ComEd has selected three nonprofit organizations to administer nearly $1.4 million in clean energy focused grants through the company’s new Climate-Friendly Grant Assistance program. Community Investment Corporation (CIC), Equiticity and Proviso Leyden Council for Community Action (PLCCA), will each receive one-time grants of up to $450,000 for clean energy-focused assistance programs, with an emphasis on low-income customers in areas ComEd serves.
CIC: Working primarily on the West and South Sides of Chicago, CIC is one of the region’s leading lenders of privately-owned, naturally occurring affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization, CIC looks to build vibrant communities, strengthen local businesses, and provide well maintained homes for families. With its grant, CIC plans to work with local owner-operators of multi-family buildings in Chicago’s South and West sides to provide education, increase capacity and support climate resiliency measures; all of which will improve housing units for low- and moderate-income tenants living in these buildings.
Equiticity: Based in Chicago and operating in North Lawndale and on Chicago’s West Side, this racial equity movement works to operationalize racial equity by harnessing its collective power – through research, advocacy, programs, Community Mobility Rituals and social enterprises – to improve the lives of Black, Brown and Indigenous people across the U.S. With its grant, Equiticity will create a Mobility Opportunities Fund, which will provide stipends that help limited-income Black and Brown residents of North Lawndale, on Chicago’s West Side, purchase climate-friendly transportation, including conventional bicycles, e-bikes, e-cargo bikes and electric vehicles.
Proviso Leyden Council: Based in Maywood, IL and established in 1968 to administer workforce development programs to low-income residents, PLCCA will use its grant to support five nonprofits in hiring and training northern Illinois residents who will become educated and certified in the solar installation process and serve as ambassadors to inform communities about the benefits of solar.
