One Health Englewood

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One Health Englewood

One Health Englewood is a community-based organization dedicated to improving the health of Greater Englewood and surrounding communities.

We strive to achieve this by using the Public Health tools of health literacy, advocacy, research, and promotion. I have visions of a not only thriving, but flourishing community. A community where health doesn’t simply mean physical well-being, but also mental, emotional, and educational security. A community where “help” isn’t a foreign or derogatory word. A community where love is communal, and

not confined to the borders of homes. My ideology encompasses building a diverse social advancement organization that will focus on strengthening the Englewood community primarily through:
1.) Comprehensive Health Education
2.) Community Involvement
3.) Youth and Leadership Development
4.) Educational Support*
The aforementioned may be achieved through a variety of means such as regular community events (e.g. meetings, workshops, cleanup events, etc. ), local food & clothing drives, organized fundraisers, local collaborations (e.g. with key schools, churches, businesses, etc. and their prominent members). These ideas are only adolescent at present, but will be regularly expanded as time progresses. Kenneth Booker (Editor At-Large)

09/03/2026

A District Divided by Dollars and Ballots

Illinois's 7th Congressional District is one of the most internally diverse congressional districts in the United States — stretching from the Gold Coast high-rises of the Near North Side through the West and South Side neighborhoods of Chicago and out into the suburbs of western Cook County. It encompasses virtually the entire American income spectrum within a single representative's constituency. With Danny Davis retiring after nearly 30 years, the March 17th Democratic primary will determine who carries that representation forward. For the communities we serve, this election matters.

This infographic documents a structural reality that has defined this district for decades. The communities most loyal to Democratic representation — Englewood, Washington Park, Austin, North Lawndale — consistently deliver the highest vote margins and the lowest voter participation. Ward 17 (Englewood) gave the incumbent 93% of its vote in 2024 while turning out at just 43.6%. Ward 42 (Loop/Near North Side) turned out at 87.9%. That 44-point gap means affluent precincts exercise two to three times the effective political voice per capita as the communities this page serves. The 2024 general election was decided by approximately 14% of the district's adult population — with participation concentrated in the areas least representative of the district's demographic majority.

Thirteen candidates are competing in Tuesday's primary. The field is historically significant — eight Black candidates, two Latino candidates, and three white candidates are all on the ballot. But a 13-candidate field in a low-turnout primary means the nomination could be decided by as few as 16,000–20,000 votes out of a district of 580,000 adults. In that environment, consolidated participation in high-turnout corridors carries disproportionate weight. The communities with the most at stake in this election are the same communities where primary participation has historically been the lowest.

One Health Englewood's Souls to the Polls initiative exists precisely for this moment. Early voting is underway now — you do not have to wait until Tuesday. Election Day is March 17th with polls open 6 AM to 7 PM, but early voting sites are open today and through March 16th. Our role is to inform, connect, and support civic participation — not to tell you who to vote for, but to make sure your voice is part of the conversation. Share this with someone who needs to see it.

19/02/2026

Jason Friedman's cash advantage stands out in 13-way congressional primary as one top rival condemns him for having "never been a partner in this fight" to lift up the West Side.

11/02/2026

In the Greater Englewood community behind every uncast ballot is potential. Every silent resident is a voice that still matters. When people have support, information, and hope — a real civic resource that fuels agency, planning, and resilience — participation grows, representation grows, and power grows.

09/02/2026

Voter registration matters because it’s the first step in making sure your voice is counted. When more people are registered, more perspectives show up in the decisions that shape our neighborhoods, our schools, and our city. If you’re eligible or know someone who is not registered to vote, take a moment to help get them registered — it’s one of the simplest ways to make sure your community is represented.

07/02/2026

The Systemic Diagnosis: Policy as Environment

"To understand why some communities struggle while others thrive, we have to look beneath the surface — down into the soil that shapes daily life."

06/02/2026

The Momentum of Possibility: A Self-Sustaining Loop of Health

The most transformative aspect of this process is that it is a self-reinforcing loop. The Virtuous Cycle creates its own momentum across generations. When engagement leads to better conditions, the residents of that neighborhood are no longer exhausted by the daily grind of survival. They become more capable, more stable, and consequently, more motivated to stay engaged.

This feedback loop allows a community to evolve through distinct phases: moving from a state of scarcity to stability, from stability to resilience, and ultimately, from resilience to a state of possibility. In a state of possibility, a community is no longer just recovering from bad policies; it is actively designing its own future.

"The cycle reinforces itself: participation leads to better conditions, which encourage even more participation."

From Resilience to Possibility

The Virtuous Cycle of Participation proves that community health is inextricably linked to civic strength. By transforming the "soil" of the neighborhood through responsive governance, we turn the abstract hope of a better life into a measurable, physical reality. We move beyond merely being "resilient" against hardship and toward a future where we possess the power to prevent that hardship from occurring in the first place.

As you look at the streets, the schools, and the clinics in your own neighborhood, remember that these are the artifacts of past participation—or the lack thereof. The question remains: Are you an architect of the soil you live in, or are you waiting for it to change on its own?

06/02/2026

Why Civic Engagement is the "Medicine" Disinvested Neighborhoods Actually Need

If the political environment is the soil that shapes our collective health, then civic engagement is the primary tool we have to change that soil. For too long, residents in disinvested neighborhoods have been "acted upon" by systems that prioritize their silence over their solutions. To break this cycle, communities must move from being passive subjects of policy to becoming the active architects of their own environment. This shift is transformative; it is the moment a community decides to stop carrying the weight of exclusion and start rewriting its own narrative.

Power Isn't Given; It's Restructured

Civic engagement provides the vital mechanism for communities to advocate for themselves and fundamentally shift who holds influence over decisions and resources. When neighbors organize, vote, and consistently show up, they do more than just participate—they alter the very flow of power in their streets. This is how a community moves from being overlooked and dismissed to being heard and recognized by the systems that govern them.
"Engagement becomes a pathway to reclaiming infrastructure, investment, and opportunity."
By restructuring these relationships with power, engagement allows residents to move away from historical exclusion and toward a system where they can finally demand the accountability and investment they deserve.

Civic Resilience is a Political Superpower

Restructuring power is the objective, but because systems are often stubbornly unresponsive, communities require a specific kind of fuel to sustain the fight. That fuel is civic resilience. It is defined as the capacity to stay politically active despite the crushing weight of stress, trauma, or environmental strain. As a protective factor, it strengthens community stability and long-term health, allowing a neighborhood to push through barriers erected by decades of neglect.
Civic resilience is more than mere persistence; it is the strength to speak out even when the system makes it easier to stay silent. It is the collective decision to refuse to give up on a block, a school, or a future. This determination to keep showing up, even when the environment makes participation difficult, is one of the most powerful predictors of whether a community will eventually flourish.
Participation is Practical Medicine, Not a Symbolic Gesture
We often mistake civic engagement for a mere performance of democracy, but in disinvested areas, it is a practical tool for survival. This "medicine" works because it interrupts long-standing cycles of neglect and replaces them with cycles of empowerment. The reality is that communities with higher rates of participation secure better policies and a more equitable share of resources.

This medicine is administered through diverse, practical actions:

• Protesting and public demonstrations to demand immediate attention from the powerful.
• Voting and expanding voter participation to influence legislative change.
• Community meetings and local organizing to address neighborhood-specific needs.
• Collective action that forces accountability and investment from institutions.

"Civic engagement becomes the medicine that strengthens communities from the inside out."

The Long Game of Community Health

This is the "treatment" phase of the community development story. It is not a quick fix or a single policy victory, but a sustained, gritty effort to reclaim what was taken and rebuild what was broken. Every act of engagement—no matter how small—is a seed planted in the soil. Over time, those seeds grow into a collective power that prepares a neighborhood to flourish.
As we look at the landscapes we inhabit, we must ask: What seeds of collective power are we planting in our soil today?

06/02/2026

The Mystery of the Uneven Orchard

In any given region, an observer will find a puzzling phenomenon: the "uneven orchard." Some community groves thrive, manifesting deep-rooted vitality and expansive growth, while others nearby appear stunted, struggling to survive despite the apparent resilience of the individual trees. When we witness a tree failing, our traditional impulse is to examine the tree itself, questioning its biological makeup or its individual effort to reach for the sun.
However, a strategist’s lens reveals that communities function exactly like trees in an orchard. The trees do not exist in a vacuum; they are entirely dependent on the farmer. In this allegory, the government is the farmer, the entity solely responsible for the irrigation systems, the distribution of nutrients, and the fundamental quality of the soil. To understand why some communities struggle, we must stop looking at the branches and start looking beneath the surface at the political environment in which they are planted.

06/02/2026

The Soil of Our Health

"Poor soil" is an intentional creation, manufactured through historical and modern exclusions. Historical political exclusions like redlining act as the original "soil depletion," creating the root causes of modern-day chronic disease clusters. These policy decisions "harden into the landscape," physically determining which populations are exposed to environmental toxins and which are granted access to opportunity.
If redlining depleted the soil, restrictive voting policies—high barriers to participation and strict ID laws—act as the "fence" that prevents the community from fixing it. The biological impact is measurable: restrictive political environments are directly linked to Higher Premature Mortality and worse public health rankings. Conversely, the data shows that inclusive voting policies, such as automatic or same-day registration, are statistically tied to Higher Rates of Insured Residents and Lower Infant Mortality. Voting rights are, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

06/02/2026

Why Your Neighborhood’s "Soil" Matters More Than Your Doctor’s Office: The Hidden Politics of Health

We have been conditioned to misdiagnose health disparities as individual failures or the result of genetic "bad luck." We observe one neighborhood thriving with longevity and another, just miles away, struggling with chronic disease, and we assume these outcomes are the product of personal choices. This is a scientific and narrative error. The reality is that the conditions of a neighborhood reflect decades of deliberate policy choices.

05/11/2025

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03/11/2025

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