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Ms Quiwana Bell
Ms Quiwana Bell is the Chief Operating Officer of the Westside Health Authority.
Westside Health Authority
Westside Health Authority has served the Austin neighborhood and the greater west side of Chicago since 1988.
Born directly from west side area residents desire to empower themselves and create a safer, more vibrant community, which connects residents to economic, cultural and social service opportunities.
Today WHA serves an estimated 22,000 residents annually through direct and indirect services at 6 locations throughout the west side of Chicago. The WHA’s innovative initiatives serve as a catalyst for bringing neighbors together, and connecting the neighborhood to jobs, economic redevelopment, community activism and other vital social service resources it richly deserves.
Organization
Westside Health Authority (WHA) is a 501(c)3 organization serving the Austin neighborhood and the greater Westside of Chicago since 1988. Local residents make up the base of our engaged and committed coalition of stakeholders; they are the authority on the needs of their own community and provide the directives on how the organization can be most impactful. Using public and private resources, WHA provides the services and support needed to help neighbors and families build a better community.
Vision/Mission
WHA envisions a future in which all of Chicago’s residents are contributing members of safe and sustainable communities. By tapping into the skills and resources of community members, WHA empowers those who are often perceived as victims. By combining their efforts with support from local institutions and businesses, healthy neighborhoods can emerge, replacing blight and violence with opportunity and growth.
WHA’s mission is to use the capacity of local residents to improve the health and well-being of the community. For WHA, health is defined broadly to include the social and physical environment which contributes to the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of a person. It also includes relationships with family, friends and neighbors, and the ability to find stable employment.
History
Founded in 1988, the Westside Health Authority began as a coalition of parents, churches, healthcare providers and community-based organizations that worked to successfully prevent the closure of St. Anne’s Hospital. Since then, the agency has continued to leverage resources and relationships to promote wellness and development for Chicago’s Westside neighborhoods.
During its nearly three decades of operation, the Westside Health Authority has succeeded in being more than a service-provider, but a place that encourages and enables growth, engagement, and positive change. Notable among WHA’s success stories are:
- Every Block A Village: WHA formed an initiative which works with “citizen leaders” to find solutions to problems identified in the community; organizing local residents to create networks of support on over 100 blocks in Austin.
- Austin Wellness Center: Citizen leaders and Austin residents raised the initial funds ($60,000) necessary to build the 28,000 square foot Austin Wellness Center, which is home to the Austin Cook County Clinic and other health providers. The state-of-the-art facility was completed in 2004 with 80% minority contractors and relied on workers from the local labor force. The Center was the first new construction in Austin that was not a church or school in forty years, and sparked development and investment in the surrounding areas.
- Community Re-Entry Services: In addition to operating one of Chicago’s two “one-stop-shops” offering life-building services for ex-offenders returning to their communities, Westside Health Authority developed and facilitates the state-wide Community Support Advisory Council (CSAC). Comprised of clergy, support service providers, community building organizations, and others, CSAC works to establish strategies for working together to reduce recidivism rates.
- Employment Services: With more than 1000 client visits monthly, WHA has placed and trained more than 10,000 residents – including youth, veterans, ex-offenders, and homeless individuals – in jobs since 2005.
Our Community
WHA has operated out of the Austin community of Chicago since the organization’s founding in 1988. With more than 98,000 people living within 7 square miles, Austin has the largest population and one of the largest land areas of Chicago’s 77 officially defined neighborhoods (2010 Census). It is bordered by the suburbs of Cicero to the south and Oak Park to the west. The rest of the community is buffered from other residential neighborhoods by the Eisenhower Expressway toward the northern border and industrial districts to the east.
The community’s history is marked by decades of growth followed by decline with the exodus of predominantly white residents in response to persistent infrastructure problems, disinvestment, mortgage redlining, and blockbusting. Since the 1960s, Austin’s population and demographics have shifted to a predominantly African American community, with a median household income of $37,123. The population is getting increasingly younger as well, with one-fifth of Austin residents being between the ages of 6 and 17 years old in 2010.
Demographics: Asian – 0.58%, Black – 85.1%, Latino – 8.85%, White – 4.43%, Other – 1.03%
Founder’s Message
We have seen major changes during the past 27 years. In our early years, we fought to restore health care services at the former St. Anne’s Hospital facility and to keep Bethany Hospital open. Both of these objectives were met through the collaboration and hard work of so many community organizations. In those early years, none of us were paid for the two years we worked on these projects. In 1990, when we formed the corporation, we were gaining a national reputation as a group which could save hospitals, which were closing all over the country. We neither wanted nor deserved the reputation and quickly began meeting with community people to shape our identity. Our hope was to give community people a voice, believing that community people themselves knew what was best. I made a commitment to work based on their ideas, regardless of funding or a paycheck.
The people said five important steps were needed to improve the community. Their major priority was the elimination of drug sales in the community. They didn’t think this was possible until more jobs were created and they felt that more businesses were necessary to create jobs. They were concerned about the decline in moral values among youth reflected in the open disrespect on the streets and in the classrooms. They were concerned about the isolation and lack of relationships among neighbors; several had “remembered when everybody looked after each other,” and helped with each other’s children.
We followed the community’s leadership and worked with five hospitals and four high schools to create 290 paid internships for youth in entry level health care jobs. The program and staff were incorporated into the Board of Education’s structure and WHA now operates a full employment program in partnership with the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois Department of Corrections.
We identified neighborhood businesses and assisted them with identifying contracting opportunities to access more than $10 million dollars in new contracts. These businesses now operate through a network organized by WHA, and the Austin Chamber of Commerce, which provides updates about building projects and other development opportunities in Austin and throughout Chicago.
To promote positive norms and values among the youth, and to improve civic engagement, WHA began block organizing in 1994. We targeted blocks in Police Beat 1534, which surrounds our facility and quickly began to identify Citizen Leaders, who were anxious for a change, and willing to work. We engaged more than 600 community residents in community improvement projects. They worked with the police on the CAPS program, at the YMCA as tutors or coaches, ran community gardens, taught sewing to youth and seniors, mentored gang members, organized grandparents clubs at three elementary schools, coached little leagues, coordinated a farmer’s market, shared computers, gave spiritual guidance and more. They demonstrated their commitment and love for Austin, when they raised the first $60,000 to build the Austin Wellness Center. I am humbled and honored by their commitment.
-- Jacqueline Reed
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