A Message from
our CEO
Since our founding in 1988, the Westside Health Authority has remained deeply rooted in community action and collective vision. What began as a coalition of parents, churches, healthcare providers, and local organizations uniting to prevent the closures of health facilities on the West Side, WHA has grown into a movement of residents, bringing their voice and action to make improvements in health, public safety, economic development, housing, and social services to our youth, seniors, and returning citizens across Chicago’s Westside communities.
For over three decades, we’ve worked not only as a service provider, but as a catalyst for growth—creating spaces where residents can engage, thrive, and drive positive change. Our mission has always centered on leveraging local capacity, building strong partnerships, and investing in the potential of our own neighborhoods.
We have demonstrated a commitment to local capacity, investing in our people and environment. Since our very beginning, we have brought more than $100 million dollars in collective investment in job creation, home ownership, employment, and community development like the Austin Wellness Center, the Aspire Center for workforce and innovation, the Good Neighbor Center, and infrastructure for arts and culture and community pride.
Coalition building is a key to our success. We have worked with over 100 organizations, to establish colations around health, youth employment, prison reentry, housing, economic development. public safety, civic engagement, incaceration, and community based media.
Our 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.
Our 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.
Our Mission
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.
Our Vision
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.
Demographics
Initiatives that enable growth, engagement, and positive change
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.
Board of Directors
Our Executive Staff
Invest in Kindness,
Reap a Better Future
The services of WHA are made possible through a combination of public and private funding including government, foundations, corporations, and individuals. Your continued support fuels our work with families and businesses on the greater westside since 1988.