Building strong and meaningful relationships with the South Side community

The University of Chicago Medical Center’s Office of Community Affairs (OCA) is committed to building strong and meaningful relationships with the surrounding community and recognizes that these relationships will help improve health outcomes on the South Side of Chicago. The OCA helps facilitate that commitment by providing leadership and support for a variety of activities that establish the Medical Center as a trusted and valued partner in the community, and establishing and maintaining relationships with community groups, faith-based organizations, community leaders and all of our neighbors on the South Side.

The “community” is defined as the 34 neighborhoods on the South Side which comprises our Primary Service Area (PSA) for the Medical Center and communities where the Urban Health Initiative is focused.

The Office of Community Affairs strategy focuses on four broad goals:

  • Promoting an internal culture that respects the community, encourages civic engagement, and values diversity.
  • Building relationships and strengthening channels of communication between the Medical Center and the community.
  • Supporting community-based health programming.
  • Leveraging internal resources to benefit the community.