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About 10 years ago, Pierre Shuttlesworth’s mother was dying from cancer. During the years the South Side native was getting treatment, her son noticed there weren’t enough transportation options to get her to every medical appointment.
Shuttlesworth, who has a background in creating tech platforms, decided to create a company and app for those who need non-emergency transportation for medical reasons.

The south side of Chicago has some of the most severe health inequities in Illinois, including greater incidence of infant and maternal mortality and occurrence of heart disease. Fixing the disparity with health outcomes for the state’s Black communities was a priority of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

A new state-funded coalition of health care organizations seeking to expand primary care access by 50% on the South Side now has a chief executive: native Chicagoan Kimberly Hobson, a veteran of several Chicagoland hospital and health organizations.

A coalition of South Side health care providers, including University of Chicago Medicine and Friend Health, have established the South Side Healthy Community Organization through the state’s Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives program, aiming to expand primary, specialty and preventative care.

The state has agreed to provide tens of millions of dollars to coalitions that are proposing to improve health care on the South and West sides.
A South Side group, a coalition of big and small hospitals and health clinics, will receive approximately $26 million from a state fund created this year. The final amount is subject to final negotiations, a spokesman for the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services said.

With the goal of helping hospitals and clinics improve patient outcomes and reduce health disparities, the state and federal money is part of the $150 million Healthcare & Hospital Transformation plan that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law in March.

Governor JB Pritzker today announced $94.3 million will be awarded in the state’s inaugural round of Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives funding.

After months of community meetings, town halls, and Zoom calls, the South Side Health Transformation Project (SSHTP) was gratified to hear in January that the Hospital and Healthcare Transformation Bill unanimously passed in the Illinois legislature. Governor JB Pritzker signed it into law mid-March, launching an application process to allocate $150 million each year for the next five years to address health inequity by sustainably improving access and outcomes to healthcare for underserved communities.

Calling it a “giant leap forward” in the mission to reduce inequities across Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker Friday signed into law the Healthcare and Hospital Transformation bill.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Healthcare and Hospital Transformation bill into law Friday. The bill will invest $150 million

As faith and community leaders, we were so grateful to see legislators come together a few weeks ago and take serious steps to improve health equity across the state. As faith-based leaders and community organizers, we applaud the unanimous decision of our state legislators to officially start the process for allocating $150 million this year in health transformation funding for neighborhoods where the needs are greatest—especially on our city’s South Side.