NorthShore grants $4 million in funds

Recipients venture to promote, expand community health

By ELLA JEFFRIES daily senior staffer @ellajeffriess

Nine Chicago and Evanston health organizations received a total of $4 million in funding from NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Community Investment Fund.

The fund, which was formed last year, has awarded about $6 million to seven initially selected organizations, which will continue to receive funding in 2023 in addition to the nine new groups. The goal of the fund is to create or expand programming that promotes overall community health needs, such as access to health care, behavioral health care and prevention and management of chronic conditions and diseases.

This year’s recipients include groups that serve the LGBTQ+ and Latine communities, as well as ones that provide mental and behavioral health services.

PEER Services and Treatment

Alternatives for Safe Communities, two organizations receiving grants, both focus on providing Northern Cook County residents with treatment and recovery services for drug and alcohol addictions.

With a $1 million grant, distributed over the next three years, PEER and TASC will partner to create a program connecting individuals within the criminal justice system to substance use prevention and treatment services, according to Anne Brown, development director for PEER services.

“PEER and TASC have been working to identify what’s needed in the community,” Brown said. “We just haven’t been able to meet that need before due to the pandemic when the court system was closed.”

She said the new program will allow TASC to have a full-time case manager at the Skokie courthouse who can connect clients to PEER and other substance use treatment resources in the community. TASC operates primarily in Chicago, but Brown said the grant will help bring its work to Northern Cook County.

Bradley Bullock, director of operations for TASC’s adult criminal justice and treatment services division,

» See NORTHSHORE , page 10