On January 23rd, we hosted a panel on public health: Community Based Approaches to the Prevention and Treatment of Health Disparities in the Chicagoland Areas. The panel featured three leaders with diverse experiences in healthcare: Dr. Catherine Counard, MD/MPH, Director of the Skokie Health Department; Ike Ogbo, MPH, Director of the Evanston Health Department; and Magdalena Nava, MPH, Research Project Administrator at Northwestern in the Simon Lab. Peter Locke, PhD, Co-Director of the Global Health Studies Program at Northwestern, moderated the panel.

Read the Daily's article on our event: Public health advocates discuss strategies for marginalized communities

Community Health Corps presented Dr. Edith Chen's Social Disparity and Health talk. Dr. Chen, a faculty member of Northwestern's Department of Psychology, discussed the relationship between socioeconomic disparities and health outcomes.

At the 2019 Camp(us) Fire event, we raised attention for one of our focused health themes and also provided an inclusive environment for people to share their experiences and stories regarding Body Image & Healthy Eating. We welcomed Claudia Rosen from Connections Health as our guest speaker, who previously served as a therapist at Northwestern CAPS. Claudia discussed the societal and familial influences on body image and therapy outcomes, and she helped facilitate a group discussion on how to deal with eating disorders and body image issues when it affects ourselves and our closest friends/family members.

Our 3rd annual Camp(us) Fire event was a great success. The event is a story-telling and music fundraiser that was held at Celtic Knot in downtown Evanston on May 18. There were some amazing performances revolving around our theme of Mental Health and its importance.

Camp(us) Fire was a music and storytelling benefit event. Our second concert was themed "Governing our Bodies, Governing Ourselves". Here, interpretations of this theme included performances related to autonomy, reproductive justice, mental health, participation in demonstrations, empowerment and health. Various performers, thematic experts, and student musicians explored these topics through their performances.

Loretto Hospital in the Austin Community of Chicago sponsors health booths at the Back To School Fair including CHC's nutrition table with fresh fruit and information about nutrition. On August 26, 2017, we gave fresh apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, peaches, carrots, watermelon and plums to ~300 children from the west side of Chicago.  For most of these children, this is the first time that they have eaten some of these fresh fruits. State Rep. Camille Lilly and Janice Henry were deeply appreciative of this service.

On November 17, 2016, the HIRCULES Health Hub, Evanston Public Library, Skokie Public Library and Northwestern University hosted a Health Fair. It was designed to extend health resources and health knowledge throughout the North Chicago suburbs. Various events were available to engage and teach participants about different areas of healthcare including free blood pressure screenings; health and wellness tops, recipes and giveaways; free flu shots; panel on "Nutrition and Wellness in the Age of Obesity".

Along with Evanston Public Library, HIRCULES co-hosted The Key to Life Program (#key2life), a presentation sponsored by Susan G. Komen Chicago and Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Guests learned about breast health through an educational presentation and participate in a hands-on workshop to create keychains that serve as a visual reminder for women to get their regular mammograms. The event Do you know your breast cancer risk? Did you know that every 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer? Are you that 1 in 8?  The 5 year relative survival rate for women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer is 99 percent. The #key2life is early detection.

This event was our 1st annual benefit concert hosted at Union Pizzeria on May 12th. This year's theme "Responding to Crises" was interpreted uniquely by various performers, thematic experts, and student musicians, who explored and confronted personal, local and global crises and delved into topics such as race, post-war trauma, refugee displacement, and mental health.

We hosted a nutrition booth at Loretto Hospital during the Danny Davis Health Fair. The fair was a back-to-school event promoting healthy habits as the community’s kids started going back to school. About 500 young children and adolescents were invited to come to the fair and we set up a booth where we shared health and nutrition tips, organized some games, and had some fresh food tastings of fruits and vegetables.