2027 Round Up For Good Nominated Organizations

Mission: The Champaign-Urbana Reparations Coalition (CURC) works to educate and activate residents of Champaign County, IL, to support and implement reparations for African Americans. The short-term goal is to establish a Reparations Commission, with substantive support from Urbana, the Champaign County Board, Champaign and the University of Illinois. Longer term, the CURC will provide ongoing robust assistance to realize the Commission’s recommendations to redress harms and ensure equity for African Americans.

Project Proposal: There is an urgent and expansive need for education about reparations, both among residents and city officials. Our focus is Champaign County; there are rich experiences among impacted community members as well as historical evidence to explore and share. We will continue to provide printed materials, discussion forums, e-newsletters, and workshops to disseminate accurate and thorough information about the broad topic of reparations. We will use funds to print fliers, yard signs, and posters, placing them in barber shops, beauty salons, churches, restaurants, etc. We will table at the Farmer's Market and hold educational events with food and child care.  If we are successful with Roundup for Good, we will use the funds to pay for outreach materials and educational events focused on health equity and food security for African Americans. The ultimate goal of achieving reparations for African Americans in the health equity arena will address several health-related issues from an individual to societal perspective.

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Mission: The mission of the CLU-W Hygiene Pantry of Champaign County is to promote health, dignity, and well-being by providing free hygiene and basic household products to individuals and families in our community, without eligibility restrictions.

Project Proposal: If we rewarded the grant, it will help us be able to purchase new shelving, carts, and storage containers to better store and display the items in the pantry. We will also use the funds to make bulk purchases of the items that we run out of frequently (body wash, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, etc.). With the word spreading quickly, and the need growing, this grant will help us better meet the need and serve the people in the community who rely on us.

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Mission: The Courage Connection mission is to ensure everyone in our community has the education, support, and resources to live in safe, healthy relationships.

Project Proposal: We propose to use the Round Up For Good funding to help support two of our planned DV Outreach & Education events. The first, Courage on the Block (October 10, 2026), will engage 600+ attendees and provide approximately 400 free meals to community members while also connecting them to resources and support within our community. The event honors the courage and resilience of survivors while creating space for connection, joy, and hope. It also serves as a reminder of our collective responsibility to build a community where everyone can experience safe, healthy relationships.

The second event, the Queer Community Forum (November 14, 2026), will bring together 100+ participants to provide an opportunity for community members to learn about the unique dynamics and challenges of domestic violence within LGBTQ+ communities. The event will feature an educational presentation followed by a facilitated listening session, creating space for community members to share their experiences, identify unmet needs, and help inform future outreach, programming, and services. The forum will conclude with a celebration of LGBTQ+ diversity through a ballroom culture exhibition, honoring a tradition rooted in mutual aid that has long fostered political consciousness, community connection, self-expression, and safety for Black and Hispanic queer and transgender communities and others who have historically faced marginalization.

We feel this is an ideal opportunity to partner together to further both the Courage Connection mission as well as Common Ground's mission of creating an inclusive, vibrant community.

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Mission: To see children thrive and families flourish.

Project Proposal: Cunningham Children’s Home is dedicated to seeing every child thrive. For more than 130 years, Cunningham has provided compassionate, innovative services that help children, youth, and families overcome challenges and build brighter futures. Through a continuum of care that includes residential treatment, special education, behavioral health services, community-based programs, and family support, Cunningham serves nearly 1,000 children and families each year across east-central Illinois.

One of the ways Cunningham fulfills its mission is through CIRCLE Academy, a therapeutic day school designed for students whose emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs cannot be effectively addressed in a traditional educational setting. CIRCLE Academy provides individualized instruction, therapeutic support, and a structured learning environment that helps students achieve academic success while developing the skills needed to thrive in school, at home, and in their communities.

We are requesting funding to purchase a new whiteboard for a classroom at CIRCLE Academy in Urbana.

Whiteboards are an essential educational resource that supports interactive teaching, visual learning, collaboration, and student engagement. Teachers use them daily to present lessons, reinforce key concepts, model problem-solving strategies, and encourage active participation. Updated whiteboards will enhance classroom instruction and create more effective learning environments for students who often benefit from visual cues, repetition, and hands-on learning approaches.

Funding for this project directly supports Cunningham’s goal of providing high-quality educational experiences that help students build confidence, develop academic skills, and achieve positive outcomes. By equipping our classrooms with modern instructional tools, this investment will strengthen our ability to serve our students. Ultimately, these improvements will help our youth access the specialized support they need to learn, grow, and thrive.

Cost:

ViewSonic ViewBoard IFP75G1 – $1,867.24 currently – 75 inch touch interactive display
ViewSonic Slot in PC - $799.00 – Slot in PC that goes into the display and has Google Classroom built in.
ViewSonic wall mount –  $106.69 - Wall mount for the display.  

Total is $2,748.96 per unit

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Mission: The mission of the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen is to feed the hungry of our community regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. We welcome all volunteer who share an unconditional positive regard for every human being. We provide a safe, respectful and inviting environment in an atmosphere of hope and dignity.

Project Proposal:

Pre COVID pandemic,  we serve approximately 200 hot, nutritious meals daily, accompanied by a sack lunch. To continue our mission during the COVID pandemic, we began carry out services. 

Our number of guests grew, and we were serving more home bound people by providing meals to-go. Since we reopened our doors, and the main dining area, we decided to also continue the carry our meals. Currently, we are providing 400 hot meals with a sack lunch to-go daily. For many of our guests, the meal and sack lunch provided by Daily Bread is their only source of nourishment. 

Our guests represent the most in need in the Champaign _ Urbana area.  Many are the "working poor" have jobs but not self sufficiency. We noted an increase in the homeless, who live on the streets of our communities. Also, the transient, those who have  housing but then face eviction because of unpaid rent or utilities bills. All of our guests have no or low income, and therefore, have difficult feeding themselves or their families. 

With funds we receive from Common Ground, we will purchase protein for our sack lunches. The cost of lunch meat and/or cheese  continues to increase. Any funding we receive will be used for this purpose. The sack lunch provides an evening meal for many of our guests. Thank you for considering Daily Bread Soup Kitchen.

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Mission: Developmental Services Center (DSC) supports people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in living rich and meaningful lives. DSC’s vision statement states we strive to assure that every person we support lives a full life in the community.

Project Proposal: DSC's Community Connections & Adventures Fund will help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience the best of our area. Round Up For Good funding will provide admission fees, activity costs, transportation, and supplies for community experiences including local festivals, concerts, museum visits, art classes, fitness programs, sporting events, farmers markets, and seasonal celebrations. These experiences reduce social isolation, build friendships, increase independence, and create meaningful opportunities for belonging while helping participants strengthen connections within the community.

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Mission: To enable young people, especially those that need us most, to be healthy, responsible, caring, and productive individuals.

Project Proposal: The Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club (DMBGC) provides a safe, positive, and enriching environment for local youth, offering robust recreation opportunities, meaningful academic enrichment, and peer mediation programming alongside a strong emphasis on career readiness. The Round Up For Good Grant would support tangible materials and equipment for our After School Positive Youth Development Engagement program, the comprehensive strategy that drives academic support, positive youth development, and violence prevention across our two sites, the Club at Park Street and the Martens Center.

Our programming serves youth ages 6-18, primarily from low- to moderate-income families, with services provided after school from 3:00 PM to 7:30 PM. We currently serve over 200 registered members across both sites through this program, and this grant would directly strengthen the tools available to them.

Specifically, funds would purchase tutoring supplies, homework-help materials, and academic resources used across our core programs. This includes materials for Power Hour, which uses recognition and incentives to help members become self-directed learners through homework help, tutoring, and academic strategies; resources for Project Learn, which partners with parents and school professionals on high-yield reading and writing activities that reinforce school engagement; and leveled books and tutoring materials for Reading Partners, our twice-weekly, one-on-one intervention for 2nd- through 5th-graders reading below grade level. These are the programs most directly responsible for the substantial improvements in scholastic performance we've seen among our members, and up-to-date materials are essential to sustaining that impact.

The grant would also support supplies for our Social Emotional Learning and peer mediation activities. These are the character-building initiatives that help us cultivate a safe, violence-free atmosphere. Peer mediation gives youth a constructive way to practice leadership, resolve conflicts, and build a supportive club culture, while our broader health and wellness activities promote mental and emotional well-being through stress-reduction and mindfulness practices. Materials here might include supplies for group activities, conflict-resolution and SEL curricula, and wellness program resources.

Together, these investments support DMBGC's ultimate goal: helping youth achieve academic success, promote on-time grade advancement, and graduate from high school with a clear plan for the future. Well-stocked, current materials allow our tutors and staff to deliver consistent, high-quality support during our daily 3:00–7:30 PM programming window, directly reaching the more than 200 youth who rely on our two sites every day.

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Mission: GCAP empowers individuals and families living with and affected by HIV/AIDS in East Central Illinois by providing housing and supportive services and actively works within the community to reduce virus transmission.

Project Proposal: The Round Up For Good Grant will support our Nutritional Assistance Program, which helps individuals living with HIV/AIDS and their families by promoting healthy eating habits and increasing access to nutritious food.

Through their case manager, clients may request a $50 Walmart charitable food voucher to assist with purchasing nutritious groceries. In addition, clients have access to our on‑site food pantry and may request specialty food items tailored to support their health needs, improve CD4 counts, and reduce the likelihood of immune decline or opportunistic infections.

This program also provides direct grocery delivery for clients who are homebound or unable to leave their residence, ensuring they can still access nutritious food safely and consistently.

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Mission: The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center fosters the creation and distribution of media and art that emphasizes underrepresented voices and perspectives, and promotes empowerment and expression through media and arts education.

Project Proposal: These funds will support our monthly all-ages Community Nights, held every third Tuesday from February to October. We aim to nourish our community by offering free food, creative activities, and access to free clothing and repair resources. We collaborate with local organizations to make this possible, such as Community Choices, FREE CU, Urvana,  Makerspace - Repair Cafe, Prism Community Art School, Cunningham Township, RACES, and our Zine Library. We aim to work with local businesses to provide the food rather than large franchises.

This past year we worked with the following: Rick’s Bakery, Piato Cafe, Burrito King, Mo’s Food Truck, and Neil St Blue’s. In February of 2026, we began providing free food at Community Nights, and we started with a budget of $500 a month. After the first two months, we quickly realized we needed a higher budget. Instead of having 45-50 people attend, we had 75-100 people. We noticed that we needed to adjust our budget to $1000 a month to accommodate the number of attendees. These funds will assist us in our ability to continue to offer free food at future Community Nights.

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Mission: We provide compassionate, comprehensive support to those affected by sexual trauma. We care for our communities through prevention education programs that promote consent.

Project Proposal: Sexual violence prevention services conducted by RACES are provided to residents of Champaign County aged three and older at no cost. RACES uses a comprehensive, multi-level, evidence-informed strategy to provide programming to students, parents, teachers, and other community members. Age-appropriate programming is offered to all residents of Champaign County. Special attention is given to ensuring the inclusion of historically underserved and marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities, rural residents, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and individuals with disabilities.

RACES is committed to serving all members of the community and the agency recognizes that individuals who are racial and ethnic minorities and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community are at higher risk of sexual victimization and may face unique barriers to receiving services. Agency curricula are intentionally designed to be inclusive of minority populations and programming is offered to all schools in Champaign County, including those with high proportions of students of color. RACES also participates in events that focus on minority populations, including CU Pride Fest and minority-specific health fairs.

RACES’ staff travel to all parts of Champaign County where services are requested and see reaching rural residents as equally important to reaching residents in more urban settings. Agency staff work hard to meet request for programs, regardless of their distance from the agency's office in Urbana. RACES has long-standing relationships in schools that serve rural residents, including Heritage High School in Broadlands and Gifford Elementary School. To further increase access for rural schools, RACES is working on developing supplemental, virtual programming that can be offered asynchronously. In addition to the benefits students experience from receiving this programming, RACES recognizes that the Prevention Education program is often the first point of contact people have with any of the agency’s services. This further increases the importance of reaching rural areas that might otherwise be unaware of the therapy, crisis intervention, and advocacy services available at no cost through RACES.

The most common locations for RACES prevention programming are K-12 schools. All school-based programs are multi-session and fulfill Erin’s Law (mandates sexual violence prevention programming) and National Sexuality Education Standards. Programs are designed to allow participants to choose how they engage with these topics, including the option to step out as needed. Sessions are structured to increase safety and to allow for an immediate response to a child, if they disclose that they have been abused. Students are also taught skills to empower them to identify trusted adults and other resources.

RACES educational programming has a strong focus on increasing empathy for survivors of sexual violence and reducing stigma. This training can have an impact on interacting with others beyond survivors of sexual violence. Programming also centers the intersection of sexual violence and other forms of violence. The CDC recognizes the importance of these connections, published in their brief, Connecting the Dots: An Overview of the Links Among Multiple Forms of Violence (https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/183359).

As with most education initiatives, the ultimate desired outcome is to change behaviors and attitudes for a lifetime; we seek to reduce the overall rates of sexual violence and to create more appropriate and sensitive societal response to survivors of sexual violence. RACES staff provided programming to nearly 4,400 students in Champaign County during the 2025-2026 school year. Results from the previous school year's assessments, given pre-visit and post-visit (four sessions), show that 52% of students decreased their acceptance of risk factors and and 25% increased their knowledge and acceptance of preventive factors, both of which indicate positive societal change. 

RACES is the only agency in the county that provides sexual violence prevention education, thanks in part to the support from a Round Up for Good Grant. RACES has been fortunate to receive these grants for multiple years, and this has allowed us to increase our staff capacity to be able to reach more students in our community. If selected, funds will continue to be used to cover staff compensation and related expenses, which will allow RACES to maintain its current high level of service provision at no cost to local schools or organizations.

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Mission: The Nest Postpartum exists to ensure that families with babies in the NICU do not have to navigate one of the most frightening and overwhelming experiences of their lives alone. We transform the NICU experience from one of isolation and hardship into one grounded in community, compassion, and care. We provide practical and emotional support, including meals, transportation, lodging, financial assistance, and other essential resources, to ease the daily burdens families face while their baby is hospitalized. By meeting these basic needs, we give parents the ability to stay close to their baby, care for themselves, and remain present for their family during a critical time.

Project Proposal: The Round Up For Good Grant will directly support our NICU Family Support program, helping families with the everyday costs that can become overwhelming when their baby is hospitalized. Grant funds will provide assistance with food, transportation, and lodging, helping parents remain close to their baby without having to choose between being at the hospital and meeting their family's basic needs.

For a family in the NICU, a simple meal, a tank of gas, or a safe place to sleep can mean so much more than a financial expense. It can mean one less thing to worry about during an already overwhelming time. Your community's round-up dollars will help us make sure families can focus on what matters most: being there for their baby.

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Mission: The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.

Project Proposal: The Round Up For Good Grant would help The Salvation Army of Champaign County provide tangible, immediate resources to individuals and families facing poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, and other crises. Grant funds would be used directly for essential goods and services that help people move from crisis toward stability and hope.

One specific project would be strengthening our emergency assistance and basic-needs response. Grant funding would allow us to purchase and distribute essential items such as nutritious food, hygiene products, cleaning supplies, infant necessities, and other household goods to local individuals and families who are struggling to meet basic needs. These tangible resources often provide the critical bridge that keeps a family from falling further into crisis.

We would also use a portion of the funding to support our Pathway of Hope initiative, which works with families experiencing significant barriers to stability. Rather than simply addressing an immediate need, Pathway of Hope walks alongside families as they work toward goals such as stable housing, employment, reliable transportation, financial stability, and improved well-being. Grant-funded resources would help remove practical barriers that can prevent families from achieving those goals.

For example, a relatively small investment in food, hygiene supplies, transportation assistance, household necessities, or other critical resources can make the difference between a family remaining housed and becoming homeless, or between a parent being able to pursue employment and remaining trapped in crisis.

The Round Up For Good Grant would therefore have a direct and measurable impact: dollars raised in our community would be converted into tangible resources placed directly into the hands of our neighbors who need them most. These resources would complement the compassionate case management, relationships, and long-term support provided by our staff and volunteers.

Our mission is to meet human needs without discrimination and to bring hope and lasting change to our community. This grant would help us put that mission into action in a very practical way—providing immediate help while creating pathways toward greater stability and independence for Champaign County families.

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Mission: The Station Theatre challenges and entertains audiences with classic plays, musicals, and innovative works. We seek out and nurture local talent, providing a supportive environment that fosters a love of theatre. We encourage exploration of ideas, beliefs, and relationships to better understand the world we inhabit and the diverse voices that envelop us.

Project Proposal: 

The Station Theatre is entering Season 54, our most ambitious and diverse season in recent memory. Nine productions. Nine stories of identity shaped by power and reclaimed through choice. Works by Black, Latinx, and women playwrights. Casts and crews that reflect our community. This is who we are and who we are working to become.

Round Up For Good funds would support targeted marketing and outreach to underserved audiences in Champaign County across the latter three quarters of Season 54 and into the first two productions of our 55th season, which launches in September 2027. Two shows in particular anchor this proposal: Harry & the Thief by Sigrid Gilmer, a genre-bending sci-fi comedy about time travel and Harriet Tubman directed by a Black woman director with a predominantly Black cast, and White by James iJames, a sharp and provocative exploration of race, gender, and art.

For too long, community theatre has defaulted to audiences that already know it exists. We want to change that. Funds would be used for print materials distributed in community spaces, targeted digital advertising reaching audiences outside our existing networks, and partnerships with community organizations that serve Black, Brown, and low-income residents of Champaign County. We want to be in barbershops and laundromats and community centers. We want people to walk into the Station for the first time and feel like the show on our stage was made for them - because it was.

Critically, this outreach isn't just about filling seats. As we approach Season 55, we want underrepresented communities to have a voice in what stories get told on our stage. Our play selection process begins in earnest ahead of the 55th season, and intentional outreach now means those communities are at the table - not just in the audience, but shaping what comes next.

The Station Theatre has called Urbana home since 1972. We believe live theatre has the power to challenge, connect, and transform. We also believe that power only works if everyone in our community has access to it. This grant would help us take a meaningful step toward making that true.

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Mission: To provide free books to people incarcerated in Illinois and foster local education about prisons and the carceral system.

Project Proposal: B2P is aligned with several of the Ends of the Common Ground Food Coop. As a volunteer run organization, we are committed to collective governance and inclusivity, and we have a significant impact on the community that volunteers. B2P support the resilience of the communities of the families and loved ones of incarcerated people who receive them because the books that are sent in have a ripple effect. The books are also shared and discussed by people on the inside. It is worth mentioning as well that a common request from prisoners is books on basic nutrition and gardening.

 We share a goal of impacting the local community by also serving people detained in our county jail. Each week, an average of 50 people visit our small lending library in the Jail, which is staffed by volunteers. B2P is also the primary source of books for the Champaign County Youth Detention Center library.

Prisoners who receive our materials describe our service as a light in the darkness, one of the only reliable means of information, critical to an increase in their math and reading proficiency, the reason they developed a “reading habit,” a means to education, essential to passing the GED exam, access to a larger world, a catalyst to deeper self-understanding. Most significantly, our shipments remind them of their humanity, and that not everyone on the outside has given up on them. This gives hope and a reason to persevere. 

B2P has made a difference in the lives of those who volunteer here. Reading letters from those people in custody humanizes prisoners and challenges the stereotypes that abound about who is locked up in our prisons. Volunteers have testified that their experience at B2P has changed their lives by providing them with the opportunity to make a real difference with their time and by collaborating locally with people from diverse backgrounds and walks of life. 

Currently, B2P faces three financial challenges, one of which a Round Up award would help us address.

First, shipping is one of our largest expenditures. Currently we can ship to each prisoner on average every three to four months. We long to make this rate steady at two and a half to three months because we continue to hear from prisoners that books are a lifeline for them. A grant would allow us to maintain and possibly increase the rate, so that a prisoner could look forward to getting our books four to five times each year, instead of three.

Second, the most requested book by incarcerated people nationwide is the English dictionary. B2P has raised money to purchase dictionaries in bulk but even so, have never been able to meet demand. Our budget constraints cause us to ration a prisoner to one dictionary every five years. Paperback dictionaries consulted frequently quickly fall apart long before 5 years as prisoners tell us. With a Round Up grant, we would aim to increase our bulk purchase to be able to send dictionaries every three years to prisoners who request them. 

Lastly, IDOC continues to be unreasonably suspicious of the marks of a used book, interpreting minor stains, highlighter, yellowing pages as possible signs of contraband. B2P was set up to rely on donations of gently used books but in recent years, especially since IDOC’s ban on physical mail for prisoners in 2025, we have had to struggle with the frustration of having the book a prisoner requests, but unable to send it because of minor blemishes. A grant would allow B2P to purchase new to like-new high-demand books to meet reasonable requests from people in custody, such as books on the trades, basic nutrition, World Almanacs, financial literacy.

At B2P we know that access to learning is the number one factor determining whether people return to prison, yet access to education remains deeply restricted. UC Books to Prisoners fills this gap by ensuring that learning is possible even when institutions fail to provide it. But more importantly, we believe that access to information is a human right.

In one of three ways, a grant from Common Ground’s Round Up for Good program would be used to increase our provision of humane services to our neighbors behind bars, most of whom will be coming home someday.

Thank you for your consideration and for the nourishment you provide this community.

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