The Humboldt Park group celebrated the opening of a $30 million wellness middle Tuesday, marking a big step towards addressing well being inequities in one among Chicago’s most numerous and underserved neighborhoods.
Situated on the nook of Division and Richmond streets, simply south of Humboldt Park, the Humboldt Park Well being Wellness Heart is the most recent initiative aimed toward offering accessible care and selling wellness for residents.
“This middle represents well being fairness in motion,” mentioned Diego Sanchez, chief government of Humboldt Park Well being, on the opening. “We’re persevering with to handle the social determinants of well being in our group by having a middle like this one.”
The occasion introduced collectively group leaders, residents and public officers, together with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and state Sen. Omar Aquino, D-Chicago, who performed a pivotal function in securing state funding for the challenge.
“For too lengthy, this group has been ignored, however right this moment, we live the tagline of the renewed Humboldt Park Well being.” Aquino mentioned. “That is what well being fairness appears to be like like — an funding of $30 million proper right here within the coronary heart of the individuals and group on the West Facet of Chicago.”
Humboldt Park, house to a vibrant Puerto Rican group and different communities of shade, has lengthy grappled with systemic well being disparities. The pandemic underscored these challenges, with the neighborhood experiencing a disproportionately excessive variety of circumstances and deaths in contrast with different areas of Chicago.
A 2018 survey by the Sinai City Well being Institute discovered that 47% of Humboldt Park adults are overweight, in contrast with 29.5% nationally. Diabetes impacts 13% of residents, above the 9% nationwide common, and 18% of adults expertise signs of melancholy, greater than double the nationwide price of seven%.
“Very similar to this group, my household has roots right here,” Aquino mentioned. “This middle is a lifeline for a neighborhood that was an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic and stays disproportionately affected by preventable well being points.”
The three-story, 45,500-square-foot wellness middle gives quite a lot of providers, together with dietary counseling, bodily remedy and different applications targeted on bettering total group well being. It additionally options facilities similar to an indoor observe, health middle and swimming pool.
“By offering well being sources like diabetes training, dietary counseling and entry to a fitness center at an reasonably priced price, we’re addressing this instantly with the group,” Diego Lopez, vice chairman {of professional} providers at Humboldt Park Well being, informed the Chicago Solar-Occasions. “Once we formally open our doorways, I count on there to be a big improve in memberships and a rise in diabetes training programming, dietary counseling and entry to wellness sources for the group.”
Past healthcare, Sanchez introduced plans to construct 100 models of reasonably priced housing to fight gentrification and displacement within the neighborhood.
“That is just the start of a grasp plan for the event of this group,” Sanchez mentioned. “We’re persevering with to handle the social determinants of well being by having a middle like this one, whereas additionally specializing in meals safety, security, and, in fact, housing.”
