• Let’s Partner
    • Grant Seekers
    • Funders
  • About
    • Mission, Vision & Mandate
    • Our Values
    • Our Team
    • Our History
    • Financials
  • News & Events
  • Donate
Michael Reese
  • How We Work
    • Advocacy
    • Grantmaking
    • Incubation
  • What We Do
    • Domestic Violence
    • Health Workforce
    • Homelessness
    • Jewish Legacy
  • Bold Ideas
    • Health First Collaborative
    • Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness
  • Stories
    • Incubation
    • Advocacy
    • Grantmaking
    • Domestic Violence
    • Health Workforce
    • Homelessness
    • Jewish Legacy
    • Health First Collaborative
    • Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness
  • Let’s Partner
    • Grant Seekers
    • Funders
  • About
    • Mission, Vision & Mandate
    • Our Values
    • Our Team
    • Financials
    • Our History
News & Events Donate
  • Driving Change through the Housing Justice Fund 

    Since 2020, Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness (CFTEH) has brought together 30+ local funders to combat homelessness in Chicago.

    A key achievement was the 2022 launch of the Housing Justice Fund, which has already awarded over $2 million in multi-year grants to support initiatives addressing homelessness, including advocacy, narrative change, and community organizing efforts. 

    What sets the Housing Justice Fund apart is its unwavering commitment to prioritizing Black-led and lived expertise-led initiatives. By empowering those who are directly affected by homelessness and housing instability, CFTEH recognizes the power in giving voice and agency to the communities most affected. 

    In its initial grant cycle, CFTEH awarded $1.2 million to 11 Chicago organizations. This past August, they continued their efforts by distributing an additional $800,000 to eight partners, offering two-year funding to boost their advocacy, organizing, and narrative change initiatives. In addition, CFTEH provided $10,000 each to organizations that submitted applications but were not selected, illustrating their dedication to supporting the community. 

    The Chicago 400 Alliance is one of eight community partners awarded funding in the most recent round of the Housing Justice Fund.

    “Led by the Chicago 400, our work challenges housing banishment laws and public conviction registries. These laws push housed people, very disproportionately Black men, into homelessness. They make reentry from prison into a lifelong crisis.” 

    Laurie Jo Reynolds, Coordinator, Chicago 400 Alliance and Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago.

    “The Housing Justice Fund is dedicated to investing in the voices and stories of communities, empowering advocates to improve housing policy, and supporting efforts to ensure every individual has access to a safe, stable, dignified, and affordable home.” 

    Kathy Niedorowski, Program Manager, Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness. 

    Organizations that have received a grant from the Housing Justice Fund are: 

    • Bring Chicago Home Coalition
    • Chicago 400 Alliance
    • Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative
    • Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance
    • Chicago Housing Justice League,
    • HIV Housing Advisory Council
    • Housing Action Illinois
    • Illinois Coalition for Fair Housing
    • Jane Addams Senior Caucus
    • Latino Policy Forum
    • Lift the Ban
    • Metropolitan Tenants Organization
    • Not Me We
    • Palenque LSNA
    • Red Line Service
    • Safer Foundation
    • South Shore Works
    • Southwest Organizing Project/United Power for Action and Justice
    • Tenant Education Network

    Several members of CFTEH pooled resources to launch the Housing Justice Fund including: Alvin H. Baum Family Fund, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, The Chicago Community Trust, Crown Family Philanthropies, Cuore e Mani Foundation, Michael Reese Health Trust, Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, The Owens Foundation, Pierce Family Foundation, RRF Foundation for Aging, Polk Bros. Foundation, and The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.  

  • Exploring the Intersection of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Domestic Violence

    Decades of research into traumatic brain injuries (TBI) initially focused on athletes and veterans, examining the immediate and long-term effects of violent blows or jolts to the head, such as headaches, nausea, fatigue, mood swings, depression, seizures, migraines, and memory problems.  

    However, there’s a less explored aspect of TBI – its impact on survivors of domestic violence. While studying brain injuries in the mid-1990s, Dr. Eve Valera, an associate professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and a research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, began volunteering at a domestic violence shelter. She noticed that the abuse and problems many women reported were consistent with possibly experiencing concussions. Women reported many acts of violence that could cause trauma to the brain, as well as many post-concussive symptoms. 

    Of the 99 women she interviewed, approximately 75% reported at least one traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained from their partners, and about half reported more than one — oftentimes many more than one.  

    Unfortunately, nearly 20 years later — concussion-related research within the domain of intimate partner violence continues to be scarce, signifying a largely unacknowledged and significantly under-researched public health crisis.  

    The Brain Injury Association of America highlights that undetected and untreated TBI can result in enduring behavioral, emotional, and cognitive struggles, potentially causing issues like homelessness, unemployment, substance abuse, or even loss of life.  

    The Pathways Program at Swedish Hospital, led by Director Mariá Balata, has been working to address this intersection since 2015. This initiative focuses on equipping healthcare professionals with the knowledge to recognize signs of abuse, including TBI symptoms, in survivors. Balata emphasizes the importance of understanding the impact of gender-based violence on health and empowering survivors.  

    “The survivors we work with often have a hard time keeping track of appointments or commitments. What doctors would call noncompliance we now understand might actually be the brain struggling with executive function. What we used to think of as emotional trauma, we are now understanding may be a biological response.”  

    While there’s no cure for TBI, our brains can heal, and brain injuries can get better, especially when they get identified early.

    Providing survivors with tools to comprehend their situation and its effects on their functioning is crucial. By understanding what’s happening to them, survivors can liberate themselves from the emotional burden imposed by people who cause harm.  

    “And while they still have to continue to struggle with what happened, they know they can take steps to live with it. So maybe it’s using a cane, maybe it’s knowing you’re going to need lists for everything, maybe it’s knowing you’re going to need alarms on your phone for reminders. That’s better than walking through the world thinking you’re stupid or incapable, as the abuser might like you to believe.” 

    “My hope is that by providing this kind of support people learn to walk with their trauma in a way that doesn’t weigh them down in the way that it did before.” 

    “If we can help people understand what is happening, it can provide an important release of an emotional burden that helps them regain a sense of self. Their sense of self is no longer defined by what the abuser did or the narrative that that person created. There’s a new narrative where they get to take back control.” 

    Michael Reese has been a partner of the Pathways Program since 2016 and is currently convening providers of domestic violence services and experts in head injury to consider how best to deepen our investment in this critical area. Our mission to ensure all Chicagoans can live healthy lives includes a focus on domestic violence. This priority area focuses on three key strategies to support both survivors and those who cause harm to break the cycle of violence: 

    Create a service-delivery system that ensures survivors of domestic violence-related head injury are identified, screened and treated; 

    Increase and strengthen services for People Who Cause Harm (PWCH); 

    Support select innovative models that expand existing domestic violence services.  

  • Prioritizing Security at JCC Chicago 

    JCC Chicago stands proudly as the largest JCC in North America, committed to enriching Jewish life.

    Unlike many JCCs across the country that primarily function as health clubs or fitness centers, JCC Chicago uniquely focuses on core programs and experiences for Jewish families and children. Their offerings extend well beyond fitness, including childcare and preschools, day camps across Chicagoland, and the largest Jewish overnight camp in the country. These spaces are vital for the Jewish community, serving as hubs for cultural and Jewish connections. 

    In the wake of the Hamas massacre on October 7th, the world’s Jewish community faced an immediate surge in antisemitism and heightened fear for safety. In every place where Jewish community members congregate, conversations quickly ensued about how to increase security so that services could continue to be provided and so that people would continue to come.  

    As a longtime supporter of Chicago’s Jewish community, Michael Reese recognized how critical this moment was and reached out to JCC Chicago, asking a simple yet profound question: “How can we help?” 

    The response was clear – JCC Chicago needed to ensure the security and safety of their spaces for the children and families who use them every day.  

    Several early childhood families immediately withdrew from programming due to fear of being in a Jewish institution and early childhood and day camp directors report about 75% of all conversations with families are around security. 

    The presence of active, aware, armed personnel performs not only as a deterrent to potential violence, but also provides psychological safety for parents and children.  

    “We are looking at an additional $700,000 for unbudgeted security expenses. That’s not money we have in the bank. If the government and philanthropy doesn’t provide funding, our only option to ensure safety is to increase the fees our families pay for services, and that’s not a fair option to families who are already struggling to make ends meet and it doesn’t align with our mission. We want to be there for our families, for our community,” said JCC Chicago’s President & CEO, Addie Goodman.“

    “These spaces hold great significance for the Jewish community, with over a million Jews and half a million friends and neighbors entering the doors of more than 170 JCC sites nationwide each week. To address the concern of our parents, who are asking for increased security, we need consistent, sustained funding. Sustained funding not only supports hiring security personnel but ensures continuity, creating a familiar and reassuring presence day to day, week to week for the kids in our programs.”  

    To support the increased need for security at JCC Chicago sites, Michael Reese quickly provided a $100,000 grant to ease the initial burden for the JCC while they investigated other funding sources.  

    In times of uncertainty, partnerships like these become a beacon of hope, reaffirming that communities can come together to overcome challenges and build a secure future for all. 

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive occasional updates and insights.

All rights reserved.

Address

c/o Impact House
200 W. Madison St., Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60606

312.726.1008

hello@wearemichaelreese.org

Quick Links
  • Our Tools
  • Bold Ideas
  • News
  • Financials
  • Contact
  • All rights reserved.