Hope Center

Now Open

The Austin HOPE Center Is Open at 5036 W. Chicago Ave.

The Austin HOPE Center is a three-story, 25,000-square-foot facility at 5036 W. Chicago Ave. It offers a welcoming space for youth and families to access community-based services, as well as pediatric clinical and behavioral health care. The facility is owned by Stone Community Development Corporation, with Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago as its anchor tenant.

Ground was broken on June 10, 2024, and the doors are now open to the community.

IN THE NEWS

Watch: The Austin Hope Center Opens

FOX 32 Chicago: New Austin HOPE Center brings pediatric specialty care to Chicago’s West Side

Lurie Children’s Clinical Services

Specialty Pediatric Physical Health Services

High risk asthma and pulmonary
General hematology and sickle cell disease
High blood pressure
Preventative cardiology
Adolescent medicine: Substance use, reproductive health, and disordered eating

Pediatric Behavioral Health Services

Wellness and weight management clinic
GI and fatty liver clinic
Autism care
Psychiatric evaluation
Psychotherapy
Group therapy
Medication management

Austin is one of Chicago’s most historically underserved neighborhoods, lacking essential access to physicians, specialists, and resources needed for children and families to thrive. “As a secondgeneration pastor in Austin, I am proud to bring much-needed high-quality healthcare and services to our community through this project,” said Contrell Jenkins, CEO of Stone Community Development Corporation. “I am thankful to the Austin community for partnering with us at every step of the way, as we developed a plan and designed the building to meet their needs.”

At the center, Lurie Children’s provides a range of pediatric clinical services, including behavioral health, asthma and lung care, adolescent medicine, substance use treatment, heart disease prevention, weight management, wellness, and treatment for sickle cell disease, kidney disease, and autism. These services, chosen through extensive community engagement and analysis of Lurie Children’s patient data, aim to fill existing healthcare gaps in the area.

In addition to clinical services, Lurie Children’s also offers evidence-based community health programs focused on food access, violence prevention, and early childhood support for new parents. Workforce development, research, and volunteering opportunities are also available.

Thresholds, one of Illinois’ oldest and largest providers of mental health and recovery services, will also have corporate offices in the building once the space is complete. These are administrative offices for Thresholds staff.

Wintrust Bank is also a partner in the Austin HOPE Center and is moving into the building. Its branch will be on the first floor at 5046 W. Chicago Ave., on the left side of the building. The branch will bring everyday banking services to a part of Austin that has gone without a neighborhood bank, adding a foundation for financial independence alongside the center’s health and community services.

We are excited to begin construction on the Austin HOPE Center and to collaborate with Stone CDC and Thresholds to better serve the needs of Chicago’s West Side families,” said Mary Kate Daly, Senior Vice President and Chief of Community Health Partnerships and Transformation, who leads the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities at Lurie Children’s, at the June 2024 groundbreaking. “This facility will not only expand access to pediatric healthcare but also to services and opportunities that enhance overall health and health equity in our communities.

From the start, community input has been essential to our planning and development process. We wanted Austin residents, especially the youth, to see their needs reflected throughout,” added Daly. Key project team members, including architects Gregory Ramon Design and TnS Studios, as well as construction managers UJAMAA Construction, are local Black-owned firms. The Austin HOPE Center, named with input from youth at KIPP Elementary School and other local youths, stands for Healing, Opportunity, Partnerships, and Equity. The center is funded through a combination of philanthropy, new market tax credits, and government support.

HELP EMPOWER OUR WORK

Thank you for considering donating to The Stone Community Development Corporation. Your donation will go directly towards the development and expansion of our community programs.

The Austin HOPE Center stands today because a community believed it could be built. For years, families in Austin, one of Chicago’s most historically underserved neighborhoods, went without nearby access to the pediatric specialists, behavioral health care and everyday resources children need to thrive. Stone Community Development Corporation set out to change that. With the support of neighbors, partners and donors, a three-story, 25,000-square-foot center now serves families right on Chicago Avenue. HOPE stands for Healing, Opportunity, Partnerships and Equity, and those four words guide everything that happens inside.

Opening the doors was the beginning, not the finish line. Since 2018, Stone CDC has worked alongside Austin families through youth education and aftercare, arts and music, financial literacy, and job training and workforce readiness. Your gift helps keep those programs running and growing, so that a child can get care close to home, a student has a safe place to learn after school, and a young adult can take the next step toward a career. Every contribution, large or small, is an investment in the people of Austin and in the future they are building together.