Northwestern Medicine awards $1.7M in grants to community partners

CHICAGO – Northwestern Medicine serves patients across more than 10,000 square miles of northern Illinois. To better address the diverse needs of individual communities, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare launched a grant initiative to address disparities highlighted in local community health needs assessments.

The funding initiative, which is just one facet of Northwestern Medicine’s community giving campaign, offered grants to local agencies supporting specific health and wellness projects. Northwestern Medicine awarded more than $1.7 million to 49 organizations that offer a wide range of services including housing, nutritional needs, transportation, child care, mental health and primary care.

“Northwestern Medicine is committed to making our community as healthy as it can be,” said Posh Charles, senior vice president, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare. “This initiative, which is just one way Northwestern Medicine contributes to the community, enhances our ability to provide highly targeted support to partners addressing priority health concerns in their individual locales.”

In fiscal 2021, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare provided more than $1.14 billion in community benefits including charity care and the unreimbursed costs incurred caring for Medicaid and Medicare patients, training tomorrow’s health care workforce, conducting medical research and other community benefits that help preserve access to care for the residents of Chicago, its suburbs and northern Illinois.

The beneficiaries of the community grants range in size and scope from the YMCA of Metro Chicago to the Oak Forest Chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an organization that provides fully furnished twin beds for children who sleep on floors, couches and other situations without beds.

Agencies in Lake County who received grants include:

• Elyssa’s Mission

• LEAD (Linking Efforts Against Drugs)

• Mano a Mano Family Resource Center

• Northern Illinois Recovery Community Organization (NIRCO)

• United Way of Lake County

• Waukegan Public Library Foundation

“Our goal is to collaborate and support local agencies to address health care disparities across all socioeconomic backgrounds,” Charles said. “We sought out organizations that are making a difference by removing barriers to better health.”

Funding for Mano a Mano Family Resource Center will support the agency’s mission to empower immigrant families to become full participants in their community. Mano a Mano’s Healthy Families Program provides community education workshops and case management to access health care. The Productive Parents Program fosters self-sufficiency through language and computer literacy classes, employment readiness and referrals. The Successful Children Program provides kindergarten preparedness programing for parents and children.

“Northwestern Medicine’s commitment to Mano a Mano has been critical to maintaining and even expanding our health outreach and education efforts over the past year,” said Dulce Ortiz, executive director, Mano a Mano Family Resource Center. “With the support of Northwestern Medicine, Mano a Mano staff has educated hundreds of community members on disease prevention and management and how to navigate the U.S. health care system.”

In addition to grant funding, as part of Northwestern Medicine’s Team NM initiative, Northwestern Medicine employees build healthier communities through volunteer service and thoughtful actions. Team NM volunteers weed and water the Aurora Food Pantry’s Essential Garden, help sort and label food at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, collected coats for Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, put together beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace and assembled heart-healthy care packages for patients at Tri-City Health Partnership.