debt they owe to their medical schools. What we wanted to do was applaud Black doctors that are working in the community and be able to provide them with a grant to help them pay down their medical school debt,” Hightower said.
ILBCF launched a Social Justice and Public Policy Institute. With that, the foundation wants to start gathering research to figure out what is needed, from a policy standpoint. ILBCF hosted a conference in October. It was a catalyst for the work the Foundation is doing, and brought light to issues that are really impacting Black communities.
“We are really taking a strong approach to dissecting these issues and trying to be at the table and bring people to the table to come up with collective solutions we can all buy into, to really impact the lives of African Americans throughout the State of Illinois,” Hightower said. She Credited the leadership of Paul Williams and the rest of the Board, and the partnership with the ILBC Leadership, for assisting in the work.
For more information about ILBCF, visit www.ilbcf.org.
Latest Stories
- CTU Gathers with Faith-based Leaders to Highlight Recent Tentative Agreement Wins for Students and Educators
- COOK COUNTY COMMISSIONER KISHA MCCASKILL TAKES CENTER STAGE AS SOUTH SUBURBAN COMMUNITY UNITES FOR A GREENER FUTURE
- RICH TOWNSHIP SUPERVISOR CALVIN JORDAN LEADS HEARTWARMING SPRING CELEBRATION FOR HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES WITH “EASTER JAMBOREE” CELEBRATION
- Local Musician’s Career Spans 50 Years
- Have Questions About Money? The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office Can Help
Latest Podcast
STARR Community Services International, Inc.
