Kendall County Times

At the February 21 City Council meeting, Joliet officials celebrate several organizations for the work they do in the community.

 First up was the Joliet fire department, which thanked the City Council and community for supporting the Fill the Boot Campaign for MDA, a firefighter effort to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which is the international firefighter’s charity of choice. Joliet fire department was able to raise $15,000 for the organization.

The city was also able to celebrate part of its community development program in its 2020-2024 consolidated plan, which has an annual action plan to use Community Development Block Grant funds for residents and small business owners.

This year, the program was able to hand out a total of $375,000 to Joliet constituents, split between three local associations, including Holsten Human Capital Development in River Walk Homes.

The city awarded $88,000 to Holsten Human Capital Development to help with client resources, case management, and other aspects of the nonprofit workforce and job aid organization.

"They do a number of different programs there," said Eva-Marie Tropper, the city's director of Economic Development. "Last year, they helped over 10,000 unduplicated Joliet residents. This time specifically from the COVID-19 dollars that the city received. And this is going to go to their holistic human health program that's going to help residents of Riverwalk and in the Joliet surrounding communities with healthy lifestyle choices, food preparation and all sorts of classes like that to build their health up".

Amy Palumbo-Galarza was in attendance to represent the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet, which received $185,000 for the Daybreak shelter. This is the only emergency shelter in the area, and the funds will go towards renovating and improving the bathroom facilities for those utilizing the shelter, as well as a roof repair.

The Joliet Latino Economic Development Association was represented by Diana Viveros. This is a new organization in Joliet and is a micro-enterprise, so the city of Joliet is giving microenterprise technological funding for social media, advertising, grant writing, budgeting, and anything else they might need to get the organization up and running. The Latino Economic Development was awarded $75,000.