❀ BIPOC Farmer Care Fund  ❃

The BIPOC Farmer Care Fund is a pilot project of Northern Illinois Young Farmers (NIYF). This fund exists to support the mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who farm, steward land, and feed our communities across northern Illinois.

We created this fund because care is a collective responsibility. Farmers and farmworkers hold enormous physical, spiritual, and emotional labor, often without the rest, resources, or support they deserve. This pilot program is rooted in collective care and rest-as-resistance, inspired by the work of Mariame Kaba and Tricia Hersey.

This fund provides stipends, up to $500, dispersed by random selection, to meet whatever care needs feel most supportive to the applicant. Care needs may include, but are not limited to:

• Mental health costs (therapy, counseling, support groups)

• Rest and recovery (staycation, time off farm, childcare)

• Grief and healing support

• Body work (massage, acupuncture, somatic therapy)

• Mobility and accessibility needs

• Any expense that meaningfully supports the applicant’s wellbeing

Our application is intentionally brief and trust-based.

This is our first year offering the BIPOC Farmer Care Fund. As a pilot project, we will learn, listen, and adapt as we go — with the intention of growing this into a long-term, sustainable program that centers rest, dignity, and collective liberation for BIPOC farmers and farmworkers in our region.

At NIYF, we envision ourselves as a mycelial network, supporting and nourishing one another across rural, suburban, and urban landscapes. This fund is one way we practice that vision: showing up for each other with resources, care, and community. Like any healthy mycelial network, this fund moves through trust. 

We trust you to decide what support is most meaningful. There is no need to justify or prove your needs — your wellbeing matters, and we believe you. 

✿ ❀ ❁ ✾ ❃

The fund application period is May 3rd to May 17th.

The fund application will close May 17th 11:59pm CST.

The following week, the applicants will enter a random generator, and those selected will be notified & required to send a W9* to our fiscal sponsor, National Young Farmers Coalition, and funds will be mailed via a paper check.

If you are not selected, we welcome you to stay in touch with our network as we are working on fundraising to launch the fund again in the Fall.

*If for some reason you cannot submit a W9, please inquire individually about alternative payment options