The Evanston City Council has set five goals for 2023 through 2025. The City Council has emphasized that equity be a key objective in achieving each goal. 

Public Health has been selected as one of these goals to be undertaken through the implementation of measurable outcomes that address health priorities identified in the City's EPLAN. The current EPLAN's impetus is geared towards strengthening equitable access to resources, closing the racial life expectancy gaps and establishing pathways that promote optimal health and well-being. 

The EPLAN identified the following three health priorities within Evanston:

• Advancing Health and Racial Equity
• Improving Mental and Emotional Well-Being
• Strengthen Climate Resilience

Each priority is accompanied by already established City initiatives or a proposal of plans to make positive impact towards desirable health outcomes.

Advancing Health and Racial Equity

The goal of health and racial equity is working towards providing fair opportunities to community members to be as healthy as possible by removing barriers to health such as poverty, unemployment, discrimination, lack of access to housing, safe environments, and health care.

Provided below are intervention strategies that exists or those that are being proposed to address this topic.  Staff believes that the proposed strategies are achievable by the expiration of this current EPLAN in 2026.

Guaranteed Income: Implement a second cycle of Guaranteed Income with a focus on families with children under years of age and living in census tract 8092. This demographic focus is driven by findings in the EPLAN that this group is among the most financially insecure and most vulnerable to displacement due to increasing housing costs.

Reduce City-Wide Smoking: Pass a comprehensive ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products throughout the City of Evanston.

Workforce Development: Support workforce development through continued investment in ASPIRE, EMERGE and GROWW programs, and development of additional public-private partnerships to create career pipelines for residents

Assistance Programs for Vulnerable Populations: Enhance and modify assistance programs to support the growing need for assistance of vulnerable Evanston community members including the unhoused, refugee and migrant populations.

Health Hub: Invest in development of a 5th ward health hub that can serve as a safe, trustworthy community space that increases hyperlocal access to health resources. The health hub would house a community nurse to provide health education and referrals, and support coordination of additional events to support health, including vision and dental screenings, mental health first aid, vaccinations, parenting groups and community building activities.

Increase Physical Activity and Improve Nutrition: Expand the length of the WOW program from 12 weeks to 24 weeks and revitalize the Rethink Your Drink program. Although the obesity rates in Evanston are substantially lower than the U.S. average, the combination of the two community programs will continue to help keep the obesity rates low.

Improving Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Mental health has been a long-standing need both nationally and locally, and one of the most urgent health inequities we need to address as a community. The Department is aligning its goals to a number of the strategies provided below.

The Living Room

This program provides a safe, trauma-informed, expertly staffed alternative to hospital emergency rooms for adults in psychiatric crisis at no cost to the individual. The Living Room will be a calm environment where guests can receive skilled support from therapists and social workers to resolve a crisis. In partnership with the Evanston Police Department, continue building systems to support diverting individuals experiencing mental health crises away from jail and the emergency department through facilitating connection to safe de-escalation opportunities and connection to longer term care and medication management.

Evanston Wraparound Program

Support the development of a community wraparound program to facilitate interagency communication and cooperation among public and nonprofit partners across Evanston by creating a coordinated system of collaboration to provide services and meet the needs of individuals with social service and mental health challenges.

Mental Health First Aid

Mental health first aid is one of the strategies selected during the participatory budget process and had the most votes. Mental health first aid is a skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance abuse. The training also teaches participants on how to assist and support others who are experiencing mental health challenges. Staff is proposing contracting with a vendor to provide City-wide training in settings such as schools, churches and with frontline City staff and community members.

Strengthening Climate Resilience

Note: This subsection of EPLAN goals aligns very closely with those outlined in the CARP, and the City Council Sustainability priority. Priorities such as the ban of gasoline/propane powered leaf blowers and the plastic bag ban have already been implemented.

CARP provides a roadmap to making Evanston climate ready and resilient by 2050, centering and prioritizing health, safety, and well-being of our most vulnerable residents.

CARP Goals

Carry out the goals outlined in the 2023 and 2024 Climate Action Agendas. (See Sustainability Goals for further detail). 

Beach Water Testing

Enhance Evanston’s beach water quality testing capacity by investing in a more accurate and timely testing system. 

Bikeability

Increase bikeability by investing in cycling infrastructure, including building new dedicated bike lanes and increasing bike lane connectivity.

Green Homes Pilot Program

Further invest in the Green Homes pilot program, which seeks to preserve affordability, improve quality, and increase resilience to climate change for existing affordable housing in Evanston, by offering Evanston homeowners and landlords no- or low-cost home repairs and upgrades - paid for by the City - to help residents feel healthier in their homes and lower utility bills.