(left) Hesed House food drive, courtesy Hesed House; (right) Wayside Cross Ministries staff test new thermal thermometers, courtesy Wayside Cross Ministries.
Aurora, IL, July 1, 2020 – At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, five funders in west suburban Chicago -- the
Aurora Women's Empowerment Foundation
(AWEF),
Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley
(CFFRV),
Dunham Fund
(DF),
Fox Valley United Way
(FVUW) and
INC Board
– joined forces to form the Fox Valley Grantmakers COVID-19 Response Fund.
Their mission?
To disperse immediate emergency rapid response grants to greater Fox Valley nonprofits that support basic human needs like food, shelter, safety, health and mental health, and were seeing an urgent surge in need due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their focus?
Delivering rapid, hyperlocal support for the basic needs of Fox Valley residents, many of whom are not receiving unemployment benefits, still working at low-wage jobs but at drastically reduced hours, had lost their jobs or were simply “falling through the cracks.”
The result?
Since March, the Fox Valley Grantmakers COVID-19 Response Fund has awarded $595,480 to 50 local nonprofits so they could obtain an array of critically needed resources like safety gear for workers, food, housing and basic necessities for individuals and families, and to increase technological capacity to meet the surging health needs of Fox Valley residents. The average grant amount was $11,909.
Following is the diverse list of 50 Fox Valley-based community organizations that received emergency funding via the Fox Valley Grantmakers COVID-19 Response Fund:
Administer Justice, Association for Individual Development, Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, Beautiful U Ministries, Bethesda Lutheran Communities, CASA Kane County, CASA Kendall County, Commitment2Community, Conley Outreach Community Services, Dominican Literacy Center, Aurora DuPage Senior Citizens Council, Elderday Center, Inc., Equine Dreams, Inc., Family Counseling Service of Aurora, Family Focus, Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, Fox Valley Hands of Hope, Fox Valley Older Adult Services, Gigi’s Playhouse Fox Valley, Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley, Hesed House, Hope for Tomorrow, Inc., Humanitarian Service Project, Jennings Terrace, Kendall County Community Benefits, Kendall County Community Food Pantry, Lazarus House, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry, Mutual Ground, Inc., NAMI Kane-south, DeKalb, and Kendall Counties, Inc., The Neighbor Project, Northern Illinois Food Bank, Quad County Urban League, Inc., RITAS Ministry, Rebuilding Together Aurora, Salvation Army Aurora Corps, Salvation Army Tri-City Corps, Samaritan Interfaith Counseling Center, Inc., Sanjeevani 4 U, Senior Services Associates, Inc., Serenity House Counseling Services, Inc., St. Vincent DePaul Society – St. Anne, Tri City Health Partnership, TriCity Family Services, Turning Pointe Autism Foundation, VNA Health Care, Wayside Cross Ministries and World Relief DuPage/Aurora.