TWTC staff member talks with TWTC client who is holding her daughter. 

North Shore Senior Center

White Crane Wellness Center

CCAC’s Professional Outreach Coordinator and its Forensic Interviewing Manager presenting at a workshop at the 22nd San Diego International Child Maltreatment Conference on January 31, 2008.

Through the support of Washington Square Health Foundation, the Community Health Educator is able to conduct health information sessions to increase awareness and knowledge about key health practices and health resources among South Asians, Middle Easterners, and Bosnians (Hamdard Center’s target population).

The Hamdard Center for Health and Human Services is a social service, not-for-profit organization that primarily serves South Asians, Middle Easterners, and Bosnians.  Hamdard Center’s programs and services are developed in accordance to the overwhelming needs of the community.  The population Hamdard Center serves has unique cultural and linguistical barriers that prevent them from accessing other service providers.  This has resulted in a significant service gap that continues to grow.  While the agency provides direct health service, there was a need for preventative education.  The need for distribution and linkages among the community about available resources was becoming more and more evident.  Washington Square Health Foundation has recognized this need and funded a Health Education program which is helping to combat these issues.  This program will increase health information among the target groups and create stronger relationships with local health providers to facilitate proper referrals and linkages. 

Washington Square Health Foundation granted funds to Hamdard Center to hire a full-time Community Health Educator.  This Health Educator reaches out to low income, uninsured and underinsured South Asians, Bosnians, and Muslims living in and around Hamdard’s target areas.  The Health Educator provides health education, advocacy and promotes the health and well being of the target populations.  This staff member serves as a liaison to local health providers and governmental health agencies, and works to strengthen Hamdard’s relationships with them. 

The Community Health Educator promotes: a healthy lifestyle, general health and hygiene, women’s health information, and builds, strengthens, and creates new relationships with health care providers.  Through informal marketing and notifying clients on existing service tracks, the response to this program being implemented has been excellent.  Clients and the population at large are looking forward to accessing these services. 

Dr. Michael Burke (Right), Washington Square Health Foundation Fellow in Hematology, Oncology Research (2004-2006) at Children’s Memorial Hospital, along with Dr. William Tse, are analyzing the developmental properties of blood and muscle cells.

Dr. Burke is part of a hematology/oncology team treating over 1,300 patients each year.  The division’s stem cell program, moreover, is among the largest in the nation, performing more than 70 transplants each year and 600 transplants since the program's inception in 1992.  The level of expertise available at the institution combined with its large clinical population makes it an excellent place to test and develop novel stem cell transplantation therapies, which, when completed, will directly translate to better therapies and cures for diseases. 

Dr. Burke, under the mentorship of highly regarded stem cell researcher William Tse, MD, PhD, is focusing his research on the potential of stem cell therapy to regenerate tissue that has been damaged by disease, particularly muscular dystrophy.  Muscular dystrophy (MD), is a term used to describe a group of nine inherited disorders that cause progressive muscle weakness, and affects as many as 110,000 people in the US.  Currently, there is no cure or way to prevent MD, which is why Dr. Burke’s groundbreaking research is so important.

(From left to right)  Dr. William N. Werner, Chairman of the Washington Square Health Foundation Grant Committee, Dr. Arol Augsburger, President of Illinois College of Optometry, Howard Nochumson, Executive Director, Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc., and Dr. Daniel Winship, Chief of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services at Cook County Hospital, discuss the successful Illinois College of Optometry Local Initiative Funding Partner Grant secured from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  Washington Square Health Foundation is the nominating funding partner for this $500,000 grant, that will result, with matching funds, in $1,000,000 of support for Illinois College of Optometry and Vision of Hope Health Alliance.

The VOH project also observed that lack of vision to conduct their daily lives is more likely to send many for care than the dangerous but less symptomatic systemic diseases from which they suffer.  As a result, a significant number of individuals first learn that they need medical attention because they are having vision problems and many more who seek eye care poorly understand their health condition(s) or the long-term implications.  Thus, by delivering health education, improving patient-provider communication, and coordinating case management, eye care and other health care providers have an opportunity to make important links to improve the overall health of the community.

In November 2003, grants from the Washington Square Health Foundation and other local foundations enabled ICO and its partners to begin piloting the Vision of Hope Health Alliance (VOHHA) to coordinate the treatment and management of ocular and systemic disease among underserved populations.  Additional Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) were added to establish the primary health care component of VOHHA and the Washington Square Health Foundation’s grant provided a public health expert to serve a Project Evaluator.  By June 2005, the VOHHA pilot program had served over 700 patients, 19% of whom required medical referrals but did not have a primary care physician. These patients were referred to the partnering FQHCs with the assistance of the program’s case worker.  Another 46% of the patients were provided clinical findings forms to take back to their primary care physician. 

The success of the pilot project positioned the VOHHA program for an application to the Local Initiative Funding Partners (LIFP) program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).  The Washington Square Health Foundation served as the nominating funding partner and led a successful site visit in April 2005.  In June 2005, ICO was named one of seventeen recipients (out of 295 initial applicants) of an LIFP grant from RWJF.  The grant provides up to $500,000 over four years in matching funds which will result in $1,000,000 dedicated to expanding the VOHHA program to serve people in need.  The most recent grant from the Washington Square Health Foundation helped to secure the matching funds for Year One of the program.

Projected outcomes include: providing 4,000 uninsured adults from Chicago with comprehensive eye care and all necessary materials and follow-up services (1,000 patients per year); providing medical referrals to an estimated 800 patients who do not have primary care providers and securing appointments at partnering health centers with the help of the program’s case workers; and providing patient education and encouraging patients to participate in their healthcare.  Institutions from around the country are now interested in this model program
(http://iei.ico.edu/community_outreach/vision_of_hope.html ).

Second year medical student, Catherine Baxtrom, conducts research under the direction of Ronald Wise, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology, John N. Kasimos, D.O., Professor of Pathology, and Dr. Kyle Ramsey, Professor of Microbiology, sponsored by Washington Square Health Foundation at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University.

The investigators responsible for this initial study are Ronald Wise, MD., Associate Professor of Dermatology, John N. Kasimos, D.O., Professor of Pathology, Dr. Kyle Ramsey, Professor of Microbiology and second year medical student Catherine Baxtrom. Spiders have been collected in the homes of volunteers in a manner preventing contamination of the spiders with bacteria not already harbored by them. The spiders are classified by species, then tested for the presence of bacteria both within and outside their bodies. The types of bacteria are identified and the occurrence rate of specific bacteria and location of spiders in the home will analyzed.

This project has been an outstanding opportunity for student doctor Baxtrom to experience the nuances of scientific investigation. She has been an integral part of the project and responsible for the laboratory analyses of all the spiders collected. Additionally, she will be a major participant to the authorship of any papers resulting from this study. Hopefully, her thirst for research will continue through this experience long after she graduates from medical school.

Over 100 specimens have been collected thus far. Results from the study will be forthcoming

Healthy mothers and babies is the objective of Washington Square Health Foundation’s recent grant to Family Christian Health Center’s OB/GYN program, in Harvey, Illinois.

Under the leadership of Dr. William Crevier, the Family Christian Health Center, in its new location in Harvey, Illinois, has established, with funding from the Washington Square Health Foundation, the clinic’s own OB/GYN Program in September 2004.  Located just South of Chicago, in Harvey, Illinois, Family Christian Health Center serves a large population of uninsured and public aid patients who may not otherwise receive adequate medical care.  With a Washington Square Health Foundation grant and grant(s) from other health care foundation(s), Family Christian Health Center has been able to provide OB/GYN services to over 1,600 women through 4,201 patient care visits in the first year. 

The project will improve access to OB/GYN care, reduce the number of low birth weight babies, infant mortality, teen pregnancy and STD rates.  Infant mortality and teenage pregnancy rates in the Harvey community are currently high.  The teenage pregnancy rate is nearly three times that of suburban Cook County and the late entry rate prenatal care is over two times the suburban Cook County rate.  The incidence of cocaine babies in Harvey is among the highest in the state.  AIDS will likely become the leading cause of death of teenage and young adult women.  HIV rates are 2.3 times higher in Harvey than in the rest of Illinois, while STD’s excel Cook County rates by a factor of 8 for gonorrhea, 7 for syphilis, and 4.8 for chlamydia. 

The Foundation has had a continuing relationship with Family Christian Health Center.  It initially provided a $100,000 PRI for start-up costs for Family Christian Health Center, prior to the Center’s move to its new facility.

Now at the “new clinic facility,” the Foundation is continuing, through this OB/GYN program grant, to be a partner with Family Christian Health Center in providing “desperately needed” OB/GYN services to south suburban Chicagoland area communities. 

Through Washington Square Health Foundation’s Grant support, Chicago Youth Programs, Inc. was able to establish in October 2004 the Washington Park Children’s Free Clinic serving Chicago’s south side.

CYP’s award-winning Comprehensive Volunteer Health Clinic – run out of donated space in Children’s Memorial Hospital – has provided accessible, high-quality primary care to at-risk youth, regardless of their ability to pay, for more than 10 years.  A Washington Square Health Foundation grant enabled CYP to recently open its second free clinic – the Washington Park Children’s Free Clinic – to serve the needs of its south-side constituents, using its highly effective north-side clinic as a model.  In addition, Washington Square’s support helped to establish several new preventive health initiatives offered by our acclaimed Children-Teaching-Children Peer Mentoring program (CTC).  Together, these programs work to address the lack of access to quality healthcare for economically disadvantaged youth/families and the need for preventive health instruction that can motivate change in at-risk health behaviors of youth.

CYP’s Washington Park Children’s Free Clinic is completely staffed by volunteer Pediatricians, Pediatric residents and medical students.  Nearly 100% of clinic patients are living in poverty with no insurance or Medicaid, and over 90% live in single-parent families. CYP provides an exemplary level of care and concern, otherwise unavailable to this economically disadvantaged client base. Access obstacles are addressed by providing free door-step-to-door-step van transportation.  A typical visit includes a physical exam and immunizations, as well as vision and hearing screening, anticipatory guidance on child development, preventive health instruction on smoking and substance abuse, violent and non-violent injury prevention, and safe-home instruction.

CYP’s clinic employs a unique approach to delivering healthcare that goes well beyond an annual physical and acute care visits.  Clinic youth are referred to CYP’s comprehensive educational and recreational programs as well. CYP volunteer healthcare providers also participate outside clinic activities as tutors/mentors, therefore seeing their patients outside the clinic, building invaluable trust and developing their understanding of the complex matrix of problems posed by poverty, thereby aiding their medical decision making.

Through Washington Square Health Foundation’s grant support, CYP has dramatically enhanced its unique preventive health initiatives as well.  In its Children-Teaching-Children peer mentoring programs, teens design and then teach lessons to younger youth promoting healthy lifestyle choices on a wide variety of topics critical to their community such as gangs, violence, drug abuse, STDs, AIDS, teen parenthood, and the importance of education.  Effectively overcoming the obstacles that traditional public health approaches aimed at altering at-risk behaviors face, CTC’s teen role models are a powerful force in delivering these positive messages in a way that is sensitive to the language, culture and challenges of the impoverished, high-risk community they live in.  With this grant, CTC teen leaders were able to learn and use diverse media in the production of their lessons, including computers and music/video production and editing equipment, making them more appealing, fun, and professional.   Utilizing these media has allowed CYP to build a library of the teen-produced videos/CDs for future use and wider dissemination through its clinics, as well as public events and programs.
 
With support of the Washington Square Health Foundation, CYP has dramatically increased its ability to provide the high-quality healthcare all children/families deserve, improving their chances for educational achievement and the eventual rise from poverty and all of its associated health and social risks, to enjoy a positive career and financial independence.

Dr. Jose Oberholzer addresses the WSHF Board Of Directors and his fellow researchers to commence a groundbreaking research grant.

Much of Washington Square Health Foundation’s funding allocations provide needed services and equipment to the Chicagoland area. The Foundation, however, also provides funds in areas that might affect a larger geographic scope and population, through its Medical Education and Medical Research program areas. One such Research Grant in the 2003 – 2004 fiscal year was allocated to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), to help organize and implement a 5-Year Plan to Find a Functional Cure for Diabetes.

The Washington Square Health Foundation has been of the belief for some time that a cure for diabetes is possible with today’s scientific knowledge and technology. The key to finding a cure is to find researchers with that knowledge who will commit to the project. Organizing those medical researchers together in an open and collaborative forum with the common goal to cure diabetes in a given timeframe seemed to be the best means to discover and develop a cure. In the fall of 2003, a serendipitous event occurred that made that vision seem possible.

“The Chicago Project” team meets at the Conference to share ideas and develop “The Plan.”

Executive Director Howard Nochumson attended a luncheon reception held by the Dean of the UIC College of Medicine to welcome, Dr. Jose Oberholzer (right), the new Director of Cell Transplantation at UIC, a transplant surgeon and scientist researcher. At the luncheon Mr. Nochumson discussed his vision of a diabetes cure plan with Dr. Oberholzer, who proved to be of a similar mind on the subject and was confident that he could assemble a group of scientists that would be eager to participate in such a project. In developing a plan, it became evident that a team of researchers from a variety of fields would have to be on board to work together on a multi-faceted plan that would utilize all of their areas of expertise in order to carry out the ambitious goal of this project. Mr. Nochumson’s vision for a cure came in a project modeled after the Manhattan Project. Dr. Oberholzer’s vision was modeled after the G-nome Project. What has developed, in this case, is “The Chicago Project.”

Through an international collaboration among scientists, a series of experiments will be conducted during the first four years of the project with the goal of producing human clinical trials of a functional cure for diabetes by year five. No other existing research program is integrating transplantation with developmental biology, chemistry, cell biology, molecular biology and engineering in a direct collaboration. In addition, the participating scientists, (pictured above) are among the strongest in their respective fields and many have collaborated on previous projects.

WSHF President Angelo P. Creticos, MD (center), and WSHF Grant Committee Chairman William N. Werner, MD, MPH (right), express their enthusiasm for “The Chicago Project” to Dr. Jose Oberholzer, Project Coordinator (left).

The collaboration officially began on October 3, 2004 with a Washington Square Health Foundation sponsored research conference that brought together 11 researchers from all over the world. The Foundation’s President, Angelo P. Creticos, MD led the evening by welcoming all of those present for being a part of the great event, extending the Foundation’s support and inspiring them to “stay the course” and keep their eyes firmly fixed on the potential of a cure for diabetes during the following three days. In those days to follow, the 11 researchers would partake in an intensive conference analyzing the problems facing the development of a cure for diabetes and building a plan of action.

The result of this most successful conference, the lay (non-scientific) version of the Five Year Plan to Develop a Functional Cure For Diabetes, is highlighted on our special events page, as it was first “unveiled” at the December 8, 2004 Dinner hosted by the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Washington Square Health Foundation.

The Foundation is certain that the grant made to initiate this project will leave an indelible print on how medical research is conducted today and in the future. It is also hopeful that the grant will lead to a functional cure for diabetes within five years.

CoACH Care Center’s first family to go through the Transitional Care Program which enables them to spend time outside of the hospital, learning practical skills in caring for their delicate newborn with very unique and special needs, smiles with relief and appreciation (above).

The CoACH Care Center Creates the Link Between Hospital and Home for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs by Offering Transitional Care and Training Program at the Center’s CoACH House, Naperville.

The Washington Square Health Foundation approved a grant for CoACH (Coordinating Action for Children’s Health) Care Center to develop a Transitional Care and Training Program at the Center’s CoACH House on their Naperville Campus for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs CYSHCN and their families.

Today, children with complex medical conditions who require medical intervention at home are staying longer than clinically necessary in the hospital simply because services are not available in the community. Our Children’s CoACH House, a Public Health licensed guest house for CYSHCN, offers 24 hour private duty nursing in their Transition Care and Training program for a period of 120 days. The one nurse and one aide for three children ensure quality care and safety while the 12 bed maximum offers the homelike environment families like.

This unique Transition Care and Training program models home health care without the risk of limited or inexperienced pediatric nursing care. It offers nursing agencies time to find trained nursing staff to fill open shifts and prevents hospitals from providing inappropriate care. Funding comes from primarily Medicaid (and some insurance companies) whenever private duty nursing care is ordered by the child’s physician.

CoACH House is fast becoming the link between hospital and home for CYSHCN whose families and providers are seeking alternatives to long hospital stays. In the first six months since the grant was awarded and services began, January 2004, eight children had been transitioned to CoACH House, Naperville.

Thanks to the Washington Square Health Foundation, CoACH Care Center’s Transitional Care and Training program prevented over 150 used bed days throughout Chicagoland hospitals by children who were clinically stable and ready for home. Most importantly, this funding helped children and youth experience a better quality of life outside hospitals and institutions while anticipating their journey home. You can visit them on line at www.coachcarecenter.org

Sue Braun, MS, RN, CS, at work delivering health care services to a Thresholds client.

Washington Square Health Foundation takes pride in pro-actively making grants, in special cases, to transform strong ideas into strong programs in practice. Utilizing the experience and expertise of the Foundation Staff and our Consultants, grant ideas that enhance a particular goal of the Foundation often need to be “fine-tuned” to develop an optimally effective fundable project. From time-to-time the Foundation uses this pro-active method to leverage other funding sources to increase the feasibility of such grant projects. One such grant occurred this year with Thresholds. Its program includes psychiatric rehabilitation centers that serve a population with a primary diagnosis of severe and persistent mental illness.

Along with the obvious problems associated with this disease, Thresholds’ clients are also in need of primary health care services. Many suffer from obesity, diabetes and hypertension, which often go undiagnosed and untreated. These unmet health care needs not only jeopardize mental health treatment but also result in earlier deaths for this group of individuals. Cognitive, behavioral and social factors that characterize mental illness may make Thresholds’ clients unwilling or unable to seek treatment or receive routine preventive and primary health care services. In order to address these continuing needs, Thresholds entered into a partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Nursing. This partnership has proved to be beneficial to all involved. While Thresholds clients are receiving quality health care, some for the first time ever, the nursing staff and students are receiving hands-on experience in working with this very specialized population. This program, which originally received initial Washington Square Health Foundation “seed” money, has been effective on a relatively small scale for the past five years, while the number of individuals receiving care has increased quite rapidly. The annual visits to the health care clinics increased from 2000 in 2001 to 3000 in 2002, and have continued to grow since.

This successful initial growth of the program made it clear that Thresholds might be a prime candidate for funding from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJ) under their Local Initiative Funding Partners program, to expand the collaboration with UIC to be able to treat more patients more efficiently. The recipients of these grants undergo an extremely competitive review process and, if funded, will receive matching dollars of up to $125,000 a year for four years from RWJ. This translates into a $1,000,000 endeavor. In order to aid Thresholds in securing this grant, the Washington Square Health Foundation Staff, along with our Consultant, Kathleen Pietschmann, RN, ND, CS, met numerous times with the staff of UIC and Thresholds to iron out the details of the collaboration on a larger scale. The Thresholds project was approved for RWJ funding and, as a result, was also the recipient of a Washington Square Health Foundation matching Grant. Washington Square Health Foundation’s Executive Director, and its Consultant, spent many hours on this project with Thresholds and UIC personnel to make a successful RWJ proposal.

New Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of the South Suburbs opens and is greeted with a warm welcome from the community.

Washington Square Health Foundation gives Program Related Investments (PRIs), or low interest loans, for special projects that may require substantially more money than our typical grants, or for situations that might fall outside of our regular grant guidelines. Construction, and land acquisition are two examples of situations that would call for a Program Related Investment.

Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of the North Shore, until this past year, served only the north side of Chicago and northern Cook and Lake Counties. In that area, each year, PCCHNS cares for more than 4,000 patients and families in all its programs. Its hospice program gives terminally ill patients the option of dying at home, surrounded by family, free from pain, with peace of mind, and provides support to their loved ones. Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of the North Shore was the recipient of a PRI this fiscal year to expand their services to the southern suburbs. Opening Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of the South Suburbs, as a division of PCCHNS, fills a real, and growing need that exists in the southern suburbs in terms of the availability of Medicare-licensed hospice services for terminally ill patients and their families.

As well as the PRI secured through Washington Square Health Foundation, Palliative care raised substantial funds within the new community in which they serve. They have also partnered with the Flossmoor-based BraveHeart Volunteer Support Teams, which is now able to provide their clients with the end-of-life medical attention and pain control that their clients need outside of counseling and support services. The responsiveness of the community in the south suburbs and the history of success that PCCHNS has had in the northern suburbs has helped to make the transition to the new location run smoothly. The doors have opened to the new site, and services are now being provided.

Grant Committee Chairman William N. Werner, M.D., M.P.H. (Left) presents a check to the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Regional Executive Director, Rabbi William Z. Novick.

Through the continued support of Washington Square Health Foundation, funding had been previously provided (see Highlighted Grants 1998 – 1998, “Washington Square in CyberSpace”) to the Weizmann Institute of Science to conduct the clinical trial for Dr. Hadassa Degani’s diagnostic imaging technique known as the 3TP method, to detect the presence of benign and malignant tumors of the breast and prostrate without the need for invasive surgical biopsies.

The 3TP method identifies tumors, and is also able to differentiate with certainty between benign and malignant tumors through MRI imaging rather than biopsy.

Based upon these clinical trials, the method has recently received FDA approval. Washington Square Health Foundation is continuing to support the Weizmann Institute’s research to improve the accuracy of diagnoses by integrating the current clinical (physical exam and mammography) methods of detection with this new methodology to show how in a clinical setting the inclusion of the 3TP method will reach an accuracy level of over 98% and meet today’s standard of accuracy, the invasive surgical biopsy. For more information on the process visit the highlighted grants from 1998 – 1999’s section entitled “Washington Square in Cyberspace”.

Barbara Sexton, Nurse Practitioner, serving as The Night Ministry’s Community Health Program Coordinator, thanks in part to a grant made by Washington Square Health Foundation, makes ready the supplies for the evening’s health outreach rounds.

The Night Ministry is “an organization created out of diverse religious traditions, [that] build[s] relationships with persons of the nighttime streets that empower them to meet their own needs. Recognizing the uniqueness, dignity and value of each person, we accept individuals as they are, in an affirming and compassionate manner.”

The Night Ministry’s Health Outreach Bus serves nine of Chicago’s neighborhoods, East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Lakeview, Near North, North Center, South Shore, Uptown West Town, and West Woodlawn. Their Neighborhood Outreach Professionals work with the bus and alone on the street in four of those neighborhoods – Lake View, South Shore, West Town, and West Woodlawn. They serve homeless and precariously housed youth and adults, working poor people who are under- or un-insured, people struggling with alcohol, substance abuse and/or mental health problems, young and adult women and men who exchange sex for money, drugs, or survival needs, and recent immigrants. Their clients come from a variety of racial, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Many of those served do not trust traditional health care or social service providers, or they lack access because these services are not available in their neighborhoods, are not open at hours when they can visit, or because they cannot pay, speak English, or show immigration documents.

The Outreach Bus, a 33-foot vehicle with a medical examining room, delivers outreach, engagement, and health services six nights a week, from 7pm – 1am. There are three routes, each repeated twice a week, in order to demonstrate consistency and dependability to populations who find it difficult to trust service providers, as well as help patients learn to manage chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes. The nurses and Outreach Professionals provide HIV/STD prevention counseling and testing.

The Night Ministry has an ongoing relationship with Washington Square Health Foundation. A physician training program to move nurses towards advanced-practice status began with a Washington Square Health Foundation Grant in 1996. The Grant established relationships with The Night Ministry and area Nursing Schools utilizing The Night Ministry as part of the Nursing curriculum, while training The Night Ministry Staff, as well. The continuing education of staff allows them to provide more thorough health care services to the population they serve. This year, with a grant from Washington Square Health Foundation The Night Ministry has added a Nurse Practitioner to serve as Community Health Program Coordinator (pictured above), to conduct a needs assessment on the client population and the health outreach program. She is focusing her efforts on building linkages with community health service providers and public health agencies as well, in an effort to make The Night Ministry’s work more effective in the neighborhoods in which they serve.

The Community Health Corps is an AmeriCorps program, a national service movement --- often referred to as the “domestic” peace corps --- that unites Americans of diverse backgrounds in improving communities. The mission of the Community Health Corps is to implement in a collaborative manner a focused and sustainable public health program for Chicago’s medically underserved communities that develops human resources and leaders trained to effectively address prevention and outreach issues in the area of maternal and child health and whose service has a measurable impact on women of childbearing age, infants, and/or children.

The Community Health Corps partners with approximately 6 Chicago Department of Public Health Initiatives and 6 community-based agencies. Each organization serves as a host to one or more AmeriCorps member(s), providing them with health education and/or outreach project(s). In addition, these partners mentor and support their AmeriCorps member(s) through their term of service.

In October 2002, thirteen Site Supervisors and six Service Leaders attended the Shanti training.
These participants were grateful for this opportunity. As Elizabeth Higgins of Chicago Youth Programs, Inc. wrote, “Shanti’s Training. . .was not only professional, but also motivational with regard to our work at the Chicago Youth Programs. . . Strengthening my understanding of screening, support and supervision, retention and training as integral to our manner of valuing volunteers promises both to better our program delivery to youth and our volunteer experience.”

For children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder/Autism, language-scripting therapy provides significant changes in social interaction with peers. Talk and Play, a multi-media language-scripting therapy study compares video versus picture-book scripts to determine which has the better long-term effectiveness in a variety of typical social situations.
Twelve children were divided into two groups, one using video scripts and the other using picture-books. Each group met three days a week, an hour each day for eight weeks. This intense treatment used both speech and occupational therapy for an integrated approach.

Each week, pre and post tests were administered to assess retention of language scripts, and initiation and response to peer conversations during play activities. Preliminary results indicate Talk and Play has been successful in creating positive outcomes. Follow-up data will be collected to see if this initial result is maintained for each child and to see if one method of scripting proves more effective.

Talk and Play will be presented at the Council for Exceptional Children Conferences in April 2002. The initial funding to support the preliminary results of this research was made possible through a Washington Square Health Foundation Grant.

2003-2004 Update
Easter Seals: Playtime Talk Research Report

A Single Subject Design Study to Determine the Efficacy of Playtime Talk Therapy for Children with Pervasive Developmental Delay (PDD)/Autism was funded by the Washington Square Health Foundation in January of 2004 to validate the scientific results of the Talk and Play program hypothesis that Playtime Talk strengthens social interaction skills for young children with PDD/Autism. The conclusions and scientific findings of the study can be found in the link provided here: Playtime Talk Research Report.

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Society Needs A Few, No Many, Good Volunteers

Improved medical care has enabled more and more elderly to live far longer than possible in the past. This increasing number of elderly do, however, need some sort of assistance because of their diminishing ability to manage the tasks of daily living without help. Volunteers are a growing source of that help. The Washington Square Health Foundation recognized the need for tested training and management methods to assure the efficient and cost-effective use of volunteers.

A grant from the Washington Square Health Foundation enabled the Shanti National Training Institute (SNTI) to introduce and test its model of volunteer training and management in Chicago. Shanti of San Francisco is best known nationally for its successful training of more than 8,000 volunteers to help people with HIV/AIDS, but more and more non-HIV service providers were turning to it for advice on using volunteers to assist other people with diminished abilities or chronic illnesses, particularly the elderly.

Service providers and family members alone are unable to provide the assistance currently needed by some 1.6 million people over age 65, much less assist an estimated 2.1 million people by the end of 2001. A properly prepared workforce of volunteers will be needed in every major urban area to provide adequate and affordable assistance to special populations. Toward that end, in Chicago, as part of the Washington Square Health Foundation grant, Shanti National Training Institute held a workshop in January 2000 for 11 participants representing nine Chicago service providers, including four providers whose overall mission is to serve the elderly.

Participants reported that the workshop enabled them to enhance in some way volunteer programs when they returned to their agencies. The Council for Jewish Elderly, after participating in the workshop, requested that Shanti conduct training for agency staff in developing strategies for working effectively with volunteers. Other agencies also availed themselves of the follow-up technical assistance provided by Shanti and reportedly introduced one or another enhancement. In addition to helpful relation-ships established with Shanti, the participants were inspired to renew or establish working relationships with other participating providers. Finally, the workshop set the stage for a partnership between Shanti and Chicago's Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly, which will assure Chicago a public forum on volunteers, and provide volunteer-dependent agencies a continuing source of strategies for the recruitment, training and retention of volunteers.

This grant is an example of fostering collaborative activities of agencies to pro-vide cost-effective services. The program also builds upon lessons learned from grants, projects and service activities involving HIV/AIDS supportive services, an area in which Washington Square was and is a Chicagoland and national leader.

The need for a more rational and replicable method of training and managing volunteers readily became apparent to the Foundation during its initial HIV/AIDS "volunteer" grants. We are pleased that these lessons are now being applied by Shanti in the Chicagoland area to bring needed volunteer services to senior citizens, many of whom have chronic diseases and are medically and financially indigent.