We launched the Chicago Prize in 2019, inviting community leaders to share their plans for catalytic change. Under the leadership of Carlos Nelson, Erika Allen and Jason Feldman, the first recipient — the Always Growing Auburn Gresham initiative — has made its vision a reality:

• Opening the Healthy Lifestyle Hub, which houses medical facilities, a mentoring program, a college satellite office, a digital media center, a community room and a teaching kitchen. In its first year, the hub served nearly 20,000 people and created nearly 150 jobs.

• The expansion of the Green Era Campus on W. 83rd Street to include an anaerobic digester, which turns food waste into enough compost to create a new garden daily.

Four other projects received an additional $500,000 in matching grants to advance their plans.

In 2022, we awarded the second Chicago Prize to the Sankofa Wellness Village in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. That project — which will include a health clinic, fitness center and after-school care facilities — celebrated its groundbreaking in fall 2024 and will be under construction for a year.

The Chicago Prize is part of Pritzker Traubert Foundation’s $100 million 10-year commitment made in 2017 to increase access to economic opportunity for more Chicagoans.