Application
Healing Illinois Application Links by Region
12/31/23 - RFP Application window has been closed. No further applications will be accepted for this fiscal year.
Applicants must complete their application via Foundant, the Field Foundation's online grants management system. To access an application, grant seekers must log into Foundant using the Grant Interface. If you are an existing grant recipient of Field Foundation's grant programs, login to your account and select Healing Illinois under Apply. If you are new to Field Foundation, click "Create New Account" to begin the registration process and create your user credentials.
Late or incomplete applications may not be considered.
Information Sessions (Open to all):
- October 12, 2023 | Event has ended
- November 1, 2023 | Event has ended
- November 20, 2023 | vent has ended
Application Deadlines and Funding Decisions:
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis through December 1, 2023 or until budgeted funds are expended. Deadlines are at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time:
- October 20, 2023: applications received by October 20, 2023 will be reviewed and notified by October 30
- November 10, 2023: applications received by November 10, 2023 will be reviewed and notified by November 20
- December 1, 2023: applications received by December 1, 2023 will be reviewed and notified by December 11
Overview
Healing Illinois is a racial healing initiative of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), in partnership with the Field Foundation, designed to support organizations across the state to begin, or continue, the work of racial healing.
Healing Illinois strives to:
- Build Knowledge and understanding of racial healing and racial equity in communities across the state
- Strengthen trust and relationship building among the residents of Illinois
- Expand opportunities for communities and individuals to begin to heal from the harms caused by racism
- Increase awareness and media engagement focused on racial healing and equity
The time for Healing Illinois is now. The disparate adverse impact of COVID-19 on Black and Latinx communities, coupled with the ongoing oppressive and structural tactics that uphold systemic racism and inequity have highlighted the need for racial healing, and the need to address the underlying systems that have created the conditions where vast racial disparities are allowed to exist. As we move ahead with the work of systemic change, we must also lay the groundwork for community healing, acknowledging the harm done to communities of color and providing the space for healing. Healing Illinois represents one step in that process, promoting racial healing for everyone, and advancing racial equity in Illinois.
Priority Strategies and Activities
Healing Illinois grants will fund projects that advance racial equity through the following efforts:
Racial Healing Sustainability: activities designed to build community through knowledge-sharing, deeper interpersonal interactions, and intentional spaces for collective healing. Types of projects may include, but not limited to:
- Projects that build deeper interpersonal interactions through racial healing circles, peace circles, restorative justice practices, etc.
- Expansion of existing racial healing programs
- Creative artistic activities, including community-wide murals, visual artistic events, exhibitions, storytelling and discussion that advance racial healing.
- Leadership development initiatives for racial healing practitioners, organizers and leaders of color in relation to racial healing, power-building, and community advocacy.
Narrative Change: awareness building of racial healing and justice work to facilitate the engagement, leadership, and activation of residents most impacted by systemic racism. Types of projects may include, but not limited to:
- Workshops to teach community members how to share their personal stories to active others for systemic change
- Amplify truth narratives of communities most impact by systemic racism.
- Storytelling programs to build understanding and empathy
Education and Training: enhancing knowledge and understanding of racial healing and justice via trainings focused on anti-racism, racial equity, racial justice, etc.
Racial Healing Readiness: developing the capacity and early-stage ideas that may lead to new programming and projects with long-term vision to advance racial healing. Types of activities include community consultation, issues identification and research, assessment or feasibility studies for expanding programs and projects, increasing group or organizational capacity through specific skills training and/or new tools.
- Promoting dialogue: supporting and facilitating conversations that build connection, understanding, and empathy within and across communities
- Examples: On the Table-type events, facilitated conversations, opportunities to engage in dialogue with the broader community.
- Encouraging collaboration: people coming together in person or virtually to connect and engage in racial healing activities
- Examples: racial justice campaigns; creative artistic activities, including community-wide murals, virtual artistic events, storytelling, and discussion.
- Facilitating learning: Engaging in projects that build and/or enhance knowledge and understanding of racial justice
- Examples: trainings, technical assistance, (external) purchase of educational materials for community-wide programming, (internal) purchase of educational materials for staff, board, volunteers and stakeholders.
- Seeding connection: Building community through deeper interpersonal interactions
- Examples: racial healing circles, peace circles, restorative justice activities.
Project/Activity Conditions:
Healing Illinois applicants should consider the following as proposals are developed:
- Community engagement should be a key element to any project and/or activity;
- Different communities will approach and address racial healing in different ways;
- Project and/or activity documentation will be required.
- All projects/activities must follow the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) health and safety guidance related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Grant funds have to be expended by June 30, 2024.
If an organization is not GATA certified but would like to be, visit Illinois.gov/Sites/GATA to learn more.
Eligible Applicants
We encourage any organization interested in working on racial healing to consider applying. There are multiple ways to participate in Healing Illinois.
To be eligible for a grant award, an applicant must be:
- A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in good standing with the Illinois Secretary of State.
- At the time of application, applicant must be Grant Accountability and Transparency Act/GATA certified. For more details about GATA certification, visit Illinois.gov/GATA.
- If an organization is not GATA certified but would like to be, visit Illinois.gov/GATA to learn more.
- If an organization is not GATA certified and would like to participate in Healing Illinois, please contact the Healing IL team at Healingillinois@fieldfoundation.org.
Grant Amounts Available:
- Grant funds must be expended by June 30, 2024
- GATA certified organizations may apply for up to $30,000
We will consider larger grant request for collaborative projects involving a network or coalition of organizations. These types of projects would need to abide by the same guidelines and benefit multiple communities and counties. We encourage you to discuss any proposed collaborative project with the Healing Illinois project team, please contact Healingillinois@fieldfoundation.org.
Application
Applicants must complete their application via Foundant, the Field Foundation's online grants management system. To access an application, grant seekers must log into Foundant using the Grant Interface. If you are an existing grant recipient of Field Foundation's grant programs, login to your account and select Healing Illinois under Apply. If you are new to Field Foundation, click "Create New Account" to begin the registration process and create your user credentials.
Late or incomplete applications may not be considered.
Information Sessions:
Healing Illinois Info Session #1
When: October 12, 2023
Register in advance for this meeting at:
October 12, 2023 | Event has ended
Healing Illinois Info Session #2
When: November 1, 2023
Register in advance for this meeting at:
November 1, 2023 | Event has ended
Healing Illinois Info Session #3
When: November 20, 2023
Register in advance for this meeting at:
November 20, 2023 | Event has ended
Contact Information
Definition of Terms
Racial healing circle: A process that can facilitate trust and help build authentic relationships that bridge divides created by real and perceived differences. The racial healing process is composed of three parts: 1) listening, 2) becoming open to one another's perspectives and experiences, and 3) allowing yourself to be impacted and/or transformed by the experience.
Restorative justice: A philosophy that assists restoration of harm, bringing together the individual who was harmed, the person who allegedly harmed them, and community members to settle on an agreement for making amends. It reflects a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by conflict and places resolution in the hands of those who have been most affected by a wrongdoing, giving equal concern to the harmed, the offender, and the surrounding community.
Peacemaking circles: Circles are a process grounded in the shared values of those in the circle that creates understanding, builds and repairs relationships and assists with solving conflicts and disputes. They create a safe place for problem solving and conflict resolution in communities and schools as well as in workplaces. Rather than being led by a facilitator, a Circle has one or more "keepers" whose role is primarily to hold the container of the circle in a safe way so that all can be heard and can listen. Circles may include those who have been harmed, those who have harmed others, their support people and community representatives.
Racial justice: Racial justice focuses on the deepest, most complex aspects of addressing the ways racism permeates political, cultural, and economic norms and what is truly required to uproot it. https://racialequity.org/.
About the Illinois Department of Human Services
The Department of Human Services is one of Illinois' largest agencies, with more than 13,000 employees. Illinois created IDHS in 1997 to provide our state's residents with streamlined access to integrated services, especially those who are striving to move from welfare to work and economic independence, and others who face multiple challenges to self-sufficiency. For more information, visit www.dhs.state.il.us.
About The Field Foundation
The Field Foundation of Illinois is a private and independent foundation that, along with its strategic funding partners, distributes more than $6.5 million annually to organizations and leaders working to address systemic issues in Chicago's most divested communities. The foundation's mission is focused on centering racial equity to achieve community empowerment through Art, Justice, Media and Storytelling and Leadership Investment. For more information, visit www.fieldfoundation.org.