Health Chicago Equity Zone
Envision Community Services has launched the CDPH-funded Healthy Chicago Equity Zones initiative. The concept of Healthy Chicago Equity Zones is to confront the health disparities that impact the life expectancy of communities of color, including diabetes, HIV/AIDS, gun violence, mental health, heart disease, etc., addressing these issues on a “hyper-local” level. Overall, the objective of the program is to address the social, environmental, and health disparities that impact communities of color, with the intent to advocate for health equity.
The current focus of the program is increasing vaccine coverage in under-vaccinated community areas through grassroots outreach and engagement, utilizing city data and demographics as a guide. With this new program, Envision Community Services is representing the West Lawn and Clearing neighborhoods as the community lead, conducting the work with the guidance of Southwest Organizing Project, the southwest side zone’s regional lead. ECS’ Equity Zones staff will identify the distinct needs of the communities being served and formulate localized solutions to address health disparities.
How Can We Help
Throughout the initial 4.5-year program term, the Community Leads are responsible for conducting program activities within the neighborhood they serve, including but not limited to:
Participate in program orientation and onboarding activities to introduce the Healthy Chicago Equity Zone model as well as related planning tools and available resources.
Participate in Regional Healthy Chicago Equity Zone collaboration and support it through community organizing activities.
Build, expand, or maintain a neighborhood network that represents a broad range of stakeholders - including but not limited to faith partners, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and/ or community-based health centers and health systems, nonprofit organizations, school leaders, and others - that will identify local public health challenges and opportunities.
Using CDPH data as a baseline, develop assessments and measurements that will allow communities to understand challenges and opportunities in neighborhood h
Recruit, train, and deploy community members and trusted messengers to disseminate public health materials and messages, improve health literacy and health awareness, engage bilateral communication between community members and local community health organizations, and improve health care access for community members.
Coordinate outreach, education, and engagement strategies to link people to health and social services.
Build local systems to regularly collect, analyze, and interpret community health data. Return to Table of Contents
In collaboration with academic partners and using the locally derived and collected data, develop and execute a community-based participatory research agenda to inform local strategies.
Build local systems to regularly collect, analyze, and interpret community health data. Return to Table of Contents
In collaboration with academic partners and using the locally derived and collected data, develop and execute a community-based participatory research agenda to inform local strategies.
Assist in building support for City-wide efforts and initiatives
Assist in building support for City-wide efforts and initiatives.
Identify and propose policy and systems changes that address barriers to community health and well-being.
Participate in program evaluation activities.
Work closely with CDPH to link these efforts to the broader Healthy Chicago movement and Healthy Chicago 2025 implementation.
Establish, implement, and monitor the success of health and racial equity action plans that are responsive to the health assessment. CDPH will provide a menu of evidence-based interventions that communities may select from among to address priority public health issues through population-based as well as individual actions, social and environmental change, health-service delivery, community-clinical linkages, and policy interventions. This could include, for example, food access, behavioral health, maternal/child health, chronic disease, and/or other health issues identified through the community planning process.