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The Ford Foundation supports visionary leaders and organizations on the frontlines of social change worldwide. We believe all people should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, contribute to society, and have voice in the decisions that affect them. We believe the best way to achieve these goals is to encourage initiatives by those living and working closest to where problems are located; to promote collaboration among the nonprofit, government and business sectors; and to ensure participation by men and women from diverse communities and all levels of society. In our experience, such activities help build common understanding, enhance excellence, enable people to improve their lives and reinforce their commitment to society. We work mainly by making grants or loans that build knowledge and strengthen organizations and networks. Since our financial resources are modest compared with societal needs, we focus on key problem areas and program strategies. Created with gifts and bequests by Edsel and Henry Ford, the foundation is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, with its own board, and is entirely separate from the Ford Motor Company. The trustees of the foundation set policy and delegate authority to the president and senior staff for the foundation’s grant making and operations. Program officers in the United States, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America explore opportunities to pursue the foundation’s goals, formulate strategies and recommend proposals for funding.
Thresholds is fighting to transform the lives of people struggling with mental illness. We break cycles of poverty and unemployment. We are path breaking in our innovative research and advocacy. We also make opportunities. Opportunities for housing, employment, and recovery. Opportunities for families to reconnect. Above all we make hope possible. Established in 1959, Thresholds provides healthcare, housing, and hope for thousands of persons with mental illness in Illinois each year. Through research, employment, advocacy, care, and housing, Thresholds assists and inspires people with mental illness to reclaim their lives. Thresholds is the oldest and largest provider of recovery services for persons with mental illnesses in Illinois. We reject the notion that anyone is a “lost cause,” utilizing evidence-based practices and a wide range of supports to treat the whole person, rather than just the disease. We offer 25 innovative programs at more than 70 locations throughout Chicago, the adjacent suburbs, and McHenry and Kankakee Counties. Services include assertive outreach, case management, housing, employment, education, psychiatry, primary care, substance abuse treatment, and pioneering research at the Thresholds-Dartmouth Research and Evaluation Center. Last year, Thresholds served 6,100 adults and youth, with 75% of services delivered out in the community, representing more than 400,000 hours of care.
The HELP Foundation (HELP) has been a leading provider of residential services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) since 1965. Beginning with a few dedicated families and one childrens` home HELP has grown to care for more than 500 individuals each year in 26 locations. Our mission is to ensure that people with IDD have the homes, environments and opportunities to be valued members of their communities. In serving this mission HELP provides residential support services in Cuyahoga, Lake, and Summit counties as well as our HELP Summer Program for children with developmental, behavioral and medical disabilities, and the HELP Adult Day Support Program. All of our programs are dedicated to providing the best quality services to our clients, based on their needs and desires so that they might live the best life they choose.
MDA is leading the fight to free individuals — and the families who love them — from the harm of muscular dystrophy, ALS and related muscle-debilitating diseases that take away physical strength, independence and life. We use our collective strength to help kids and adults live longer and grow stronger by finding research breakthroughs across diseases, caring for individuals from day one and empowering families with services and support in hometowns across America.
Share Our Strength began in the basement of a row house on Capitol Hill in 1984, in response to the `84-`85 famine in Ethiopia. Brother and sister Bill and Debbie Shore started the organization with the belief that everyone has a strength to share in the global fight against hunger and poverty, and that in these shared strengths lie sustainable solutions. Today we focus these strengths on making No Kid Hungry a reality in America.