Community Grants Cohort

The Foundation is committed to supporting, creating, and implementing solutions our community has expressed in our Community Voices report. In 2023, the Foundation paused the program in order to evaluate and revise its grantmaking operations to align with its enhanced mission. After a year-long process of fact-finding, research and interviews, the Foundation announced its decision to focus grantmaking on the intersection of two priority areas identified in its landmark Community Voices report: Safety and Belonging, and Health—specifically, addressing behavioral and mental health for our young residents. 

As a result, the 2024–25 Community Grants cycle prioritized proposals that focus on creating pathways to a robust, representative workforce of mental and behavioral health professionals; or facilitate access to and/or provision of services or treatment for youth and young adults. More than three quarters of the year’s grantees will address the priority goal of access and treatment. Half of the awarded grants included a workforce development component, and a third address aspects of safety and belonging.

The Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of our 2025–26 Community Grants, awarding $270,000 to 16 nonprofit organizations serving West Cook County. The grants provide ongoing support for our strategic priority of mental and behavioral health for youth and young adults, including increasing the mental health workforce pipeline.

Based on feedback from grantee recipients and members of the West Cook community, including mental health practitioners, the Foundation’s Grants and Programs Committee reviewed and revised grantmaking processes through a framework called “trust-based philanthropy.” This approach emphasizes advancing equity, shifting the power dynamic and building mutually accountable relationships. As a result, the Community Grants program now includes such practices as giving multi-year, unrestricted funding; removing unnecessary steps in the application process; being transparent, open and honest; ensuring equity of voice; and offering support beyond the check. The Grants and Programs Committee also examined its own internal processes and developed new, more expedient and collaborative workflows.

Additionally, the Foundation will facilitate a “community of practice,” a subset of interested mental health practitioners within the mental health grantee cohort, to further the goal of a robust workforce and provide peer learning and leadership opportunities. Moving forward, we will continue to engage with the broader community to decide which issue areas and specific targets to focus on, whether to fill a gap or support an existing endeavor for exponential impact.

2026 Oak Park–River Forest Community Foundation Community Grantees

Thematic Areas of Focus: Mental and Behavioral Health for Youth and Young Adults

A Greater Good Foundation
Austin Coming Together
BUILD
Dominican University
Family Service and Mental Health Center of Cicero
Kinfolk CoLab
Maywood Fine Arts Association
New Moms
Race Conscious Dialogues
The Firehouse Dream
The Kehrein Center for the Arts Foundation
The Nehemiah Community Project
Thrive Counseling Center
Youth Crossroads
Youth Educational Mentoring Basketball Association (Y.E.M.B.A.)
Youth Outreach Services