Community Partners

It’s been said that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes the effort of many individuals and groups working together to build a healthier community. For over a century, Silver Cross has formed valuable partnerships with many organizations throughout the area to improve the health and quality of life of all those within all the communities we serve. Here are just a few of our partners:

Aunt Martha’s Joliet Community Health Center

Aunt Martha's began in 1972 as a drop-in Center for troubled youth but has grown to become a health care and social service agency that provides services such as primary health and dental care, mental health counseling, child welfare, juvenile justice, prevention, and youth development. Aunt Martha’s has locations in northern and central Illinois that provide services to over 70,000 clients annually.

In June 2013, Aunt Martha’s opened a new Community Health Center in Joliet, IL. 2.2 acres of land was donated by Silver Cross Hospital to Aunt Martha’s Youth and Health Center along with $550,000 in operating support for the new Federally Qualified Health Center. The facility includes 21 medical exam rooms, 9 dental rooms and 5 behavioral health offices.

Catholic Charities Daybreak Center - Back to School Fair

For more than 20 years, Silver Cross Hospital has partnered with Catholic Charities Daybreak Center in coordinating the annual Back to School Fair to help children prepare for the start of the school year. The fairs involve health and human service agencies including Silver Cross that provide free service to over 3,500 low-income families living in Will County. Silver Cross employees have volunteered their time and talents at Joliet Catholic High School assisting with school and sports physicals. Other services provided are preventive and urgent dental care, vision acuity tests along with asthma and lead screenings. In addition, children entering kindergarten through 12th grade receive backpacks filled with school supplies.

Drunk Driving Education

For over ten years, local High School students along with their parents witnessed the dangers of drunk driving at the “Road to Reality” program at Lincoln-Way Central, Lincoln-Way West, Lincoln-Way East, Providence Catholic High School, and Lockport High School. With the help of live actors, the impact of drunk driving unfolds before the students’ eyes as they witnessed a series of live scenes depicting students drinking at a party, a motor vehicle crash, a simulated hospital Emergency Department, and ultimately an appearance before a judge. After which, a real coroner gives a very powerful/reality speech on the permanent loss due to drinking and driving. The program also includes content about distracted driving, drinking, and drugs while driving in these programs. Silver Cross employees volunteered to enact a real Emergency Department experience, simulating care to both the drunk driver and other victims involved in the accident.

Harvey Brooks Foundation

The Harvey Brooks Foundation (HBF), located on Joliet's southeast side, is an organization formed by professionals within the All Nations Church of God In Christ to address the needs of area youth, adults and families in its surrounding low-income community. Over the years, HBF has offered a variety of programs that positively impact youth development and leadership, which is an ultimate correlation to employment, income potential, neighborhood stabilization, business development, and community safety. The Silver Cross Healthy Community Commission has given the HBF a grant to help fund positive community programs.

Hispanic/Latino Coalition of Will and Grundy Counties

The Hispanic/Latino Coalition of Will and Grundy Counties (HLC) develops collaborative partnerships to increase access to information, resources, and services for the Hispanic Latino community. The Silver Cross Healthy Community Commission has given the HLC a grant to fund individual scholarships.

MAPP (Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships)

Silver Cross Hospital continues the tradition of caring for the community by providing programs and services that meet the community needs. To ensure we are aligned with the most current community needs, various staff members from Silver Cross Hospital have participated on the Steering Committee, Chronic Conditions Action Team, and Access to Care Action Team for the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) process.

Through MAPP, Silver Cross Hospital participated with other healthcare and community organizations to create the Will County Community Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan. This assessment utilizes national public health performance standards innovated by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MAPP has enabled organizations to engage in a county-wide strategic process to ensure that area residents receive the best possible public health services.

Silver Cross Hospital has used the Will County Community Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan as a resource tool to develop its community programming.

National Hook-Up of Black Women, Joliet Chapter

The National Hook-Up of Black Women, Inc. (NHBW, Inc.) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and their families through support of the arts, culture, health and human service initiatives. The Joliet chapter has partnered with Silver Cross Hospital to increase literacy through the Reading For Life Literacy Program. As part of a two-year, $10,000 pledge, the hospital donated funds, furniture, and computers to help establish the NHBW & Silver Cross Reading Room. Silver Cross continues to promote the program with annual grants.

• Unity CDC, Center for Working Families - 1 Doris Avenue, Joliet
• Fairview Homes Community Center - 1426 Englewood Street, Joliet
• Forest Park Community Center - 1017 Woodruff Road, Joliet
• Shiloh Baptist Church - 181 Oak Avenue, Lockport

The NHBW & Silver Cross Hospital Reading Corners locations are:

• Aunt Martha’s - 1200 Eagle Street, Joliet, IL
• St. Johns - 403 N Hickory Street, Joliet, IL
• Broadway Center - 110 Willow, Avenue, Joliet, IL
• Good Shepherd - 151 E Briarcliff Road, Bolingbrook, IL

At the Reading Room, children and parents are able to swap, borrow or take a book to keep in their own personal libraries. Events include Real Men Read Night, Book Chat, Book Swap, and a Family Read Night with Open Mic. During the past three years, the Reading for Life Literacy Program provided more than 10,000 books to over 3,000 children and adults in the community.

Joliet Chapter, National Hook-up of Black Women, Inc. Reading for Life Literacy Program [647KB PDF]

Neighborhood Improvement

Over the past several years, Silver Cross has worked closely with the City of Joliet, Will County, and State officials to enhance the quality of life on the eastside of Joliet. Our combined efforts have resulted in a much-needed stoplight at Briggs & Copperfield Streets; streetlights on both Copperfield & Walnut Streets, the widening of Walnut St. to include more curbs and sidewalks and, a picturesque park at the corner of Walnut St. & Route 30. This park, which Silver Cross donated the land for, is the home of a life-size sculpture entitled Medical Professionals: Masters of Healing. Created by the Friends of Community Public Art, the sculpture pays tribute to Joliet's dedicated medical professionals and signifies the strong ties that Silver Cross has with the Joliet community and its neighboring towns.

Safe New Lenox

"Safe New Lenox" is comprised of four organizations that work in collaboration with the Village of New Lenox. These groups include New Lenox Safe Communities America Coalition, New Lenox Citizen Corps Council, New Lenox Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and New Lenox Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). The New Lenox Safe Communities America Coalition and New Lenox Citizen Corps Council include representatives from over 20 organizations that are located in New Lenox, Will County and beyond. Silver Cross Hospital, along with other public and private sector organizations, provide a wide variety of services to our community.

Senior Services Center of Will County

The Senior Services Center of Will County is dedicated to enhancing the lives of Will County's growing senior population. As a not-for profit agency 501(c) (3), Senior Services Center has been providing services and programs to the area's senior citizens and their families since 1967. The center's mission is to enhance the quality of life for older persons, help maintain the wellness and the independence of older persons, and to help avoid or lessen isolation and loneliness. This is being accomplished through a variety of interactive programs, classes, activities, and rewarding volunteer opportunities.

Silver Cross EMS System

Silver Cross continued to serve as the resource hospital for the Silver Cross EMS System. The Silver Cross EMS System is a network of fire departments, ambulance services, industrial responders, training centers, dispatch centers, and hospitals, all committed to coordinate quality pre-hospital patient care. The Silver Cross EMS System provides primary and continuing medical education, quality assurance and administrative oversight and support to its network of agencies and EMS Personnel.

Spanish Community Center

The Spanish Community Center was founded in 1967 in the city of Joliet Illinois. The purpose of the Center was to provide social services to the city’s growing needs of the Spanish speaking people in their native language, to make the transition of settling in the community, and learning English as a second language. Over the last five decades, the Center has evolved from an agency helping only the Spanish speaking people of the neighborhood to an agency providing help to the entire community. There are various programs and services offered by the Spanish Community Center such as food pantry, childcare, toy drive, computer training, GED, and job readiness classes along with other programs. With support provided from the Silver Cross Healthy Community Commission, the Spanish Community Center has opened a state of the art computer lab.

Veteran’s Administration Community Based Outpatient Clinic

The Veteran’s Administration Community Based Outpatient Clinic is proud to provide top-quality healthcare to area Veterans in the beautiful new state-of-the-art Joliet Veterans Clinic. The 2-story 60,000 sq. ft. facility is the former Silver Cross Emergency Department. The clinic provides outpatient primary care & mental health services. Additional services include women’s health, home-based primary care, laboratory, neurology, rehabilitation, podiatry, optometry, basic radiology, ultrasound, retinal imaging, nutrition, and geriatrics.

Warren-Sharpe Community Center

Warren Sharpe Center is serving their community by working with at-risk youth, strengthening the family and helping to improve the quality of life for the people they serve in their community. The Community Center offers several programs.

The Warren-Sharpe Foundation is very passionate about addressing food insecurities within her area. Children’s Community Garden is a project designed to educate the youth about agriculture, healthy food choices, and increase physical activity along with supporting their food pantry. 

Will County Community Health Center

The Will County Community Health Center—a division of the Will County Health Department—provides preventive and primary health services to the medically underserved people of Will County regardless of age, sex, color, and ability to pay through direct care and partnerships. Through a five-year $450,000 pledge, Silver Cross helped to fund the construction of the Will County Community Health Center, which opened in 2006. Through our relationship, Silver Cross Hospital provides obstetrical and gynecological physician care when the Will County Community Health Center is unable and Silver Cross pays for 24-hour coverage when needed. Silver Cross Hospital also has provided in-kind recruitment services to the Will County Community Health Center.

Will County Workforce Investment Board — Work Certified Program

The Work Certified Program enables individuals with certification that verifies that a job seeker has the reading and math skills, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, workplace behaviors and personal habits that are the foundation of success in the workplace. Joliet Junior College's Institute of Economic Technology has been contracted to teach the skills and run the certification program, which consists of 90 training hours spread across nine modules.

Will Grundy Medical Clinic

The Will Grundy Medical Clinic provides free medical and dental care to individuals who cannot afford medical care. Silver Cross Hospital supports the Will Grundy Medical Clinic through free services and procedures as well as $35,000 in monetary donations. Many physicians and nurses at Silver Cross volunteer their time to staff the “Free Clinic.” The hospital also provides thousands of dollars in free healthcare services including testing and surgical care.