Impact Grants Chicago Awards $490,000 To Seven Nonprofits

Viewing Our Children as Emerging Leaders (Vocel) was one of three nonprofit organizations to receive $30,000 from Impact Grants Chicago. Photo provided by Impact Grants Chicago.
Viewing Our Children as Emerging Leaders (Vocel) was one of three nonprofit organizations to receive $30,000 from Impact Grants Chicago. Photo provided by Impact Grants Chicago.

Impact Grants Chicago Awards $490,000 To Seven Nonprofits

By Tia Carol Jones

Ignite was founded in 1976 as the Transitional Living Process with a mission to support young people experiencing homelessness. It provides emergency and transitional housing, community housing programs and aftercare, mental health care, street and community outreach.

Viewing Our Children as Emerging Leaders (Vocel) was founded by Jesse Ilhardt and Kelly Powers in 2012 based on their experience in coaching teachers on a variety of early childhood programs across the city of Chicago. They wanted to provide accessible high quality early care and education for families in the city. The model bridges home and school for young learners. In 2014, they launched the Vocel Early Learning Center, and now, the Parent-Child Academy is located at 20 schools throughout the city.

Ignite was one of four nonprofit organizations that received $100,000 from Impact Grants Chicago. Vocel was one of three nonprofit organizations to receive $30,000 from Impact Grants Chicago. The goal of the awards was to help these organizations scale their work and their impact on the communities they serve.

“These organizations are doing the essential, day-to-day work that rarely grabs headlines but has a profound impact on people’s lives,” Maggie Schell, Board President of Impact Grants Chicago, said in a release. “We’re honored to support these remarkable nonprofits, especially now, when so many are being asked to stretch limited resources further than ever before.”

Impact Grants Chicago was founded in 2017 with a mission to connect, engage and empower women to improve their communities by collectively funding grants to Chicago nonprofits that are dedicated to addressing the challenges facing the city. The all-volunteer women’s collective giving organization has awarded more than $3.9 million to community-based local nonprofits since it was founded.

Ilhardt said Vocel developed Powered by Vocel, a parent-led model of its Parent-Child Academy. With that program, parent volunteers from schools are trained in the Vocel early childhood education philosophy and curriculum to lead the program as a way to keep the knowledge and leadership in house. This program will be in 12 elementary schools during the 2025-2026 school year.

Ilhardt said the grant funding Vocel received will enable them to grow the parent-led model they have developed. As part of the model, Vocel provides stipends, training and coaching for the parent leaders. She said those parents are the best people to invest in.

“We very much believe that no one is more relentless than a parent who is on a mission for their child, or a parent who is supporting their peers who are going through something that is as universally challenging as parenting young children,” she said.

Ilhardt said there have been amazing results for the children and the parents and the parent leaders. Parent leaders have expressed interest in continuing in early childhood education. Vocel recently entered a partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago to have parent leaders to receive an associate’s degree in early childhood education.

Piccirilli said the funding Ignite received will enable the organization to support the young people who are in their programs to reach their full potential and give them time to deal with the trauma they have experienced. With the grant funding, Ignite will be able to use its outreach bus to serve more communities throughout the city.

“Our hope is that we will, next year, be able to reach over 4,000 young people who might be either experiencing homelessness, at risk of experiencing homelessness, or at the greatest risk of harm in our city,” she said.

Going into its 50th year of providing services to young people, Ignite is launching a capital campaign to purchase the building that it houses young people in and to pay that building off. Piccirilli said that by being able to pay off the building on 37th and Indiana, Ignite will have a permanent place for young people to go, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For more information about Ignite, visit www.ignitepromise.org. For more information about Vocel, visit vocel.org. For more information about Impact Grants Chicago, visit www.impactgrantschicago.org.


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