“We’re committed to helping communities across the nation build a better future,” Netishia Waldron, a medical professional leading the Evanston Path to Health initiative, said while addressing the City Council Monday night.
She spoke of her grandmother’s death from a heart attack when she was not yet 60, and her mother’s death this year from a chronic illness, Waldron added.
Her program, approved unanimously by the City Council, would provide health assistance to some of Evanston’s poorest census tracts, where residents are expected to live up to 13 years less than those in more affluent areas of the city due to chronic diseases and other factors, according to city data.
“Those very health disparities impact my family,” she said.
The one-year pilot program will focus on a neighborhood in southwest Evanston, splitting 150 residents into two groups.
The control group will be provided with food subsidies and a digital monitoring platform to help screen for health issues and provide health information, while the other group will receive the same services as the control group plus “wholesale support” such as cooking classes, fitness sessions and regular check-ups.
Elizabeth Lynch, a professor of preventive medicine at Rush University Medical Center, will collect data from participants and compare the outcomes of the two groups. The study will focus on high blood pressure.
“I’m really pleased to be involved in such a community-driven project,” she said.
The council approved $400,000, which Waldron said will go toward research and testing equipment. The money comes from some of Evanston’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding provided by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This isn’t the first ARPA-funded pilot aimed at the city’s lowest-income residents.
The City Council unanimously approved a new phase of Evanston’s Guaranteed Income Program in March, an initiative that will use $900,000 in ARPA funds to provide $500 per month to 150 qualifying families in census tract 8092.
The neighborhood has become a focal point of the city’s efforts to boost health care revenue. The 8092 neighborhood, located west of the Metra tracks in downtown Evanston, had the city’s highest child poverty rate in 2018, at 28.9 percent, according to the city.
“I’m really pleased that the city is acknowledging this issue and responding by allocating resources and engaging partners in a collaborative approach,” said Councilman Jonathan Neusema (Ward 4). “I really hope that this one-year program will lead to us obtaining ongoing funding and resources from every source we can think of until that 13-year gap is reduced to zero.”
But federal pandemic funding will eventually dry up.
Rep. Thomas Suffredin (6th District) questioned whether the program, if successful, could continue beyond the first year without a funding source.
“The worst case scenario is that this is successful but there’s no funding in the future,” he said.
Waldron said the program has drawn interest from Endeavor Health and other partners because of its research-based nature, and insurance could potentially cover future costs.
Waldron also will launch a health promotion venture in Evanston called Whole Woman Fitness and run a new “Path to Health” initiative.
“We’re educating people on how to change their habits, change their body and actually move in the right direction,” she said.
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