Bank of America Honors Growing Home for its Impact in Chicago’s Underserved Communities

Bank of America honored its latest Chicago Neighborhood Builders award recipients, Growing Home and St. Leonard's Ministries, at a community celebration event March 13 that brought together nonprofit leaders from across the city.

Bank of America selected Growing Home, an Englewood-focused nonprofit with offices in Lincoln Park, for the award because of its use of urban farms as a vehicle for job training, employment and community development in the most underserved neighborhoods in Chicago.

Through the national Bank of America Neighborhood Builders program, which is celebrating its 10th year, Growing Home receives a $200,000 unrestricted grant, as well as valuable leadership training for its executive director, Harry Rhodes, and an emerging leader selected by the organization. Growing Home has selected Associate Director Rebekah Silverman as its emerging leader.

“We recognize the important role Growing Home and St. Leonard’s Ministries play in serving our most vulnerable residents and ensuring better lives for so many in our community,” said Tim Maloney, Illinois President, Bank of America. “The leadership training and program funding will not only deepen their impact today, but sustain their mission and services over time.”

Growing Home’s primary activity is a 14-week job training/intern program for individuals with barriers to employment. The program is rooted in fieldwork on Growing Home’s four high-production, USDA-certified organic farms and is supplemented with soft-skills and specific vocational training in a classroom. More than 95% of the program’s graduates stay out of prison and more than 80% find employment.

Growing Home’s farms are the only USDA-certified organic production farms in Chicago, and Growing Home is the only source of local certified organic foods in the Englewood neighborhood. The Neighborhood Builder grant will assist Growing Home with their efforts to double the size of their program and expand their organic agriculture growing operations over the next three years.

For more on Growing Home: http://growinghomeinc.org/

For more on Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders program: http://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/global-impact/neighborhood-builders.html