Aetna and the Aetna Foundation announced it will award $500,000 in philanthropic funds to Chicago-area non-profits this year -- most of them, for health related programs. The deadline for its Healthy Community grants closed this week on May 15. Recipients will be announced this fall. Last year, more than $400,000 in grants were given to 19 Chicago-area organizations. Recipients of these funds were brought together on Apr. 23 to honor them for their contributions to the community. In addition, Aetna and the Aetna Foundation awarded $300,000 to the National Latino Children's Institute (NLCI) for expansion of a program to address childhood obesity in Chicago and other cities in the U.S. Pictured above when NLCI was given the award here in Chicago: Left to right: Marty Castro, Jose Munoz and Brigitte Nettesheim, from Aetna; Josephine Garza, Executive Director of NLCI; Brian Marsella, Aetna; Patricia Garza and Nicole Robinson from Kraft (a sponsor of the program), and Chris Montross from the Aetna Foundation.
 

Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that the City of Chicago has awarded 214 Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) grants totaling $160,609 for the year 2008 to individual artists and nonprofit arts organizations for professional, artistic and organizational development projects. Chicago is a world-class city full of successful and diverse arts communities. Supporting them means we invest not only in the arts but also in the economic vitality of those communities and the city as a whole, said Mayor Daley.

The Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) has awarded more than 5,082 grants totaling over $4.1 million since its inception in 1987. CAAP is one of the longest standing grant programs in the Midwest that supports the artistic practice of individual artists and the artistic and professional development of small arts organizations in all creative disciplines.
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