Artists trained as community health workers in city pilot

which is a growing field and to use that training to merge with artistic practices to serve communities.”

Applications close June 22

By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter

A pilot program in the city of Chicago will select 10 artists to receive training to become community health workers, an initiative designed to strengthen trauma-informed and culturally responsive health services in communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this pilot program artists can access career pathways in creative therapy.

“Chicago is ripe with lots of artists who work with community and who think of the work they’re doing, through all kinds of creative interventions, is helping people,” Meida McNeal, senior manager of arts and community impact investments at the Department of Cultural Af fairs and Special Events, said. “They’re helping people express themselves better, mitigate conflict and envision a more productive future for themselves and their communities.”

McNeal said the pilot program is an extension of that work that responds to the labor needs of Chicago artists, many of whom lost their jobs or lacked a sustained income during the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, the pandemic increased the demand for mental health services citywide and nationally. It is the result of a collaboration between the city’s department of cultural af fairs, the Chicago Department of Public Health and City Colleges of Chicago.

“This felt like a great opportunity to mix those two needs, to build a pipeline for ar tists to become community health workers,