Advocate Bethany Hospital Community Health Fund awards 48 grants
Advocate Health Care and Advocate Charitable Foundation have announced the 2008 recipients of grant awards from the Advocate Bethany Hospital Community Health Fund. This is the second grant year for the Fund, which will provide approximately $1 million per year through 2020 to support local efforts to build, promote and sustain healthy communities on Chicago’s West Side.
A total of $1.145 million has been awarded to 48 organizations for programs targeting health and wellness in five West Side communities: Austin, Humboldt Park, East and West Garfield Park, and North Lawndale. In the Fund’s second year, the number of grants increased from 27 to 48, reflecting re-funding of 2007 grantee programs and support for new projects. The 2008 grantees are:
A Hand Up Recovery Home: to provide an array of services to decrease unemployment for men and women aged 25-50 in the North Lawndale area who are recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction.
Academy of Scholastic Achievement, Inc: to help launch Breaking Barriers, a program that infuses personal, social and health development concepts in 9th and 10th grade academic curricula.
Arthur Lockhart Research Institute: to support its Sustaining Health and Families with Information and Testing (SHIFT) program, which focuses on early detection and treatment of diabetes.
Association House of Chicago: to support the expansion of its Center for Working Families program, aimed at combating unemployment.
Austin Chamber of Commerce: to expand the Summer Youth Program, which provides youth employment opportunities.
Austin Childcare Provider’s Network: to expand a program that trains women to be childcare assistants.
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church: to support faith- and family-focused mentoring, career coaching and health education in Humboldt Park.
Bethel New Life, Inc.: to begin a Youth Employment Program aimed at combating unemployment in the Garfield Park and Austin communities.
Better Boys Foundation: to support its After School Program, a youth development program that offers academic support and learning-enhanced activities to North Lawndale youth ages 13 to 18.
Breaking Ground: to improve the skill base of hard-to-employ West Side residents in the manufacturing and building trades.
Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation: to support Oliver’s Kitchen Culinary Arts Program, which trains unemployed and underemployed individuals for work in the food service industry.
Christian Faith M. B. Church: to help support its youth services programs, including Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Anti-Dropout Campaign and Stop the Killing-Violence Prevention and Anti-Gang Initiative.
Community Christian Alternative Academy: to support a program aimed at reducing risk factors associated with dropout rates, unemployment and teen births.
Comprehensive Community Organization: to support educational and job readiness programs for low-literacy, low-income adults in the Austin community.
Deborah’s Place: to support the Employment Services Program, aimed at ending homelessness for women in East Garfield Park.
Direct Light Services, Inc: to support its School Dropout Prevention Program for Youth, which works to keep Austin community youth in school by sponsoring workshops, activities and a summer program.
El Rincon Community Clinic: to enhance the Clinic’s ongoing counseling services for Humboldt Park residents by offering pastoral care sessions and HIV/AIDS interventions to high risk individuals.
First Nazareth M. B. Youth Center: to enhance its Humboldt Park youth programs, including teen pregnancy prevention, violence intervention and English as a Second Language.
Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance: to support Healthy Communities/Healthy People, an initiative that promotes physical activity and healthy eating habits to residents of North Lawndale, East Garfield Park and Humboldt Park.
Gift House Inc.: to expand HIV/AIDS awareness and testing and to establish a diabetes program in North Lawndale.
Greater Humboldt Park Community of Wellness: to prepare students aged 16 and older for health careers.
Greater St. John Center of Hope: to support the North Austin Homework Hangout Program, which provides before- and after-school activities, as well as HIV/AIDS and sexuality education.
Home of Life Community Development Corporation: to create a High School Success Program aimed at reducing dropout rates.
La Casa Norte: to support its Casa TeraU program, which provides technology training and employment services to residents of Humboldt Park.
Lawndale Christian Development Center: to fund a technology-centered training and workforce development program for residents 18 to 35 who are unemployed or underemployed.
Lawndale Christian Health Center: to expand the diabetes component of its Chronic Care Program.
Learning Network Center: to improve access to and use of HIV-related services for people in West Lawndale, with a focus on ex-offenders and their families.
Lena Washington’s Food and Shelter Foundation: to support job assessment, training and placement for homeless and unemployed residents of North Lawndale.
Marillac Social Center: to support a diabetes prevention and management program for residents of the West Side.
Marshall Metropolitan High School: to offer its Certified Nursing Assistants Program, currently only offered to students, to unemployed or underemployed adults residents of West Garfield Park.
New Birth Christian Center: to support its Blossoming of Souls Initiative, which helps girls develop decision-making skills and avoid risk behaviors that may lead to teen pregnancy.
North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School: to support several student development and enrichment programs focused on addressing school dropout rates in the North Lawndale community.
North Lawndale Employment Network: to support employment acquisition and retention for formerly incarcerated persons.
People’s Community Development Association: to support programs addressing HIV/AIDS and unemployment in East and West Garfield Park.
Primo Center for Women and C Children: to support the Computer Technology Center, which helps local residents who need computer literacy skills in order to get a job.
Priscy’s Production Outreach Program NFP: to support a Youth Homicide Prevention Outreach program, which offers positive activities as an alternative to life on the streets.
Puerto Rican Cultural Center: to expand its Barrio Arts, Culture and Communication Academy, an after-school program aimed at reducing school dropout rates.
Sankofa Safe Child Initiative: to launch a diabetes education and awareness campaign, “Diabetes Sweet and Bitter: I Can Be Free,” aimed at decreasing mortality from the disease.
Sinai Community Institute: to support Bound For Glory, a program that provides mentoring, academic assistance and life skills education to North Lawndale youth.
Taproots, Inc: to support its Education for Life Comprehensive Abstinence Education Program, which aims to decrease teen birth rates and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Truth and Life Consciousness: to support its Job Readiness and Computer Training Program, which aims to increase employability and employment opportunities for residents of South Austin, West Garfield Park and Humboldt Park.
Umoja Student Development Corporation: to support programs at Manley Career Academy High School and Collins Academy High School aimed at helping students succeed in high school, college and beyond.
Voices of Community Ministerial Association: to fund its Youth for Change after-school program, which is aimed at reducing dropout rates.
Walk by Faith Mission: to provide pregnancy, dropout and violence prevention programs to youth in the Austin community.
West Humboldt Park Family and Development Council: to fund its Building Employment and Entrepreneurial Partnerships program, designed to decrease unemployment rates among residents age 16 and older.
Westside Health Authority: to support its Healthy Lifestyles diabetes prevention program.
Westside Youth Technical Entrepreneur Center: to support its West Garfield Life Rejuvenation after school program, which includes tutoring, HIV/AIDS prevention education and business training.
Young Men’s Educational Network: to support its Making Men through Mentoring initiative, a program aimed at addressing the unemployment and school dropout rates in North Lawndale by increasing opportunities for African-American boys through mentoring support.
“This is an impressive group of community organizations, all of which are committed to improving the health and futures of people the West Side,” says Ina Owens, Director of the Fund. “It is noteworthy that this year we are providing support to 48 organizations, a large increase from the first-year grantee total of 27. This reflects a great need for support of these worthy programs, as well as the spirited dedication to health and positive futures that exists at a grassroots level throughout the West Side of Chicago. We are thrilled to play a role in helping them accomplish their goals.”
The Fund was created as part of Advocate Health Care’s longstanding commitment to communities that have been served by Bethany Hospital for more than 85 years. The mission of the Fund is to address unique health needs by funding community-based efforts that target health disparities and promote health and wellness in five west side communities: Austin, Humboldt Park, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, and North Lawndale (the Fund Communities).
Following the announcement of the Fund in late 2006, Advocate Health Care assembled the Advocate Bethany Hospital Community Health Fund Advisory Council, which identified a number of areas in which health disparities exist between the Fund Communities and the City of Chicago. Seven of these were selected as priority areas for the Fund: School Dropout; HIV/AIDS; Diabetes; Homicide; Infant Mortality; Unemployment; and Teen Births. Along with a focus on serving the Fund Communities, these priorities guide funding efforts. Grants were awarded through the Bethany Community Health Fund Board, which includes eight community members and seven representatives from Advocate Health Care.
Oak Brook-based Advocate Health Care, the largest health care provider in Illinois, is ranked among the nation’s top health care systems. A faith-based, non-profit system, Advocate is related to both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ. Advocate’s 200-plus sites of care in metropolitan Chicago include nine acute care hospitals and two children’s hospitals, a home health care company and four of Chicago’s largest medical groups. Through its academic and teaching affiliations, Advocate trains more resident physicians than does any non-university teaching hospital in Illinois. For more information about Advocate Health Care, please visit www.advocatehealth.com
