Community-led vision for wellness and opportunity

In 2019, residents and leaders of local nonprofit, healthcare and faith-based organizations formed GPRWC to improve residents’ health and quality of life.

The collaborative created a plan to revitalize a key West Garfield Park commercial corridor with an entrepreneurship hub, arts and activism center, and community grocer initiative—all anchored by a new facility offering health and wellness services. Organizers chose the name Sankofa, a term from West Africa meaning “to go back and get it,” signifying the importance of learning from the past to build a better future.

Sankofa Village Wellness Center is designed to help residents live longer, healthier lives and expand opportunity by reducing hurdles to wellness resources. 

“We created this with the concept of ‘no wrong door,’ thinking about barriers that might prevent people from using all the things that are offered,” Slaughter said.

Accessible by public transit, the center offers on-site childcare and provides wide-ranging services all in one place:

• Erie Family Health Centers’ Sankofa location provides care regardless of patients’ insurance status or ability to pay, including primary care for children, teens and adults; dental care; prenatal care; reproductive health and family planning; and behavioral health and counseling. 
• Equal Hope provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings for uninsured and underinsured patients.
• Rush Center for Community Well-Being offers mental health services, health and social needs screenings, wellness programming and substance use education, often at no cost to participants. Rush and Erie will also collaborate to connect patients to care.
• The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago has a fitness center, walking track, basketball court and exercise classes. 
• West Side United, an organization focused on creating opportunities on the West Side, operates from Sankofa and provides job search assistance.
• GPRWC is leading the release of the 2026 Garfield Park Quality of Life Plan. Implementing this plan will create new housing opportunities, establish green spaces, support education, health and wellness, youth development and spur economic reinvestment.

Planned future tenants include a credit union and café.

Bringing a community vision to life

Bringing the 60,000-square-foot Sankofa Village Wellness Center to life took a coordinated team. GPRWC and MAAFA Redemption Project—another local nonprofit and collaborative member—brought in The Community Builders, an experienced nonprofit real estate firm, to join them in developing the facility. Key service providers—including Rush University Medical Center, Erie Family Health and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago—signed 10-year leases, making a long-term commitment to Sankofa’s success.  

J.P. Morgan provided a $7.5 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) equity investment to support Sankofa Village Wellness Center. The NMTC equity also provided a path to community ownership. GPRWC and MAAFA Redemption Project will have an opportunity to transition from minority to majority owners after building capacity over the tax credits’ seven-year span.

“NMTC gives us a model that puts ownership where it should be, which is with the community,” Slaughter said. “It’s close to a $50 million asset, and having a plan for it to come back to where it started is monumental.”

“This was a sizeable deal, involving four community development entities that came together,” said Melissa Pillars, executive director, New Markets Tax Credit at J.P. Morgan. “When you hear about the vast differences in quality of life and life expectancy, I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t want to help address this problem.”

In addition to providing NMTC equity, J.P. Morgan supports several organizations involved in the wellness center, providing banking services for Rush, the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago and The Community Builders. West Side United received a $3 million grant through the JPMorganChase AdvancingCities initiative.

Sankofa Village Wellness Center is also designed to be a community hub, not just a place to visit for appointments. The lobby doubles as a neighborhood gathering spot and hosts events such as evening cooking classes. Slaughter said she’s encouraged to see the center attracting regulars in the months since its opening.

“The most consistent and beautiful response, once we say all that we offer, is ‘That’s cool, who can we talk to, how can we get engaged?’” she said. “And that’s the building blocks of forming community with individuals in the neighborhood.”