Eleanor Foundation Awards $1.5 Million to Women-Focused Programs

Self-Sufficiency Initiative Targets Low-Income Working Women Through Local Non-Profits

(5 Apr 2007)–The Chicago-based Eleanor Foundation today announced grants totaling $1.5 million to programs that focus on developing self-sufficiency in low-income working women.

The grants are the first in a three-year set of awards in the Chicago-based organization's "Self-Sufficiency Initiative," said Rosanna Márquez, President of the Eleanor Foundation, in making the announcement at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Low-income working women comprise a powerful and growing market here and around the country, yet are often overlooked. As a result of the Eleanor Foundation's Self-Sufficiency Initiative, this population will benefit from innovative programs that invest in their enormous potential and target the barriers such women often face in achieving long-term economic self-sufficiency and success.

Two large and three smaller grants went to Chicago-area nonprofits. One large grant, to the Heartland Alliance/Heartland Human Care Services, funds a new program providing financial literacy, housing, employment, and computer skills training to women through their employers. A second large award, to the CARA Program and Enterprising Kitchen, supports an innovative shared effort to provide offers counseling and career advancement services to low-income women, along with access to housing, credit cleanup, and childcare assistance.

Smaller grants went to Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, the Lawyer's Committee for Better Housing, and the Community Economic Development Law Project.

Need for new model
While many strategies for revitalizing low-income communities have emerged in the decade since sweeping national welfare and public housing reform legislation passed in the mid 1990's, this program fills a gap by understanding that low-income working women are an asset to their communities—and can be an even bigger asset if they are able to access resources that address the core barriers that threaten economic security, like a layoff or child's illness.

The Eleanor Foundation program creates an innovative model for investing in this market, a model that is based on opportunity, not dependency.

Cheryl Heads, a Grants Manager and Executive Assistant at a local foundation, worked for the Eleanor Foundation in 2006 and the early part of 2007. "I realized while working at the Foundation that if I can take care of some basic factors - financial literacy, housing, being a caregiver, credit - then I can work full-time, excel at a career and take care of my family. It's not an ‘either/or' choice. The Eleanor Foundation put a light on low-income, working women, and I thought: How can I apply this to my life?"

Thursday's event at The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, The Competitive Advantage of Investing in Working Women, brought together more than 200 business and community leaders, foundations, government officials, policymakers, grantees, academics, and other key stakeholders for a progress report on the underserved market of working women seeking financial independence. The progress report demonstrated the critical role these women play in building healthy communities.

"Our aim is to build comprehensive services and resources that can offer these women what they need, and through a single point of access," said Rosanna A. Márquez, President of the Eleanor Foundation.

Márquez added that the women who will benefit from this initiative have a distinctive set of needs. "When you are trying to be a single parent and primary breadwinner, you face a whole range of issues related to your children as well as the workplace," she said. "These women are deeply invested in their communities, and it makes great sense to invest our resources in them."

Numbers demonstrate major gap
The numbers show that this population is rising. Research conducted in 2005 by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and commissioned by the Eleanor Foundation shows that there are 420,000 female-headed households in Chicago. Based on their income, more than 131,000 of these women—and 153,000 children—are in the Eleanor Foundation's target group.

Reaching a group this large may seem like an obvious strategy for economic development, but in reality, these women have not benefited from what many take for granted. In fact, this population has largely been ignored—until now. Over 80% of working women in the Eleanor Foundation's target population do not access any assistance or resources, public or private.

Fresh brand of grantmaking
Integrated Services
While the Eleanor Foundation has defined and is targeting a vastly underserved market through this Initiative, it has also redefined how it is making grants. Founded in Chicago in 1898, the Foundation has long supported working women of modest means in Chicago as they strive to achieve economic independence. Now, the Foundation's research-oriented and market-driven approach has offered a comprehensive snapshot of its target population that led it to create an "integrated" service approach.

The Foundation has developed a program model through which these women can benefit from resources in four key areas tied to a single point of access. The four areas are: stable employment offering a living wage; safe, affordable and decent permanent housing; reliable childcare, and access to affordable credit.

The idea of creating a single point of access for resources—a hub—is essential because services in low-income communities are often fragmented. For low-income working women who juggle family and work, being able to access key services in one place will cut down on time spent having to navigate through a myriad of resources in their community.

Market-Driven Program
In one key respect, this Initiative will work much like many business models work, by developing a set of products based on market research. The products, in this case, will be programs and services for women to use to advance their economic position.

"When we look at the market served by the Eleanor Foundation, we see great potential," said Stephen V. King, Chair of the Eleanor Foundation and Founding Principal of Prairie Capital in Chicago. "As is true for any sound investment, let's understand what this market needs, track its performance, and encourage it to flourish."

Evaluation a Key
Another important aspect of the "Self-Sufficiency Initiative" is how it tracks the progress of grantees in employment, housing, money management, childcare, and education using a performance model.

Engaged Grantmaker
The Foundation's idea is also tied to working closely with grantee partners to solve problems in conjunction with developing strong collaborations between the private and non-profit sectors to support this model.

Grantees

Two grantees of the new Initiative will create their own version of the hub model by providing multiple resources at a single point of access:

• Heartland Alliance/Heartland Human Care Services "Future Visions": This program will offer a range of services to women through employers —thereby making it convenient for them to access services. Heartland will conduct monthly workshops at employer worksites that will cover financial literacy, housing, employment and computer skills, as well as longer-term consultation on key issues and linkages to resources.
• The CARA Program & The Enterprising Kitchen: 107 women who are employed graduates of their programs will receive an additional two years of continued counseling and services with an emphasis on career advancement, along with linked access to housing, credit cleanup, and childcare. CARA provides linkages to permanent employment opportunities. Employers that have established partnerships with CARA include Pitney Bowes, Resurrection Health Care, Aramark, the University of Chicago Hospitals, and JP Morgan Chase.

For Heartland, the grant will support dynamic efforts to assist people who are striving to overcome poverty, said Joe Antolin, Vice President and Executive Director for Heartland Human Care Services, Inc (HHCS).

One Employer's "Call to Action"
One Board member of HHCS has seen the value of financial education efforts at his company.

"We found that a number of employees were cashing their checks at currency exchanges," said David Arch, Chairman and CEO of Oak Brook-based Blistex, which manufactures and distributes a full line of quality lip care products. "We all know that buying or paying for a home, paying for child care and raising kids, and building assets can all put people in bind. We started a program that provided incentives to open a savings account."

The program has not only been successful, it is now one leg of what Arch called a "three-legged stool" of financial education programs at the company. The other legs, he said, are programs that provide information about general financial education topics and taxes to employees. "Our attitude about these programs is that employees are responsible for their asset-building, savings and investments," Arch said. "But we can provide tools."

What Blistex has found is that financial education can play a role in improving job satisfaction and lower stress. The end result, of course, is a situation that benefits employees and the company. Arch said that many employees in today's world face a range of challenges and can benefit from common-sense tools like financial education options. He said it is time for a "Call to Action" to address the challenges working people face in this country.

Antolin added that in today's economy, workers can be hit with housing costs that have gone up at a faster rate than wages. "There's a disconnect these days - many people who are working full-time still wind up being at risk financially. This can be especially true for women in the Eleanor Foundation's market. The Foundation's "Self Sufficiency Initiative" can really assist people who need to create economic security for themselves and their families."

Three smaller grants also support the Foundation's aim of promoting the self-sufficiency of low-income women in innovative ways:

• Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation and Association House: A grant that supports planning and outreach will bolster the efforts of these organizations to understand the specific needs of the women they serve - and develop a plan based on that information. One goal will be to serve Bickerdike tenants as they work to increase their income, education, and employment levels.
• Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing: Through its Homesharing Program - launched with an Eleanor Foundation grant in 2003 - this organization will continue to partner with other Foundation grantees to offer homesharing opportunities and track the move of participants in the program to stable housing.
• Community Economic Development Law Project: This organization's "Choose-to-Own" program allows Housing Choice Voucher (formerly Section 8) holders to convert their vouchers into a mortgage payment stream and become first-time homebuyers.

Moving Forward
For Cheryl Heads, the last year has taught her important lessons about self-sufficiency. At the Eleanor Foundation, she worked part-time as a receptionist and administrative assistant, learned about the women served by its programs, and says she was encouraged by the Foundation to develop and pursue her own career goals.

She has a degree in business administration from Roosevelt University along with extensive experience in office management. While working for the Eleanor Foundation, she decided to pursue a job with a foundation, and now says she "loves" her new job.

"My experience with the Eleanor Foundation confirmed my passion for assisting underserved communities, like the one where I grew up on the south side," Heads said. "I read a packet of information about the Foundation and realized, ‘hey, these women sound like me. Like them, I had limited resources and a lot of external pressures."

Heads, who lives in Hyde Park, is the caregiver and legal guardian for her brother, who is disabled. "I still have pressures in my life, but now it's just a matter of managing them," she said. "I can make this work."

Next steps
While the Eleanor Foundation has launched the "Self-Sufficiency Initiative," it is also planning to support more efforts to reach the market of low-income working women. Today, the Foundation announces solicitation for proposals for the next grant round.

The Foundation is also commissioning consumer-based market research to determine how best to reach this underserved population of women and connect them to resources that will assist them in securing financial independence. This work will be released later this year for use by the Foundation and others.

Thursday's event featured a presentation by Julia Stasch, Vice President of the Program on Human & Community Development at The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation followed by a panel discussion of grantees and other foundation leaders.

For further information, contact:
Vicky Nurre
Director, Development & Communications
312.337.7913
vnurre@eleanorfoundation.org