On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by then Police Officer Derek Chauvin. America will never forget that day nor its aftermath as hundreds of thousands marched throughout the nation and throughout the world, protesting the injustices of racism and proclaiming, “Black Lives Matter.” 

There is an iconic image that marks that era. No, it’s not Officer Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd’s neck. It is his then six-year-old daughter, Gianna Floyd, coming out of the store, sitting on the shoulders of George Floyd’s friend, ex-NBA player, Stephen Jackson, and facing a half-dozen members of the news media with their cameras and recorders. On that day, the six-year-old proudly and loudly declared, “My daddy’s going to change the world!”

They say, “Out of the mouths of babes come gems.” Out of the mouth of Floyd’s baby girl came a prediction that would prove to be true as many states within the USA tried to figure out what would be the appropriate response to that blatant act of racism. 

In Illinois, Governor J. B. Pritzker’s administration decided to allocate state dollars for healing of the racial disparities exemplified by the George Floyd murder and highlighted by the Covid 19 Pandemic.  “We are dealing with two pandemics COVID-19 and systemic racism. Healing Illinois will advance the conversation and shine a light on the process of collective healing, said Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton in announcing the initiative. “What we know is hurt people hurt people, and healed people heal people. In Illinois, we are leading the way, moving with all deliberate speed in the direction of justice, equity, and opportunity for all.”

As part of the State’s commitment, $4.5 million was allocated “to provide grants to community-based organizations of all sizes to help create community-centric, inclusive spaces to talk, learn and grow.” The Chicago Community Trust was the intermediary that year, working with the state to distribute funding throughout the state of Illinois. 

Maritza Bandera , as program manager at the Chicago Community Trust, traveled throughout the state of Illinois to make sure the funds were distributed equitably. The program relaunched in 2023, allocating $5 million to the Field Foundation to distribute throughout Illinois, and Maritza Bandera brought her experience and knowledge of administering the funds to the Field Foundation, working closely with Dan Ash, the Field Foundation President, and Board Member. Maritza, who by the way is a member of the original design team responsible for creating, planning, and implementing On the Table, an award-winning engagement model designed to partner with and inspire residents, spoke to the South Side Drive about the current Healing Illinois initiative. She told us that the Field Foundation distributed grant funding to about 184 grant recipients, making sure it was distributed equitably throughout five regions in Illinois. Chicago is part of Region One, the Cook County area.

Organizations were invited to apply for grants from $1,000 to a maximum of

$30,000, with expanded funding for organizations engaged in collaborative

efforts.

The goal of the grants is to provide sustainability to organizations that were already doing racial healing work, and also to provide capacity building to organizations that have not been doing the work but have a compelling project idea and will use the grant to put together the team and resources to do a meaningful work.

Organizations had to produce an idea that aligned with the funding priorities, the first of which was racial healing sustainability. This includes racial healing circles, peace circles and any restorative justice activities.

Another focus that was just added this year is narrative change. Maritza explains, “We wanted to make sure that vocal journalism entities and others that would fall into that narrative change space, the story-telling space, would see themselves in the work.” For this part of the initiative, some local journalism outlets applied as a collective.