The Chicago Clean Air Resilience Network (Chi-CARN) is a lending library program that provides free access to clean air equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) for nonprofits and mission-driven organizations in Chicago.

Led by Air Support Project in partnership with Public Health Action Network (PHAN), SOS, and Windy City ToolBank, Chi-CARN addresses a critical gap in community preparedness. Chicago lacks a coordinated, equitable system for delivering clean air resources for both acute and chronic indoor air mitigation events. As climate-driven air quality crises become more common, access to protective equipment remains fragmented, reactive, and dependent on individual or organizational capacity, leaving many vulnerable people unprotected.

Through Windy City ToolBank's established tool lending infrastructure in Pilsen, Chi-CARN maintains a shared inventory of air purifiers, air-quality monitors, respirators, and other clean-air resources available to nonprofit and community organizations at no cost. This shared lending model extends the number of people that a single piece of equipment can serve over its lifespan.

In order to maintain and expand this free shared community resource, we need your support! Reaching our GiveButter goal of $7,500 will help cover our operating expenses through the end of the year.

Thanks to a generous matching donor, the first $1,000 for this campaign will be matched 2x!

We Launched This Summer, and We’re Already Making an Impact

Since launching in summer 2026, Chi-CARN has already begun distributing PPE and clean air equipment to Chicago nonprofits and communities.

High-CADR air purifiers and Far UVC lights are already being borrowed by community organizations through Windy City ToolBank.
More than 1,000 adult N95 and children's KN95 respirators have been distributed to Chicago nonprofits and community health efforts.
We received early support and donations from equipment and PPE manufacturers, including Smart Air, WellBefore, and Far UV Technologies.
CBS Chicago’s climate desk featured our work, highlighting the need for accessible clean-air resources in the aftermath of multiple climate-related disasters this summer, and the community infrastructure we're building to address it.

Read the CBS Chicago story: Without clean indoor air policy, nonprofits team up to fill the gap in Chicago.

The response that our work has received demonstrates that organizations need clean air resources, and a shared model to deliver them. Now, we need your support to continue building this free community resource.

What Your Donation Makes Possible

Every contribution helps strengthen the infrastructure that we are building to make clean air affordable and accessible.

Expanding our shared inventory: Adding air purifiers, portable air-quality monitors, KN95/N95 respirators, DIY air purifier build kits, COVID/flu tests, fit-testing equipment, and other resources that organizations need to our lending inventory.
Keeping equipment moving: Covering the costs of transportation, shipping, storage, maintenance, replacement filters, and the logistics required to make equipment available when and where it is needed.
Supporting the people behind the program: Sustaining the full-time and part-time staff that run our warehouse, coordinate partnerships and community outreach, and keep Chi-CARN operating and growing.
Reaching more communities: Expanding awareness and participation among nonprofits, schools, community organizations, and neighborhood partners, particularly in communities disproportionately affected by air pollution.

Building Preparedness Before the Next Emergency

Chicago faces overlapping air-quality challenges, ranging from industrial and automotive pollution, to airborne infectious diseases and indoor environmental hazards, to climate disasters such as this summer’s record-breaking wildfire smoke, tornadoes, and flooding.

These challenges do not affect every community equally, and the economic and health impacts of air pollution and climate disasters are disproportionately borne by Chicago’s Black and Latino communities on the South and West sides of the city. Organizations that serve communities often do so with limited resources and fewer options for responding.

Chi-CARN is changing that by creating a shared community resource that organizations can use for free before, during, and after air-quality emergencies, without having to worry about how accessing this equipment impacts their budget.

As our program’s capacity grows, our vision for expansion includes supporting community events such as DIY air purifier builds and fit-testing clinics, reserving inventory for long-term classroom lending, supporting citizen science initiatives, and establishing neighborhood-level distribution with trusted community organizations.

Our goal is not simply to distribute equipment. It is to build lasting public health infrastructure that makes clean air more accessible across Chicago.

Help Us Build What Comes Next

Chi-CARN is led by Air Support Project and co-founded with Public Health Action Network, SOS, and Windy City ToolBank. We provide a coordinated, equitable system for delivering clean air resources for both acute and chronic indoor air mitigation events.

Our work is rooted in a simple belief: No organization's mission should be limited by unbreathable air.

Our clean air equipment and supplies are already helping people around Chicago breathe easier. Now, we need your help to build our program to meet the demand! We appreciate your support. Donate today, or share this campaign to help Chicago breathe easier.

Learn more at chicagocarn.org.

Chicago Clean Air Resilience Network

Distributing FREE Clean Air Equipment and Masks in Chicago!