Mission To build community health and economic wellness on Chicago’s West Side and build healthy, vibrant neighborhoods. About Us The nine vibrant and diverse neighborhoods comprising Chicago’s West Side are at the heart of the city’s civic and commercial vitality. Yet people in these neighborhoods experience rates of chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and infant mortality rates far above the national average. Barriers to health and wellness extend far beyond the health sector. Medical evidence shows that the root causes of many illnesses that shorten the lives of people who live in urban areas are not based in biology or behavior, but are instead determined by the social forces like inequities in education, employment, food access, violence and transportation. The arteries circulating opportunity and prosperity to the West Side are blocked.