2020 Impact: West Side United
In Chicago’s Loop the average life expectancy is 85 years, while in Garfield Park—just seven L stops west—it drops to 69 years, a 16-year “death gap.”
To address this disparity and improve health outcomes for Chicago’s 550,000 West Side residents, six hospitals—AMITA Health, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Cook County Health, Rush University Medical Center, Sinai Health System, and University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System—launched West Side United in 2017.
Today, West Side United is a bourgeoning collaborative of health care institutions, residents, educators, nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, and faith-based institutions that work, live, and congregate on Chicago’s West Side.
This coalition is driven by an audacious goal: to cut the 16-year death gap in half by 2030. West Side United believes that to achieve this vision, we must address the social factors that determine health—that is, the day-to-day experiences and conditions that influence West Side residents’ lives.
The collaborative invests in high-impact initiatives across four focus areas:
Health and Health Care
Economic Vitality
Neighborhood and Physical Environment
Education
“The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated how important public health is to the vitality of our city, and the power of cross-sector collaboration to address complex challenges. I am deeply grateful to the Civic Consulting Alliance team for facilitating collaboration to advance health equity for Chicago’s West Side residents.”
Operational Support
Civic Consulting Alliance continued to provide operational support in three areas to bolster West Side United’s future sustainability:
Strategic Planning – Led by pro bono partner Bain & Company and West Side United’s Strategy Committee, developed its three-year Strategic Roadmap to guide future work
Impact Accountability Dashboard – Building upon Civic Consulting Alliance’s prior work to develop comprehensive goals and metrics, pro bono partner BCG launched a public-facing dashboard of key metrics to track progress and ensure accountability and revamped a portion of West Side United’s website to highlight ongoing initiatives and achievements
Partner Engagement – Led by pro bono partner BCG, developed a multi-faceted framework, playbook, and toolkit for deepening strategic partnerships with the private sector, community-based organizations, technical partners, and others
Governance Structure
Civic Consulting Alliance continued to guide West Side United in building out its governance structure, focusing on two areas:
Community Advisory Council – In late 2019, six of West Side United’s 18 Community Advisory Council members joined its Leadership Council. This gave community members equal voting power with executives from West Side United’s six founding hospitals, and culminated a yearlong effort by Civic Consulting Alliance and West Side United to stand up a governance structure that integrates community members at all levels of decision-making
Legal Structure – West Side United’s six founding hospitals signed a formal collaboration and Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement; the collaborative is now exploring how to pursue a 501(c)3 nonprofit designation to ensure sustainability and guide the work ahead
Outcomes
Operations
3-Year Strategic Roadmap—to guide and align stakeholders on overall strategy
Public-facing metrics dashboard—to track West Side United’s progress and ensure accountability to its mission
Framework—to expand strategic partnerships with private sector, community-based organizations, technical partners, and others
Governance
Governance structure implemented—with community voice at its center
Outputs
Priority Initiatives
60 individuals have participated in the Medical Assistant pathway program and are on a path towards higher-wage employment in clinical positions; first cohort of the Health IT pathway expected to launch at Cook County Health and will upskill 14 Computer Operators to earn industry-recognized IT certifications
$500,000 in grants to 29 small businesses via the Small Business Accelerator Grant Pool and $225,000 to nine nonprofits
$6 million in investments in West Side communities via an Impact Investing committee
West Side United on the path to create a school-based community hub providing primary and mental health services
‘Live Healthy West Side’ launched, with initial successes including designation of East Garfield Park as a Best Babies Zone by the W.K. Kellogg foundation and UC Berkeley, bringing technical assistance and best practices to the community
COVID-19
6 community organizations and 40 healthcare providers engaged in Racial Equity Rapid Response Team to address COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx Chicagoans
Priority Initiatives
Civic Consulting Alliance supported priority initiatives within West Side United’s four focus areas.
Economic Vitality
Our staff, with support from a BCG pro bono fellow, continued to refine the Medical Assistant pathway (now on third cohort) and incubated the Health IT and Nursing pathways, all of which set hospital employees on a path towards higher-wage employment in clinical positions.
Our staff, with support from a CIBC pro bono fellow, expanded and enhanced the second round of the Small Business Accelerator Grant Pool program, enabling investment of $500,000 in 29 small businesses, with support from West Side United, Northern Trust, and JPMorgan Chase’s AdvancingCities; we created a process to award grants totaling $225,000 to nine nonprofits.
Education
We advised West Side United’s program manager and Education Action Team—a council of representatives from the Chicago Public Schools, West Side United member hospitals, citywide and neighborhood-based nonprofits, educators, and community members—on the development and launch of an RFP to create a community hub providing primary and mental health services at a West Side elementary school.
Neighborhood & Physical Environment
We supported the Impact Investing Working Group, which added members of the Community Advisory Council and secured new, non-hospital investors—including the Illinois Medical District, Northern Trust, and the American Medical Association—growing available investment funding to $6 million.
Health and Healthcare
We provided ad hoc support to staff to launch ‘Live Healthy West Side,’ a community health framework promoting health and well-being around hypertension management, and maternal and child health.
COVID-19 Response
In March, West Side United rapidly pivoted to address the COVID-19 crisis. West Side United was chosen by the Mayor's Office as the lead organization for its COVID-19 Racial Equity Rapid Response initiative to address the virus' disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx Chicagoans; Civic Consulting Alliance partnered with West Side United on this crucial work. This initiative is a testament to the effectiveness of West Side United’s innovative, community-driven and collaborative model. Moreover, it highlights the need for addressing the social factors that determine health—as we have seen how factors like race, geography, and employment influence COVID-19 infection and mortality rates.
