Capital Campaign meets important milestone

August 2007

The completion of a 30,000-square-foot expansion to the South Chicago site moves Chicago Family Health Center closer to achieving its campaign goal. While the completion is a major accomplishment for the Center and the community, the expansion is just the first step to better serving the residents of South Chicago and surrounding communities. The campaign will move forward, with a focus on strengthening services and providing services to the uninsured.

Chicago Family Health Center kicked off its campaign “Promoting Healthy Families. Building Stronger Communities — The 30th Anniversary Campaign for Chicago Family Health Center” in the winter of 2006 with the goal of raising $1.2 million to expand facilities, strengthen services, and keep our promise to the uninsured. The campaign is led by Campaign Steering Committee Chair Reverend Mark Brummel, who is one of Chicago Family Health Center’s founding board members, and Honorary Chair Frank Clark, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ComEd.

“I am proud to be the honorary chairperson of a campaign to ensure that future generations will receive the superior and compassionate care that is Chicago Family Health Center,” Clark said.

The first phase of the campaign, to expand facilities, was completed this summer with the completion of a 30,000-square-foot expansion to the South Chicago Center, and the renovation of the existing building. This expansion increased the number of exam rooms to 30 and dental operatories to eight. The expansion provides the space needed to bring all comprehensive services under one roof. The new building provides the increased capacity needed to serve more than 5,000 new patients over the next five years.

With the newly expanded space, CFHC is ready to embark on its second strategy to strengthen services. Pediatrics is just one of the areas on which CFHC will focus. CFHC envisions increasing is services to schoolchildren by providing city-approved vision and hearing services, school-based health centers, and group well-child visits for children in Head Start. Children will be provided age-appropriate books through the Reach Out and Read Program.

The strengthening of women’s health will focus on nutrition and smoking cessation services for prenatal patients, as well as mammograms and family planning services. Additional resources will be allocated to specialized community health such as on-site services to homeless shelters, increasing staffing in the Developmental Disabilities Program, and increasing services through the Health Disparities Collaborative and community education training tools. In addition, the purchase of a mobile health van and new equipment will further this strategy. The new space creates a demand for more physicians, medical professionals and support staff to provide care.

The third key strategy is based upon the underlying cause for which CFHC was founded — providing services to the uninsured. With the focus on growth, CFHC will not deviate from its mission to provide healthcare to those with limited or no access to healthcare, regardless of economic or social status.

Many patients at CFHC have no insurance and others are inadequately covered. Consequently, each year, CFHC provides a significant amount of charity care and medications to its patients. Last year, CFHC provided more than $3.5 million in charity care. The federal government provides partial funding for this care, but there is a sizeable gap for which CFHC is responsible.

Funding from this campaign will help patients such as Linda Shaw. Like many uninsured patients, when Shaw needed medical attention, she went to the emergency room. One month she would be in the ER because of high blood pressure, and the next month would bring another ailment that needed attention.

Shaw felt helpless, as though she was slipping through the cracks of the healthcare system — until she found CFHC. Under the direction of a CFHC physician, she was taken off all medication prescribed to her, and it was finally discovered that she had multiple sclerosis. As a patient of CFHC, Shaw can affordably access the care and medication she needs.

“From the time I walked in the door, it was just great. Everyone should be able to feel this good about going to the doctor,” Shaw said.

Many organizations have already made pledges to Chicago Family Health Center’s 30th Anniversary Campaign, allowing CFHC to serve patients like Shaw. Those making lead gifts are the Claretian Missionaries, ComEd, Illinois State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, Illinois Senator Kwame Raoul, and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

For more information on how to support the efforts of Chicago Family Health Center, please contact Barbara Tieder, director of communications and external affairs, at (773) 768-5000.