Silver Cross community health organization marks 15 years

Before Silver Cross Hospital opened its replacement campus in New Lenox in 2012, it “pledged to honor our enduring commitment to the people on Joliet’s east side,” Ruth Colby, Silver Cross president and CEO said on a Silver Cross video.

So 15 years ago, the Silver Cross board of trustees, along with a group of community leaders, began the Silver Cross Healthy Community Commission, a community-based organization “like no other in our region,” Colby said in the video.

“This organization would exist solely for the purpose of ensuring a stronger, healthier future for residents who lived adjacent to our former campus,” Colby said in the video.

The HCC provides support for education, enrichment activities for youth and workforce development training, according to a news release from Silver Cross Hospital announcing HCC’s 15th anniversary.

The late Margie Gavin Woods served as first chair of the HCC from 2008 to 2020.

Since its inception in 2008, the HCC has awarded more than $3 million in educational scholarships, workforce development and quality-of-life grants to many east side Joliet residents and organizations, Silver Cross said.

HCC board member Cesar Cardenas said in the release that the HCC helped fund a new and upgraded computer lab at the Spanish Community Center in Joliet.

“With that, the Spanish Community Center was able to provide more [English as a second language] classes for the community,” Cardenas said in the release.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the HCC worked with Silver Cross Hospital and the Spanish Community Center to raise awareness about COVID-19 risks and the vaccine’s importance, Silver Cross said.

In 2013, the HCC’s work led the Veterans Administration to open a mega-outpatient clinic for area veterans in the former Silver Cross Emergency Department, Silver Cross said.

Also in 2013, Silver Cross and the HCC brought Aunt Martha’s to the former hospital campus. This federally qualified health care center provides medical, dental and behavioral health services to low-income and underinsured residents, Silver Cross said.

In 2017 and through a partnership with Volunteers of America, Hope Manor Joliet was built on 8 acres, which Silver Cross donated.

Hope Manor is a three-story, 67-unit housing development for veterans with disabilities who are either homeless or at high risk of homelessness. Hope Manor is within walking distance of the veterans clinic.

For more information about HCC, visit silvercross.org/hcc.