Places To Turn, People Who Help

The Eleanor Foundation is committed to helping single working women with limited incomes, by making grants to organizations with programs that help these women.

Numerous direct-service organizations in Chicago also make it their mission to help women in need. Depending on your situation, you could find help is as easy as one phone call away. Please see the list below for a brief description of organizations and programs:

Housing Assistance
Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation is a non profit developer and manager of affordable housing in the Humboldt Park, Logan Square and West Town neighborhoods on the city’s near northwest side.

Housing Opportunities for Women offers transitional and permanent housing and support services to women with children, primarily in Chicago’s Edgewater and Rogers Park communities.

Acorn Housing provides direct assistance and pre- and post-home ownership training to working women seeking to own their own homes, principally in the Englewood and West Englewood communities.

Heartland Human Care Services, a part of the Heartland Alliance, seeks to advance human rights and respond to human needs of endangered populations—especially the poor, the isolated, and the displaced.

Financial Assistance and Credit Cleanup
Association House of Chicago recently opened a “Center for Working Families” on the near northwest side, offering career and financial advice and services, and tax preparation.

Heartland Human Care Services seeks to provide financial skills training and short-term financial assistance to needy women, a program funded in part by a grant from The Eleanor Foundation.

Skills and/or Job Training
The Cara Program helps motivated homeless and impoverished individuals to transform their lives through a 12-week "Transitions" program focused on building life and jobs skills, followed by placement in a permanent job with one of CARA's employer partners at an average starting salary of $10.02/hour. That, in turn is followed with an additional year of intensive follow up and social services.

The Enterprising Kitchen is a 10 year-old social enterprise that serves its mission by running a business that makes and sells upscale soap and other spa products. This business offers transitional employment as a means to provide women the job and life skills training with which to pursue self-sufficiency.

Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) provides women and girls the training and other help they need in order to access better-paying jobs in the construction trades.

Legal & Tax Assistance
Community Economic Development Law Project is a nonprofit legal organization that provides transaction-related (as opposed to advocacy or litigation-related) legal services. It works mostly with first-time homebuyers, nonprofit housing developers and small business owners.

Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing promotes the availability of and access to safe, decent, and affordable housing on a non-discriminatory basis in metropolitan Chicago, through legal representation, individual and public advocacy, support services, education, and innovative programming.

General Assistance
Goodcity supports emerging neighborhood and faith-based programs which support self-sufficiency, hope, and a sense of purpose in the lives of individuals and in communities that lack resources. Goodcity seeks to establish and support self-sustaining programs that help people to address local needs.

We'd love to get your feedback on your efforts to reach out to any of the above organizations, whether the experience was positive or not. Please write us at info@eleanorfoundation.org