NAPERVILLE - State Senator Laura Ellman (D-Naperville) offers constituents an immersive educational experience through a virtual tour of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is the largest Presidential Museum with over 50,000 square feet devoted to state-of-the-art full-immersion exhibits, special effects theaters and displays of original artifacts. The virtual tour is a safe, COVID-friendly way for residents to experience the museum from the comfort of their own homes. The full tour can be watched here.

For constituents who are interested in an in-person experience at a local museum or other educational institution, Senator Ellman offers access to her museum resource education card. Use of the card is completely free and constituents may check out the card for two consecutive days to admit the cardholder and three guests to any of the following institutions:

Adler Planetarium
The Art Institute of Chicago
Brookfield Zoo/CZS
Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Children's Museum
Chicago History Museum
DuSable Museum of African American History
The Field Museum
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
Lincoln Park Zoo
Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Science and Industry
National Museum of Mexican Art
National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
John G. Shedd Aquarium

To use the card, contact Senator Ellman's office at 630-601-9961 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and provide your preferred dates and the name of the institution you plan to visit.

 State Grants

CLOSING SOON! Job Training and Economic Development Program

What:  JTED provides an opportunity to provide innovative, employer-driven training approaches that pair education and occupational training with work-based learning to support regional and local economic development for businesses and individuals most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Through the JTED program, DCEO will connect the unemployed, underemployed, and underrepresented with employers in need of a skilled workforce or upskill existing workers by providing funding for accessible equity-driven services to those in disadvantaged communities. Applicants may choose to apply for funding that will support one or more of the following four categories:

(1) Jobseekers and those needing occupational training,

(2) Employers seeking to upskill their workforce,

(3) Youth-focused career development and work-based learning, and

(4) Increasing stability and retention utilizing a Barrier Reduction Fund for emergency basic needs.

Target industries include but are not limited to manufacturing, healthcare, arts and entertainment, waste management, retail, IT and TDL. Priority will be given to small and medium-sized minority-owned companies. All applicants will need to show how their program will provide services to target populations, including under-represented and low-income individuals in Qualified Census Tracts and Disproportionately Impacted Areas.

Potential Applicants: Employers, non-profits, federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) administrative entities, and public or private educational institutions that have demonstrated expertise and effectiveness in administering workforce development programs. Local governments that are not WIOA administrative entities are not eligible to apply.

How Much: $20 million total: minimum grant size of $500,000 and maximum grant being $750,000.

Deadline: Oct. 29, 2021 at 5pm

Apply

Rebuild Downtowns & Main Streets Capital Grant

What: The Rebuild Downtowns & Main Streets Capital Grant Program will provide grants to support improvements and encourage investment in commercial corridors and downtowns that have experienced disinvestment, particularly in communities hardest-hit by the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis. Projects must be located in a commercial corridor or downtown area with multiple public-facing commercial establishments. Eligible projects include but are not limited to roads, parking, and sidewalks; transit, pedestrian, or bicycle infrastructure; broadband infrastructure; water/sewer infrastructure; public spaces, such as parks and plazas; structures in disrepair; and mixed-use or transit-oriented development.

Potential Applicants: Units of local government (no match required). Not-for-profit and for-profit organizations are eligible but must include 50% match. Priority will be given to projects in DIAs, Opportunity Zones, and Qualified Census Tracts.

How Much: $50 million total: minimum grant size of $250,000 and maximum grant being $3 million.

Deadline: Jan. 10, 2022

Apply

Tourism Attractions and Festivals Grant Program

What: The Tourism Attraction and Festivals Grant program will help develop new or enhance existing tourism attractions located across the state – including but not limited to museums, businesses, events, performances, and festivals. The funds may be utilized for capital projects, equipment, training, transportation, housing, receptions, entertainment, photography, temporary housing, and interpretive programs.  The goal of the program is to attract additional visitors and overnight stays that will bring foot traffic back in communities across Illinois. 

Potential Applicants: Units of local government, municipalities, counties, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, or local promotions groups. 

How Much: $10 million total: minimum grant size of $10,000 and maximum grant being $1 million. Match required.

Deadline: Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until funds are depleted with awards made quarterly. DCEO will have the ability to fund applications most closely aligned to eligibility criteria approved for immediate funding.

Apply

Federal Grants

More can be found on DCEO’s website.

ARPA Economic Adjustment Assistance

What: Federal Economic Development Administration’s most flexible program, and grants made under this program will help hundreds of communities across the nation plan, build, innovate, and put people back to work through construction or non-construction projects designed to meet local needs. This includes construction activities such as water and sewer system improvements, industrial parks, high-tech shipping and logistics facilities, business incubators and accelerators, brownfield redevelopment, technology-based facilities, wet labs, multi-tenant manufacturing facilities, science and research parks, workforce training facilities, and telecommunications infrastructure (e.g., broadband) and development facilities. This also includes non-construction activities such as design and engineering, technical assistance, economic recovery strategy development, and capitalization of revolving loan funds.

Potential Applicants: Local governments, institutions of higher ed, non-profits in cooperation with local governments. District Organizations of an EDA-designated Economic Development District are also eligible.

How Much: Estimated 300 projects that cost between $500k and $5m. $500 million is available in total. EDA will allocate at least $200 million to support coal communities.

Deadline: Rolling. Suggested submission date is March 31, 2022.

Apply

EDA Good Jobs Challenge

What: EDA’s American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge aims to get Americans back to work by building and strengthening systems and partnerships that bring together employers who have hiring needs with other key entities to train workers with in-demand skills that lead to good-paying jobs. EDA encourages efforts to reach historically underserved populations and areas, communities of color, women, and other groups facing labor market barriers such as persons with disabilities, disconnected youth, individuals in recovery, individuals with past criminal records, including justice impacted and reentry participants, individuals participating in government assistance programs, and veterans and military spouses. The EDA will fund system development, program design and program implementation.

Potential Applicants: EDA Economic Development Districts, local governments, institutions of higher education, non-profits (including labor unions) acting in cooperation with local governments. The system or partnership should be led by a System Lead Entity or Backbone Organization, respectively, serving as an intermediary that has convening power in the region and the capacity to coordinate all necessary stakeholders.

How Much: $1,000,000 - $25,000,000

Deadline: Jan. 26, 2022

Apply

Dear friends,

We are living in an unprecedented time. To get through this situation, we have all relied on more financial help from the federal government than most of us have ever seen before – from unemployment insurance, to e-learning, to COVID-19 testing.

The best way to make sure our communities get the support they need – and deserve – from Washington, D.C. is by filling out the Census. The 10-minute questionnaire will impact how federal funds flow into states and provides information that will impact your community for the next decade.

By now, everyone should have received mail from the U.S. Census Bureau. The letter either contains your household’s Census ID number to be used when filling out the census online at my2020census.gov or the questionnaire itself.

The information you provide will impact your community every day — from influencing public health to school programs.

Please take time to help shape the future. Your response matters. More than that, you can help keep census workers and their families safe by reducing their exposure to COVID-19.

If you have any questions, please reach out to my office at (630) 453-5488.

Sincerely,

Laura Ellman

State Senator | 21st District

Dear friend,

I hope that you made the most of this past holiday weekend despite the Stay at Home order. Though we must maintain physical distance, I hope you’re still being social by connecting with loved ones virtually.

If the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll mentally, that’s understandable.

The governor announced a new Emotional Support Line that could help.

Use the Illinois Department of Human Services’ support text line by texting “TALK” to 552-020.