Gillian Knight
August 27, 2024
Who We Are
We are committed to advancing health equity by centering community context in our grantmaking, strengthening the local health ecosystem by partnering with health equity leaders, and addressing immediate and emerging health needs, especially for those impacted by structural racism and systemic inequities.
Access to affordable, high-quality healthcare is crucial for a healthy life. However, social and systemic conditions, such as your race, ethnicity and where you live, often have a greater impact on overall health.
Since 2017, Healthy Communities Foundation has provided funding to local organizations that drive community-led solutions to promote health equity and expand health opportunities for all community members across its 27-zip code service area in Chicago and western Cook County suburbs.
Guided by our mission, vision, and values, and rooted in our legacy as a health conversion foundation, we are committed to advancing health equity to ensure everyone in our service region has access to the care, resources, and opportunities needed for healthy, fulfilling lives.
Mission
Our mission is to measurably improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities in our service area by promoting health equity, quality and access.
Vision
We envision that individuals, families, and communities in our service region, regardless of where they are born, grow, live and work, have equal and ample access to the care they need to experience full, healthy, and happy lives.
Core Values
Our core values guide our decisions and actions as we work with community toward a healthier, more equitable future. They form the basis for how we engage with partners, approach our work, and stay true to our mission and vision of impact in our service region.
To advance health equity, we must achieve racial equity.
All community members in our service region deserve access to resources and opportunities that enhance their health and well-being. Yet, decades of structural racism and systemic inequities have disproportionately harmed BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color) communities, leading to worse health outcomes, shorter life expectancy, and limited access to care.
We are committed to achieving health equity by addressing the root causes of these inequities. This drives our mission to support organizations and initiatives focused on local health needs and systemic solutions that improve the quality of life for those most affected by health inequities in our region.
As a community-informed foundation, we understand the value that lived experience and proximity to issues bring to our work.
We intentionally recruit staff and board members who live in, have worked in, or have another type of connection with our service region. This philosophy is critical to ensuring our work is strategic and engages community to participate and change systems that impact their health.
Insights from Our Team
Over the past two decades, significant demographic and economic shifts in our service region have deepened health inequities. In response, the Foundation has evolved its investment approach throughout the years to prioritize community-led solutions and systems change efforts that address the social and structural determinants of health in the area.
1999-2000
The Foundation became a legacy health conversion foundation from the sale of MacNeal Hospital to a private company in 1999. The Foundation officially opened its doors in 2000.
2016
A new Board of Directors was appointed and new professional staff were hired.
2017
The Foundation’s leadership initiated a comprehensive strategic planning process focused on re-envisioning its grantmaking approach to meet the health needs of community members in its service region.
2018
Leadership officially renamed the Foundation to Healthy Communities Foundation and implemented its strategic plan, which outlined the mission and vision and commitment to prioritize most of its grantmaking as general operating support and toward communities facing the most significant health inequities.
2020
In response to COVID's impact, the Foundation launched a three-year strategy to strengthen the region's health ecosystem, investing in community-led initiatives for racial and health equity through rapid response funding and collaborative efforts, while leveraging over $15 million in external funding.
2021
The Foundation launched its inaugural multi-year funding partnerships as a new strand of its core general operating support and commitment to trust-based philanthropy. It also established its values-centered, community-informed evaluation framework that measures the impact of the Foundation's grantmaking.
2023
The Foundation officially launched its Policy & Advocacy framework, designed to complement its grantmaking efforts by supporting upstream strategies to strengthen movements and community power and drive change toward health equity in its service region.
2024
The Foundation officially implemented its Healing and Resilience framework, its approach to capacity building, that recognizes the power and potential in supporting local leadership, cultivating organizational well-being and rooting in authentic relationships with partners to understand evolving community needs.
