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Grace Hou is the secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services.
She explained that she and Deputy Governor Sol Flores came up with the idea for the grant during a conversation. Both have done community-based work and have experienced racial healing activities.
Then came the events of the past year.
“And so, you know, we're in the middle of the pandemic, and we continue to be in the summer. And then the images and the reports of the police brutality,” she recalled. “There was so much anguish, and hurt in Illinois, you know, protests, civil unrest.”