SHEcovery assists organizations with pandemic recovery

Hope – Equal Hope Nurse Navigator Retha Cooper and client Nakeeya Chandler. Equal Hope was one of more than 60 organizations that received part of a $1.3 million grant from Chicago Foundation for Women as part of its SHEcovery. Photo provided by Equal Hope
Hope – Equal Hope Nurse Navigator Retha Cooper and client Nakeeya Chandler. Equal Hope was one of more than 60 organizations that received part of a $1.3 million grant from Chicago Foundation for Women as part of its SHEcovery. Photo provided by Equal Hope

SHEcovery assists organizations with pandemic recovery

By Tia Carol Jones

The Chicago Foundation for Women realized there would be an outsized affect of the pandemic on women and girls of color. As the months went on, the organization made an effort to spend more money and invest more money in recovery efforts to help frontline workers and organizations led by women of color, with the creation of SHEcovery.

Chicago Foundation for Women, through SHEcovery has invested more than $1.3 million to support women and girls of color. Sixty-seven organizations received a portion of the money during the grant cycle. According to the Chicago Foundation for Women, 62% of the organizations are led by women of color.

The Chicago Foundation for Women has been around for 36 years, advocating for women and girls. It has been investing through grants and organizations, healthcare, access to healthcare, economic security and upward mobility, as well as freedom from violence.

There are four pillars of SHEcovery: Getting women back to work, addressing the eviction crisis, caring for caregivers and demanding antiracists healthcare systems.

“The State has taken steps by  enacting laws that require implicit bias training for healthcare professionals, but we need to make sure those trainings and the laws are really executed, to the full extent,” said Felicia Davis Blakley, president of the Chicago Foundation for Women.

The organization uses a panel of community members and others to help in the grantmaking decision, which makes it a community involved process.

One of the grant recipients was Equal Hope. The non-profit organization began as the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force in 2008 based on research that showed racial disparities in breast cancer mortality rates. In the last few years, the organization’s mission has expanded to address other women’s cancers and primary care.

Anne Marie Murphy, PhD, executive director of Equal Hope, saw that COVID-19 was disproportionately affecting women of color and communities of color. Equal Hope retrained its workers to help women with their social services needs, rental and housing assistance, utility assistance and food. Equal Hope during the pandemic has been working with other partners to be a part of the solution to help women navigate the pandemic.

Equal Hope has worked with Chicago Foundation for Women in the past, with respect to advocacy and public policy and other efforts for COVID mitigation and improving access to healthcare.
“From a start that was quite narrow, we really have expanded to help women a lot more holistically navigate and survive,” Murphy said.

Equal Hope received $43,000 in grant money. It will use that money toward advocacy efforts, improving access to women’s health care, and continue to help women access social services and other forms of emergency assistance connected to the pandemic.

The Spring grant cycle is coming up. Last year, the Chicago Foundation for women distributed $3.2 million in grants. It was the highest in the history of the organization. For 2022, the organization is expecting to exceed that amount.

“Overall, this SHEcovery really is a roadmap and it’s a commitment from the CFW to create equitable systems for women of color. I also thinks it’s a bold statement for us to say that, to put that up front. Organizations led by women of color usually lag behind in traditional funding models. This is our way of creating additional equity,” Davis Blakley said.

For more information about Equal Hope, visit equalhope.org. For more information about SHEcovery, visit SHEcovery.com. For more information about the Chicago Foundation for women, visit www.cfw.org.

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