Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) was recently awarded a Healing Illinois grant to foster discussion between central Illinois community members and healthcare professionals around equity in health care.

Healing Illinois is an initiative led by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) and the Field Foundation of Illinois. Statewide, 184 recipients will receive $4.5 million in funding for community-based activities to advance racial healing. In Central Illinois, this grant is awarded by the United Way of Central Illinois. Last month, HSHS announced that it also received a Healing Illinois grant to support a speaker series in Southern Illinois.

The HSHS grant project entitled, “Revealing and Embodying Racial Healing for All People: Healing Central Illinois," will have discussions between community members and HSHS colleagues to advance racial healing. The Healing Illinois grant project in Central Illinois will remember the 1908 Springfield Race Riots and the role of the Hospital Sisters at St. John’s Hospital in offering care for all people regardless of race. 

Invited HSHS colleagues and community members will participate in two, day-long programs in the weeks leading up to Juneteenth. HSHS colleagues from HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield and its affiliated hospitals, including HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur, HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham, HSHS St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield and HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital in Shelbyville, will be participating in this program.

For more information about HSHS, visit hshs.org.