North Lawndale

For decades, the North Lawndale community has been seen by outsiders as a neighborhood of the permanent underclass. Social ills such as economic poverty, academic under-achievement, inadequate health care, criminal activity, and substandard housing have dominated people’s perception of the Lawndale community. Community residents and neighborhood leaders, however, have had a very different message: “North Lawndale is a community of opportunity and hope.”

Incredible work has been done in the areas of affordable housing, economic development, quality health care, educational reform, and community beautification and this once “blighted community” is finally being recognized as a place of revitalization and hope. Although the social ills of poverty and unemployment have not vanished, residents and community agencies are now focusing on our assets as the building blocks of health community development.