Highlights

Auburn Gresham Group Wins $10M Pritzker Traubert Chicago Prize

• Dennis Rodkin
• Crain's Chicago Business

A “healthy lifestyle hub” and an innovative urban agriculture operation are planned as the first part of the foundation’s $100 million commitment to community-driven improvement in South and West Side neighborhoods.

Auburn Gresham Project Wins $10 Million Prize From Charitable Foundation

• Maxwell Evans
• Block Club Chicago

A plan to bring sustainable industry and health services to Auburn Gresham is the winner of the $10 million Chicago Prize from the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, its leaders announced Thursday.

Two projects — a “healthy lifestyle hub” at 839-845 W. 79th St. and a renewable energy and urban farm campus at 650 W. 83rd St. — were included in the winning submission.

The project was developed by the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation, and nonprofits Urban Growers Collective and Green Era Partners.

Auburn Gresham group selected for $10 million prize for plan to address roots of crime and disenfranchisement

• Annie Sweeney
• Chicago Tribune

Gresham neighborhood receives $10 million ‘Chicago Prize’

• Clare Proctor
• Chicago Sun Times

The inaugural Chicago Prize competition, sponsored by the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, picks one group on Chicago’s South or West Side and awards a grant it can use to address systemic poverty and economic exclusion.

The winning initiative — Always Growing, Auburn Gresham — plans to turn a vacant building on 79th and Halsted streets into a “Healthy Lifestyle Hub,” equipped with a full-service health center, as well as develop an urban farm and renewable energy center. The team includes the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, Green Era and Urban Growers Collective.

Chicago Launches Groundbreaking Initiative to Bridge Digital Divide, Providing Free High-Speed Internet Access to Over 100,000 Cps Students

• City of Chicago

Public, Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leaders Develop $50 Million Program to Provide Free, High-Speed Internet for Four Years

“This terrible pandemic has made it crystal clear that access to high speed internet is a critical element of our social safety net. Sadly, too many young Chicagoans and their families lack access to this powerful tool which improves educational, economic, social and health outcomes. The Pritzker Traubert Foundation is proud to support this vital program that will help connect nearly 100,000 of our young people to the many benefits that connectivity and collaboration can deliver.”–Penny Pritzker, Trustee, Pritzker Traubert Foundation and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

U of I’s DPI lands $3.9 million for research to help students

• Lynne Marek
• Crain's Chicago Business

The University of Illinois Discovery Partners Institute has attracted $3.9 million in philanthropy for a project that will use data to analyze how to help Illinois students be more successful.

The Illinois Workforce & Education Research Collaborative, or IWERC, was launched by DPI in March with that funding from the Joyce Foundation, the Steans Family Foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and two anonymous donors.

Coronavirus fund led by former Obama official raises over $30 million

• Max Zahn
• Yahoo Finance

The coronavirus outbreak has wrought illness and economic pain but also prompted a surge of philanthropy. Among the relief efforts is a fund in Illinois led by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker that has raised over $30 million and supported nearly 50 nonprofit organizations in the state, Pritzker told Yahoo Finance.

“The pain is very deep and very harsh,” Pritzker tells Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer… “We have millions of people across this nation and certainly people in Illinois that are really feeling the significant pain due to this virus.”

“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” adds Pritzker. “The ability for us to be able to bring together philanthropic resources to do our part to help — it’s really been a great honor to be able to do it.”

Chicago Prize Finalist ‘The Aspire Initiative: Building A Stronger Cradle-to-Career Pipeline in Austin’

• WBEZ - Reset with Jenn White

The Pritzker Traubert Foundation is offering a $10 million grant to a single community-driven initiative aimed at bettering the lives of residents on the South or West Side of Chicago.

Reset sits down with one of the Chicago Prize finalists, “The Aspire Initiative: Building A Stronger Cradle-to-Career Pipeline in Austin,” to hear about their proposal.

GUEST: Darnell Shields, executive director, Austin Coming Together

Morris Reed, CEO of Westside Health Authority

Chicago Community Trust, United Way launching coronavirus fund

• Steven R. Strahler
• Crain's Chicago Business

A fund aimed at helping victims of the coronavirus outbreak is being set up by the Chicago Community Trust and United Way of Metro Chicago, assisted by City Hall, business leaders and other philanthropies.

The Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund plans to help local nonprofits improve provision of emergency food and basic supplies, as well as rent, mortgage and utility assistance, according to the sponsors. It will cover Cook and DuPage counties.

Contribution pledges came from the Crown Family Philanthropies, Loop Capital, the MacArthur Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, Northern Trust, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation and Michael Reese Health Trust.

Chicago Prize Finalists Share Vision For Auburn Gresham

• WBEZ - Reset with Jenn White

With a $10 million grant up for grabs, WBEZ’s Reset with Jenn White talks to another finalist organization for the Pritzker Traubert Foundation’s “Chicago Prize”. From a healthy lifestyle hub to office spaces and more, we focus is on the work being done by Catalytic Development of Auburn Gresham