HUMBOLDT PARK — A neighborhood dwelling well being group is seeking to open a $7 million wellness and workforce improvement heart within the coronary heart of Humboldt Park to fight well being disparities within the neighborhood.
ASI Home Care, a corporation presently headquartered on the sting of Humboldt Park and West City at 700 N. Sacramento Blvd., plans to accumulate a chunk of land from Humboldt Park Well being at 1044 N. Francisco Ave. to construct the 16,000-square-foot facility, ASI House Care CEO Marta Cerda stated.
Below the plan, the ability would home workforce improvement and coaching packages aimed toward serving to close by residents safe jobs in dwelling well being, together with different high-demand industries, like data expertise and manufacturing. The group plans to associate with native faculties and Latino-led suppliers on the packages, Cedra stated.
The constructing would additionally home ASI House Care’s administrative places of work, basically serving because the group’s new headquarters, in addition to a reminiscence care heart for sufferers affected by ailments like Alzheimer’s, she stated.
Credit score: Courtesy of City Works and AP MonarchBased in 1975, ASI House Care supplies bilingual dwelling well being to post-acute sufferers, older individuals and other people with disabilities, in keeping with its web site. Via the group, sufferers obtain help from nurses and different well being professionals from dwelling. The demand for such care has risen in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a serious purpose the undertaking is gaining momentum, Cerda stated.
However even earlier than the pandemic, Humboldt Park was in want of a wellness heart, Cerda stated. Neighborhood residents disproportionately battle from poor well being outcomes like diabetes and weight problems, in keeping with a Sinai Urban Health Institute survey. Many additionally undergo from meals insecurity, the survey discovered.
With the brand new facility, ASI hopes to enhance well being outcomes amongst residents, enhance employment and bolster the rising dwelling well being business on the similar time, Cedra stated. The ability will allow ASI to coach about 15,000 dwelling well being professionals yearly, she stated. The group presently employs 350 individuals.
“Employment is a key determinant of well being, so it’s so necessary we now have [job training] inside our facility,” Cedra stated.
ASI House Care is within the strategy of securing funding to make the undertaking a actuality, Cerda stated. The undertaking — estimated to value at the least $7 million — requires a patchwork of metropolis, state and federal funding, together with personal {dollars} and new market tax credit, she stated.
The group is in talks with Humboldt Park Well being officers to purchase land on the hospital’s campus, however the deal hasn’t been finalized but, Cerda stated.
Cedra, who served as Humboldt Park Well being’s board chairman 2003-2012, declined to supply a particular tackle, citing pending negotiations. However ought to the whole lot fall into place, the group hopes to start out building by the autumn and open the constructing in 2023, she stated.
Humboldt Park Well being officers didn’t reply to requests for remark Wednesday.
If realized, the undertaking would strengthen ASI House Care’s years-long partnership with Humboldt Park Well being, Cerda stated. The 2 organizations have labored in tandem to deal with sufferers in Humboldt Park for years, together with in the course of the pandemic, she stated.
Cedra stated the ability shall be a “transformational” undertaking in Humboldt Park.
“This new constructing is an enlargement of our dedication to bettering entry to high quality well being care, take care of the aged and employment alternatives. It’s an enlargement of what has been on the core of ASI since 1975,” she stated.
To this point, the undertaking has the help of a number of native elected officers and organizations, together with the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“It is a good undertaking as a result of there’s been all this speak about gentrification. That is really going to create jobs within the space,” chamber President Jaime di Paulo stated. “Good initiatives don’t imply gentrification. It needs to be a great accountable undertaking that actually values the tradition of the neighborhood … that’s what they’re all about.”
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