Healthy South Chicago

Healthy South Chicago is a coalition made up of community residents, local services providers, agencies, organizations, businesses, and others interested in the health of the South Chicago community.

South Chicago Community Area

Located on the southeast side of Chicago, South Chicago is located at the mouth of the Calumet River, and its neighbors include the community areas of South Shore, Avalon Park, Calumet Heights, East Side and South Deering.

The South Chicago community is the home of the first Mexican community in both Chicago and Illinois. It now has approximately 38,500 residents, of whom 68% are African American and 27% are Hispanic. Though difficult to measure, much evidence of an increasing undocumented immigrant population exists as well.

Starting in August 2001, Healthy South Chicago undertook a strategic planning process to identify resources and gaps in the community. Based on community members’ experiences, data that describe the community, and the availability of local resources, the coalition identified key areas of concern. Coalition members developed strategies to address the identified issues, and have now collaborated and formed new linkages to accomplish their goals.

Four workgroups have formed to focus on four key areas:

• Facilitating access to health care
• Promoting healthy behaviors
• Fostering a positive community environment
• Supporting community development

Healthy Schools Campaign

Healthy Schools Campaign, an independent not-for-profit organization, is the leading authority on healthy school environments and a voice for people who care about our environment, our children, and education.

Our mission is to advocate for policies and practices that allow all students, teachers and staff to learn and work in a healthy school environment.

By working with this diverse group of stakeholders, we advocate for change in the school environment and raise awareness of the ways that the air children breathe, the food they eat and the opportunities they have to be physically active shape their health and learning for a lifetime.

Programs:

• Food & Fitness
• Environmental Justice & Health Disparities
• Environmental Health
  • Green Clean Schools
  • Green Clean Illinois
• School Nursing
• Policy Initiatives

Healthy Chicago Lawn

Healthy Chicago Lawn is a community-based coalition working to improve the overall quality of life and well-being of the Chicago Lawn community area. The group acts as a neighborhood council member of the Chicago Food Policy Council and will be starting up a community garden in Marquette Park this year.

Starting in April of 2004, Healthy Chicago Lawn undertook a planning process to identify resources and gaps in the community. Based on community members’ experiences, data that describe the community and the availability of local resources, the coalition identified key areas of concern. Coalition members developed strategies to address the identified issues and work together to support collaborative efforts that seek to improve the overall quality of life and well-being of Chicago Lawn.

Action Groups

In order to achieve the strategic goals that Healthy Chicago Lawn coalition members developed, the coalition formed four action groups, each focused on one priority area. Each action group developed a set of activities designed to address the identified issues and is currently working on the implementation of these activities.

• Awareness and Access to Comprehensive Health Services
• Healthy Lifestyles and Behaviors
• Youth
• Community and Civic Engagement

Awareness and Access to Comprehensive Health Services

The Healthy Chicago Lawn coalition found not only a lack of available resources in our community, but also a lack of awareness of what is in fact available, both on the part of community members and service providers. The work of this action group aims to increase knowledge of available resources, decrease barriers to accessing health services, and enhance collaboration among service providers. To this end the group is working on 3 activities:

• Compiling a resource guide for health care/social service providers and residents with comprehensive health care information
• A discussion series among area providers for networking and education
• Targeted outreach for public benefit programs such as Kid Care

Healthy Lifestyles and Behaviors

One of the main priorities of this group is to address the availability of healthy foods in the Chicago Lawn community. Many community members have limited access to grocery stores and do a large portion of their shopping in corner stores. The Healthy Lifestyles and Behaviors group is working with local businesses to provide nutrition information in corner stores as well as sampling of produce, in order to increase both the availability of produce in these stores and the demand from community residents. In addition to promoting healthy eating, the group is working to support teachers and parents through a speaker series in community meetings.

Healthy Albany Park

Healthy Albany Park is a community-based coalition working to improve the overall quality of life and well-being of the Albany Park community area.

Convened in April 2004, the coalition undertook a strategic planning process in which coalition members gathered data and resident input in order to identify resources, gaps and priority issues in the community. The coalition, working with the Albany Park Community, then developed strategies to address these issues in Albany Park. Coalition members now work in Action Area groups to implement these strategies.

The Action Area groups are:

• Wellness
• Positive Youth and Communities Development
• Community Safety

and the secondary Action Areas of

• Employment
• Housing

The guiding strategy for these Action Area groups is to promote both cross-cultural understanding and interaction, as well as resident involvement in community planning and action.

Of particularly direct relevance to community food security initiatives, the Wellness Action Area focuses on both universal, equal access to care and healthy behaviors.

Key Strategy – to maximize the ability of Albany Park Residents to access health care services and minimize health care disparities and then to collaborate with other stakeholders to develop a plan to identify, educate, and promote healthy lifestyles.

Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. This national campaign is comprised of individuals, schools, restaurants, companies, media, cities, and countries pledging to go meatless on Mondays.

The Meatless Monday initiative is spearheading the broad-based, grassroots movement that spans all borders and demographic groups. By cutting out meat once a week, Meatless Monday aims to improve our health, reduce our carbon footprint and lead the world in the race to reduce climate change.

The organization also provides the information and recipes you need to start each week with healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives. Their goal is to help you reduce your meat consumption by 15% in order to improve your personal health and the health of the planet.

A list of meatless restaurants in Chicago can be found at the end of this Chicago NOW article on Meatless Mondays.