Building a Healthier Chicago
Who we are
Building a Healthier Chicago (BHC) is a collaborative initiative among the American Medical Association (AMA), the Chicago Department of Public Health, and the Office of the Regional Health Administrator of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) with the assistance of Federal Occupational Health, DHHS.
Our vision is to build model community-wide partnerships for health promotion that can be replicated nationwide.
Our goal is to improve the health of Chicago's residents and employees through integration of existing public health, medicine, and community health promotion activities.
Our focus
To make a significant impact on the health of all Chicagoans, BHC will focus on:
- Increasing physical activity
- Lowering blood pressure
- Improving healthy eating
We are building a model collaboration of local and national stakeholders to strengthen our partners’ efforts to promote health in Chicago. We want to promote and track the adoption of selected programs, practices, policies, and supportive environments throughout the worksites, schools, health care organizations, faith based organizations, parks and neighborhoods of Chicago to create a system of interventions that complement and reinforce each other to maximize intensity, reach, and effectiveness.
The role of the AMA is to involve physicians and the medical community of Chicago in the BHC initiative. Our goal is to increase outreach to physicians, education for physicians, and linking of physicians and their office staff to community resources which may improve the healthy lifestyles of their patients.
Learn about related AMA Healthy Lifestyles projects and about the AMA Healthier Life Steps™ physician toolkit with CME credit.
For more information on BHC, please e-mail BHC@hhs.gov.
For more information on AMA involvement in BHC, please contact Amber L. Ryan, MEd, Project Coordinator, (312) 464-5659.