We envision that...
beginning from birth, all children have quality care and education that prepare them to succeed in school and to participate in the workforce as adults.

Through its Communityworks initiative, The DuPage Community Foundation (DCF) is bringing local leaders, not-for-profit experts, donors and residents together to shape our community's future, effect positive change and build an endowment fund to address local needs in the areas of Early Childhood Care and Education and Workforce Development.

The attainment of these goals is possible but will require a commitment from our entire community to proactively address some of the key challenges that we are currently facing.

That's why the Foundation has collaborated with local community leaders, government and not-for-profit experts, funders and residents to launch our Communityworks Initiative.

Background
The Foundation began its Communityworks efforts in 2003 intent on using its convening and grant-making resources to help preserve and enhance DuPage County's quality of life.  Initially, the Foundation hosted public forms in the areas of Land Use and Protection, Early Childhood Care and Education, and Workforce Development to discuss concerns, barriers and opportunities relative to each of these issues.

To supplement information gathered at the forums, professionals and field experts came together to form Communityworks advisory committees.  These small groups participated in a series of separate, topic-specific meetings to discuss teh County's pressing needs.  Those discussions further unearthed obstacles in the way of progress, strategies under way to address these problems, and potential partnerships for the Foundation to explore as a means of affecting community change.

These community conversations confirmed that:

• DuPage County is a great place to live, to learn and to work.
• Excellence in child care, land use decisions, and workforce development are critical to assuring a bright future for DuPage.
• The issues of child care, land use, and workforce development are intertwined and interdependent.  All families who choose care for their children deserve the best quality care possible so that they can be creative and productive at their places of business.  All works need housing and transportation choices so that they can get to work quickly.  Land use decisions shape our community composition and character; they determine where we live, learn, play and work, as well as how easy it is for us to get to our homes, jobs and recreation.

As one of the state's wealthiest counties, opportunity certainly exists in DuPage County.  The County boasts a wide range of solid, highly regarded employers, abundant opportunities for enrichment in nature and the arts, state-of-the-art healthcare facilities, five nationally recognized colleges, and award-winning public and private school systems.  Yet, there are many challenges that impact daily life:  increasing poverty among a portion of the population, a lack of affordable housing stock for families at all income levels, lack of affordable and quality early childcare and education, service sector jobs that don't pay a living wage, and growing suburban sprawl and traffic congestion.

With community input, The DuPage Community Foundation has chosen to focus specifically on early childhood care and education quality and capacity building and workforce development.

At the same time the Foundation was meeting with advisory groups to identify the foci of our Communityworks initiative, we were working with donors to raise fund to grow our Communityworks endowment for future grant-making.  With the generous outright and matching grants received from Grand Victoria Foundation over the past seven years and the gifts from Communityworks donors interested in our efforts, the Foundation has raised nearly $1.8 million for our Communitworks endowment.  The income from this endowment will enable us to fund grants that will ultimately effect positive change in our community.

Communityworks Quick Links

• Strengthening Illinois Communities through Communityworks
• Early Childhood Care and Education
• Workforce Development