Chicago Community Outreach & Partnerships
Investing in Our Communities: Outreach by Our Chicago-Area Locations
The City of Hope® Chicago-area hospital and outpatient care locations collaborate with numerous local organizations and businesses to help improve access to increase health care literacy, foster health and wellness, and increase access to care, including recommended cancer screenings.
Our teams engage in a variety of ways to connect with and help meet the unique needs of the communities City of Hope serves throughout Lake, Kenosha and McHenry counties. This includes volunteering, hosting collection drives and providing expert speakers, educational outreach and resources – including some in Spanish – on topics ranging from cancer prevention and screenings to advances in diagnosis and treatment.
To learn more or inquire about collaborating with City of Hope, please reach out to Katherine Easthon, our director of community health and engagement, at [email protected].
100+ community organizations as collaboration partners
120+ events and activities supported with education and/or volunteers
91,000+ people reached
Community Health Needs Assessment
In 2022, City of Hope acquired the Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), expanding access to world-class research and cancer care to patients nationally. Included in the acquisition was the CTCA location in Zion, Illinois. City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago has undertaken a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) as required by federal law. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, IRS section 501(r)(3), directs tax-exempt hospitals to conduct a CHNA and develop an implementation strategy every three years. The CHNA is a primary tool used by City of Hope to determine our community benefit plan, which outlines how we’ll give back to the community in the form of health care and other services to address unmet community health needs. City of Hope worked in partnership with a team of community benefit experts and community members local to Zion, Waukegan and Northern Lake County to develop our CHNA, which meets all requirements set by the IRS in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for nonprofit hospitals.
Meet Our Community Outreach Team
Learn more about our community outreach team by clicking on the profiles below.
Resource Library
The City of Hope Chicago Resource Library makes it easy to find trusted information about cancer prevention and early detection, as well as individual and community risk factors.
Click the links below to browse our searchable library — designed to help you stay informed and empowered. Many materials are available in English and Spanish.
A History of Service
City of Hope Chicago has continued to expand and evolve over the years to meet the needs of those it serves, based on feedback from patients and the community.
1913 City of Hope is founded in Duarte, California, to help individuals afflicted with tuberculosis.
1940s City of Hope changes its mission to focus on cancer.
1950s-1960s A local physician opens a hospital in Zion, Illinois, in 1958, which is expanded and renamed Zion-Benton Hospital in 1963.
1970s Zion-Benton Hospital is renamed American International Hospital (AIH) and an innovative multi-disciplinary cancer treatment program is established.
1988 Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA) is established with Zion as its flagship.
1990s A brand-new CTCA hospital is built in Zion incorporating patient, family, physician and employee feedback, and the original is renovated and updated to match.
1990s-2010s CTCA Chicago continues to expand, modernize and add services to better serve patients, including a surgical center, interventional pulmonology suite, gastrointestinal (GI) suite, improved and expanded main lobby, new outpatient stem cell space, and new inpatient tower in 2015 housing a variety of services including onsite guest quarters, expanded guest dining area and outdoor courtyard.
2000s Building additions, including a new radiation oncology suite and retail pharmacy, are completed to further expand programs and offerings and serve more patients, with a new extended lodging facility opening near the hospital for patients and caregivers.
2003 A three-and-a-half story glass and girder entrance designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Don Erickson more than triples the space in the hospital lobby.
2015 A precision medicine program is established to revolutionize cancer care and improve patient outcomes by using genomic testing and profiling to analyze molecular components of a patient’s cancer, which may help to identify new targeted therapies or relevant clinical trials.
2018 Downtown Chicago location opens to provide convenient services for those who live and work downtown.
2020s The Interventional Radiology suite is enhanced to expand diagnostic and therapeutic options available to patients.
2022 The hospital and outpatient location along with CTCA’s other locations in Atlanta and Phoenix, join forces with City of Hope to expand cancer research and lifesaving treatments for patients in and around the Midwest, and the name is changed to City of Hope Chicago.
2023 North Shore location opens to provide convenient services for those who live and work in the North Shore, moving in 2024 to a brand-new facility in Morton Grove.
2024 City of Hope Chicago hosts first annual Walk for Hope event, which involves nearly 600 participants and raises more than $90,000 for cancer research.