Communities United

Communities United and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago will partner in a bold and innovative program to prepare the next generation of Black and Latinx youth (ages 15-24) to create and lead healing-centered communities. Historical and present-day trauma rooted in structural racism has impacted Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities across generations. Amidst the backdrop of the pandemic and national uprisings, there is an unprecedented opportunity to shift power and resources to communities to end the multi-generational effects of racism. Our partnership will bring to scale “Healing through Justice,” a youth-led movement for personal and community healing. Our youth leaders describe a deep process of personal recovery when they actively address the root causes of racial inequities in their communities. The youth believe that community healing will occur when youth leaders, motivated by their own lived experience, drive broad-based community action to address racial inequality.