CHATHAM \u2014 Lace up your gym shoes, bring your insurance questions and grab a neighbor, family member or friend: Block Club Chicago is hosting our South Side Health & Wellness Fest in just a few weeks, and you\u2019re invited.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Nov. 7 at Shine Bright Community Center, 8560 S. Cottage Grove in Chatham, Block Club Chicago and more than 25 community partners will convene a day of resources, care and community spirit in service of our neighbors across the South Side.<\/p>\n
The event is free and open to the public, and we encourage advance registration here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following decades of disinvestment, Chicago\u2019s South Side is challenged by wide health equity gaps leading to shorter life spans and lower quality of life. But it doesn\u2019t have to stay this way. <\/p>\n Our South Side reporters constantly chronicle efforts by community members to build more health and wellness resources in their neighborhoods. And now, we want to get them \u2014 and you \u2014 together to celebrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n The event kicks off at 9 a.m. with a fun run\/community walk with various distances and pace groups, led by Read & Run Chicago and Chicago Run around the Chatham neighborhood. Joabe Barbosa<\/a> \u2014 the newly minted Guinness World Record holder for running on every single block in the city and gaining popularity on social media for his debunking of negative narratives of the South and West sides \u2014 will be on hand to get the fest started.\u00a0<\/p>\n South Side Sweats and Mycala Smith will lead free low- and high-impact exercise classes, and community healer Pilar Audain will offer two guided meditation sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n From 10 a.m.-3 p.m., attendees can visit dozens of community partners to get their blood pressure tested, receive a cardiac ultrasound, review their options for insurance (including Medicaid and Medicare), learn about mental and behavioral health resources, pick up free dental items, meet local midwives, experience a free chair massage and more. <\/p>\n At noon, we will provide a free meal to up to 250 attendees. Juice and tea vendors will have samples for people to explore their products. And Chicago\u2019s own Bubble Lady<\/a> may make an appearance with her joyful bubble machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n All that we\u2019re missing is you! Register for free today<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Explore our full list of community partners below. We\u2019re glad to welcome Rush University Medical Center and the Chicago Vein Institute as sponsors. Please reach out to christine@blockclubchi.org<\/a> if you\u2019d like to support this event.\u00a0<\/p>\n Healthcare & Insurance Partners<\/p>\n Northwestern Medicine \u2013 cardiac ultrasounds, blood pressure screenings<\/p>\n Rush University Medical Center<\/p>\n Heartland Alliance Health dental team<\/p>\n Cook County Health<\/p>\n South Side Healthy Community Organization<\/p>\n Lurie Children\u2019s<\/p>\n Near North Health<\/p>\n Mental & Behavioral Health<\/p>\n Sinai<\/p>\n Trilogy<\/p>\n Dabney Behavioral Health<\/p>\n Pilar Audain \u2013 guided meditation sessions<\/p>\n Grocery & Food\u00a0<\/p>\n Southside Market co-op<\/p>\n Go Green Community Fresh Market<\/p>\n Maternal Care<\/p>\n Black Midwifery Collective<\/p>\n YWCA<\/p>\n Community Workout Groups<\/p>\n South Side Sweats<\/p>\n Mycala Smith\u00a0<\/p>\n Read & Run Chicago<\/p>\n Chicago Run<\/p>\n Joabe Barbosa \u2013 the first person to run on every single block in Chicago, per the Guinness Book of World Records<\/p>\n Others<\/p>\n Self Help Federal Credit Union<\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s Association<\/p>\n Chicago Police Department Office of Victim Services<\/p>\n Blood Cancer United<\/p>\n Gift of Hope organ donation network<\/p>\n Chicago Spine and Joint Care \u2013 chair massages<\/p>\n Chicago Vein Institute<\/p>\n Vendors\u00a0<\/p>\n Jada Juice<\/p>\n Conscious Market \u2013 vegan food<\/p>\n Sippin\u2019 with Sam<\/p>\n ______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n Support Local News!<\/p>\n Subscribe to Block Club Chicago<\/a>,\u00a0an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago\u2019s neighborhoods. Already subscribe?\u00a0Click here to gift a subscription<\/a>, or you can\u00a0support Block Club with a\u00a0tax-deductible donation.<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHATHAM \u2014 Lace up your gym shoes, bring your insurance questions and grab a neighbor, family member or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[831,337,97,2628],"class_list":["post-873253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-featured","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}