LISC network delivers for Healthy Chicago
John McCarron
Published: June 18, 2012
Dr. Bechara Choucair, commissioner of public health, speaks with Claretian Associates' NCP Director Jackie Samuel. Behind them are LISC Chicago executive director Susana Vasquez CDPH's Erica Salem.
Photo: Gordon Walek
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is tapping directly into LISC’s network of neighborhood groups for ideas on how to advance his administration’s ambitious Healthy Chicago agenda.
On June 12, that network showed why.
Some 50 community leaders – most from NCP – delivered a 20-page set of policy recommendations to Dr. Bechara Choucair, commissioner of the city’s Department of Public Health.
The recommendations (see list at bottom) are the fruit of a 10-week effort by a special committee representing the 16 New Communities plus their local partners on health issues. More than 70 leaders – organized into three subcommittees – have been researching and brainstorming what can be done to make their communities healthier.
Ultimately they settled on eight core recommendations on matters ranging from gun violence to alcohol and tobacco sales, from fresh food access to breast feeding. And there are indications the city will keep LISC’s local experts in the loop as the recommendations move toward implementation.
“The mayor and I knew from the start that we had to work with communities in a very meaningful way to transform and improve the health of our city,” Dr. Choucair told the assembled committee after its presentation. “One of the very first groups, when we started talking about how we can work with the neighborhoods, was the New Communities Program.”
NCP “gets” health
Helping the city identify opportunities for health interventions is a natural for the New Communities, seconded Susana Vasquez, LISC Chicago’s executive director.
er Sacha McLeod and helper Joel Casey are ready to weigh fruits and veggies aboard the Fresh Moves mobile produce market. LISC's health advisory committee has called for more traveling grocers and the city is talking to the CTA about converting additional buses. More info: www.freshmoves.org
Photo: John McCarron
“When NCP agencies updated their quality-of-life plans in 2010, for most the highest priority was public health, broadly understood,” she said. “So our neighborhoods have a deep understanding of and commitment to public health. We knew we could be good partners getting the message across and coming up with innovative ideas. So we’ve activated our neighborhood partners, and their partners, and others who care about community health, in a way we haven’t before. We’re ready to use our local networks to impact community health.”
The LISC committee did most of its work through three sub-committees, each one tackling four of the 12 priorities identified last fall when the Emanuel administration announced its Healthy Chicago agenda. About 70 individuals representing 30 organizations participated, with each subcommittee meeting at least five times.
Dominique Williams, a LISC fellow on loan from the Civic Consulting Alliance, coordinated the project. She said each subcommittee developed just three core recommendations.
The recommendations
One subcommittee addressed adolescent health, HIV prevention, tobacco use and violence prevention. It was co-chaired by Jacqueline Samuel of South Chicago lead agency Claretian Associates and Ulises Zatarain of Pilsen lead agency The Resurrection Project.
“The mayor and I knew from the start that we had to work with communities in a very meaningful way to transform and improve the health of our city,” Dr. Choucair told the assembled committee after its presentation. “One of the very first groups, when we started talking about how we can work with the neighborhoods, was the New Communities Program.”
Photo: Gordon Walek
“We’ve had a series of shootings over the past two years involving both high school and elementary students and it has really broken our hearts,” said Samuel in explaining her subcommittee’s No. 1 recommendation: a citywide fund that would make bridge loans to help local anti-violence programs get started or expand.
Like other presenters, Samuel, the New Communities organizer in South Chicago, was able to cite pilot programs undertaken with NCP assistance that showed promise and deserve more resources.
“We were able to bring in CeaseFire to mediate street-level conflicts and to hire 30 Safe Passage watchers through CPS to make sure youth get to and from school safely,” she said. “But a challenge was funding. We’d win a government grant but sometimes the funds wouldn’t come as soon as needed. There’s a gap. Sometimes a program couldn’t start on time or we might have to lay off staff. So we propose to create a ‘bridge’ loan fund for organizations waiting for more permanent funding.”
The loans would simply cover the period between when a grant was announced and when the funds actually arrived, at which time the loan would be repaid. She suggested civic-minded financial institutions might be willing to participate and charge zero interest for short-term loans, sparing the city any direct expense.
Another subcommittee took on healthcare access, cancer treatment access, communicable diseases and public health infrastructure.
Co-chair Shaan Trotter of lead agency the Washington Park Consortium explained their neighborhood’s NCP quality-of-life plan contained several health-related recommendations … but implementation became the issue. So their sub-committee’s No. 1 recommendation, he said, would be for each aldermanic office to have a paid health coordinator.
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Keywords:
Department of Public Heallth, Healthy Chicago
Posted in Chicago Global
