Reducing Health Barriers for Chicagoans
Seeding: Making Health Data Robust and Accessible
Seed funding from Sprague led to the creation of the Chicago Health Atlas, a groundbreaking data repository containing hundreds of health indicators, easily searchable by researchers, health providers, students, and members of the general public.
Convening: Moving the Needle on Chronic Disease
Sprague philanthropic support catalyzed the launch of the Chicago Asthma Consortium and Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children, two collaborative initiatives that have improved health outcomes for Chicagoans disproportionately impacted by chronic disease.
Responding: Responding to Emergency Health Needs
Sprague has stood at the vanguard of emergency response to the COVID pandemic, food insecurity, and health challenges being faced by Chicago’s new arrivals. We work to uplift mobile efforts that bring healthcare to where it is needed most.
Impact Spotlight
Chicago Health Atlas
In 2020, Sprague provided seed funding to the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Population Health Analytics Metrics Evaluation (PHAME) Center to develop the Chicago Health Atlas. The result is a free, centralized repository containing over 300 health indicators and more than one million individual data points. Built-in tutorials help to optimize the information collected to date, which continues to grow everyday.
Making Health Data Accessible to All
Users can explore a full range of metrics, maps, and neighborhood details to more fully understand the realities of Chicago’s health landscape. A gold-standard model for the nation, the Chicago Health Atlas is designed to break down the barriers to data, offering free, unfettered access to anaytics for all end users.
Aiding Health Research Initiatives
Download options and scatterplot mapping allow researchers at every level to utilize the Atlas data for studies, projects, and/or infographics for their intended audiences, broadening the reach of the data set.
Building Partnerships
The PHAME Center holds regular convenings to educate the general public about the features and applications of the Chicago Health Atlas. Key partners in this transformational initiative include the Chicago Department of Public Health and Metopio software platform.
Words from our grantees
“Sprague’s funding and partnership have been vital to SUHI’s evolution into a premier community-driven health equity research center. Specifically, Sprague recognized the importance of funding SUHI to formalize CROWD, our CHW training and consulting arm, that supports organization of all types in hiring, training, and developing CHWs, into addition to CHW model development, implementation, integration, sustainability, and evaluation.”
Helen Margellos
President of the Sinai Urban Health Institute