PODCAST · business
Trust Talks
by The Chicago Community Trust
Chicago’s biggest challenges play out block by block, in homes, neighborhoods, and everyday lives. Trust Talks, brought to you by The Chicago Community Trust, takes listeners inside conversations with experts and changemakers working to build a thriving, more equitable region. From breaking down barriers to homeownership and advancing solutions to homelessness to strengthening college transfer pathways and sustaining our cultural ecosystem, each episode explores the choices, stories and strategies shaping lasting opportunity.
Episodes
-
Trust Talks Episode #27: Fueling Small Business Growth in Chicago
Small businesses are essential to stabilizing neighborhood economies. They create jobs, activate commercial corridors, and provide the goods and services that help communities thrive. Yet across the Chicago area — particularly in historically underinvested South and West Side neighborhoods — many...
-
Episode #26: Building Opportunity, Block by Block
From 2021 to 2025, We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery (We Rise Together), a funder collaborative led by The Chicago Community Trust, invested $47 million in brick-and-mortar development, small business support, and workforce programs in underinvested communities, which are...
-
Episode #25: Transforming College Transfer Pathways in Illinois
In Illinois, nearly 80 percent of community college students say they plan to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree, yet only about 35 percent actually transfer, and just 20 percent complete a four-year degree. Students from underinvested neighborhoods and low-income backgrounds are even less...
-
Episode #24: Sustaining Chicago's Cultural Ecosystem
Chicago is one of the most influential cultural cities in the United States, known for its distinctive blend of architecture, visual arts, music, theater, and deeply rooted neighborhood culture. Widely recognized as the birthplace of modern architecture, it is also home to one of the nation’s...
-
Episode #23: Understanding the Impact of Public Benefits
When most people picture hunger in America, they think of food pantries. Yet for every meal a pantry provides, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – SNAP – quietly supplies nine more. Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger initiative, helping more...
-
Episode #22: Reimagining Development Through Shared Ownership
As Chicago neighborhoods continue to expand with newly built businesses and homes, new opportunities emerge for residents to shape their communities. Yet, traditional development often leaves residents with little to no say on – or stake in - what gets built in their neighborhoods. Shared…
more -
Episode #21: Navigating Solutions to Homelessness
Over the past decade, homelessness in the Chicago area has been on the rise, and the latest numbers are especially troubling. According to the City of Chicago’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count, the number of longtime Chicago residents without stable housing jumped by 38 percent in just one year. In...
-
Episode #20: Advocating for Policy Reform
Although nonprofit organizations play a vital role in recognizing and addressing the needs of the community, research shows the percentage of nonprofits involved in advocacy or lobbying has dropped considerably over the past two decades. However, nonprofits working together on an issue are more...
-
Episode #19: Confronting Homeownership Barriers
While homeownership is often viewed as a pathway to building wealth, a range of challenges can hinder its effectiveness, particularly for specific groups. These include financial burdens such as rising property taxes and ongoing maintenance costs, neighborhood-based appraisal disparities, and the...
-
Episode #18: Supporting Our Immigrant Communities
The truth about immigration in the United States is that unless you are Native American, we all came from somewhere else. Yet, in 2025, the country finds itself roiled in trying to determine who we are as a country when it comes to welcoming immigrants to our shores and across our borders. The...
-
Episode #17: Leveraging the Power of Data
The Chicago Community Trust’s strategic focus on addressing the racial and ethnic wealth gap was informed by data on the stark differences in health, education and wealth, how those differences were impacting our region, and – most importantly – where we, as a community foundation, were best...
-
Episode #16: Working Collaboratively to Address Community Safety in Chicago
Community safety is an issue that affects all Chicagoans, but especially Black and Latine communities. According to a 2023 report, more than half of Black and Latine residents have witnessed a shooting by age 40. Further, violence not only impacts the health and safety of residents, but it also…
more -
Episode #15: We Rise Together: For an Equitable and Just Recovery
Launched in 2020 in response to the economic instability caused by COVID-19, We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery is a Trust-led funder collaborative working with communities to respond to the urgent economic needs of long-disinvested Black and Latine neighborhoods. Through grants…
more -
Episode #14: Building a Robust Local Media Landscape
Across the nation, local news outlets have been folding at an alarming rate. In response, philanthropy has stepped up funding efforts to address this decline as America becomes increasingly polarized and trust in institutions plummets. Against this backdrop, Chicago has been experiencing a media...
-
Episode #13: Planning for Equitable Neighborhood Development
Thriving neighborhoods where residents have access to essential services, amenities, and jobs are vital to creating an equitable and prosperous Chicago region. As part of the Trust’s efforts to address disinvestment, we are supporting opportunities that lead to resident-driven neighborhood...
-
Episode #12: Closing the Homeownership Gap
Homeownership is one of the most important vehicles for building generational wealth and helping families achieve economic stability; however, Black and Latinx families often face barriers to accessing and maintaining homeownership. Since The Chicago Community Trust launched its strategic focus…
more -
Episode #11: Accessing Federal Funds for an Equitable Recovery
The federal government has allocated trillions in federal funds toward relief and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Plan Act’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund alone has made about $19 billion dollars available to the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of...
-
Episode #10: Creating a Lasting Legacy for the Chicago Region
For more than a century, individuals and families have partnered with The Chicago Community Trust to transform gifts—from wills, trusts, and other vehicles—into lasting impact for our region. Through unrestricted gifts to our endowment, donors ensure that the Trust has the flexibility to respond…
more -
Episode #9: Civic Engagement Through a Racial Equity Lens
There is a long-held notion civic engagement is declining in the Chicago region. The 2010 Chicago Civic Health Index report even stated “Chicagoland’s civic health is on life support.” However, research measuring civic health tends to be rooted in a framework that focuses on voting and giving…
more -
Episode #8: Building Neighborhood Wealth with Community Investment Vehicles
The Trust’s Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment strategy is focused on closing the region’s racial and ethnic wealth gap at the neighborhood level by fostering an environment that leads to more inclusive development in historically disinvested Black and Latinx communities. Last year—in partnership...
-
Episode #7: Solving Our Workforce Challenge
The Trust’s Growing Household Wealth Income Strategy supports closing the racial wealth gap in Chicago through a commitment to innovations in workforce development, inclusive business practices, and education. Along with reducing the debt burden of students and households in educational…
more -
Episode #6: Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy
The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered the disparities created by segregation and systemic racism. We are witnessing a taxed public health infrastructure that has been woefully underinvested in over generations. Currently, 75 percent of Chicagoans are fully vaccinated. However, the disaggregated…
more -
Episode #5: Making Philanthropy Your Own
The Trust’s Philanthropic Services team works with many types of donors, including individuals with Donor Advised Funds, family foundations, corporations, and those interested in giving to specific causes. The Trust advises donors on every aspect of their giving strategy. Its philanthropic…
more -
Episode #4: Media Makers
The “Voice” strand of The Chicago Community Trust's Building Collective Power strategy supports community-centered media platforms that allow the authentic narratives of communities to emerge and be amplified not just in neighborhoods but across the city. Those community-centered platforms…
more -
Episode #3: Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment
In this episode of Trust Talks, Michael Davidson, senior director of community impact who’s leading the Trust’s Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment team, sits down with Lennox Jackson, founder and CEO of Urban Equities Inc, Ja’Net DeFell, program manager of Community Desk Chicago; and Juan Saldana...
-
Episode #2: Fund for Equitable Business Growth
In this episode of Trust Talks, guests Constance Simms-Kincaid, owner and operator of 5 Loaves Eatery, Eya Louis, contract development coordinator at Elevate Energy, and Mambu Sherman, vice president of global philanthropy at JP-Morgan Chase, sit down with the Trust’s Shandra Richardson, a…
more -
Episode #1: Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities
In the first episode of Trust Talks, Charlotte Spaeth sits down with Anna LauBach, program director at the McCormick Foundation, Deborah Bennett, senior program officer at Polk Bros Foundation, and Anna Lee, director of community impact at The Chicago Community Trust for a discussion on the role...
-
Trust Talks: The Trailer
Helene Gayle, President and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, is excited to announce the launch of Trust Talks.
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Chicago’s biggest challenges play out block by block, in homes, neighborhoods, and everyday lives. Trust Talks, brought to you by The Chicago Community Trust, takes listeners inside conversations with experts and changemakers working to build a thriving, more equitable region. From breaking down barriers to homeownership and advancing solutions to homelessness to strengthening college transfer pathways and sustaining our cultural ecosystem, each episode explores the choices, stories and strategies shaping lasting opportunity.
HOSTED BY
The Chicago Community Trust
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Trust Talks have?
Trust Talks currently has 28 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Trust Talks about?
Chicago’s biggest challenges play out block by block, in homes, neighborhoods, and everyday lives. Trust Talks, brought to you by The Chicago Community Trust, takes listeners inside conversations with experts and changemakers working to build a thriving, more equitable region. From breaking down...
How often does Trust Talks release new episodes?
Trust Talks has 28 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Trust Talks?
You can listen to Trust Talks on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Trust Talks?
Trust Talks is created and hosted by The Chicago Community Trust.
URL copied to clipboard!