Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, a returning Healing Illinois sub-grantee, used their 2024 funds to share their “Health, Equity, and Nature” report. With the grant, they were able to print more copies for broader distribution to community members, elected officials, and local organizations. They also turned the report’s contents into a youth coloring book and a musical arts performance series titled “Convergence,” which had multiple showings throughout Lake County.
Read Part 2 of the story here.
THE BRUSHWOOD CENTER: CONNECTING COMMUNITY MEMBERS WITH NATURE
The Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods “connects 10,000 people to art and nature annually” through their programming and partnerships. While the center is located within the woodlands of the Lake County Forest Preserves, their work extends into northern Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area.
Executive director Catherine Game says Brushwood is difficult to define, as they do a little bit of everything. “We're an environmental organization, we're a health equity organization, but we are also an arts organization,” she says.
Brushwood collaborates with local organizations to bring art, nature, and sustainability programming to community members, emphasizing those who experience inequities. The center has art exhibition space and works with more than 300 artists yearly, offering art opportunities like the BASE Creative Reuse Center upcycling class and botanical art academy. Some of their programs include the bilingual Nature Explorer Backpacks program for children, after-school activities, and nature appreciation for veterans, active military, and military families.
The center is also a returning Healing Illinois sub-grantee. They used their 2021 funds to hold a series of anti-racism trainings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their 2024 Healing Illinois projects build upon that foundational work.
TAKEAWAYS FROM 2021 RACIAL HEALING CONVERSATIONS
The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light many of the health and environmental issues Black and Brown communities have been facing for years in Illinois.
During this time, the Brushwood Center used their 2021 Healing Illinois grant to hold two sets of anti-racism trainings: one for teens and young adults, and one for older adults. Many of the center’s staff and board members attended alongside community members.
“Both groups were equally amazing,” Catherine shares. “Part of what happened out of those conversations was this opening of the narrative, of telling the story of what's happening in our community in a way that's happening across cultures and backgrounds. We had people in the Zoom room who were coming from very different geographies, backgrounds, and life experiences, and [they were] able to share those and bring those to a safe space for learning and growing.”
In addition to creating space for candid conversations, these anti-racism trainings also set the stage for future research and programming. Brushwood Center used them as a chance to realign with their mission and start new projects that would further their health equity and access to nature goals.
Catherine says it was a moment for the community and the center to ponder what comes next in the quest for racial healing. "What was next [for us] was the emergence of our ‘Health, Equity, and Nature’ work. Gathering the data, putting this report together, and the storytelling that goes with it,” she says.
PURPOSE OF THE "HEALTH, EQUITY, AND NATURE" REPORT
Part of the Brushwood Center’s Healing Illinois funds went toward printing and distributing more copies of their "Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, IL” from 2022. The report provides an in-depth look at health disparities in Lake County and offers recommendations and solutions to fix these systemic problems. The data is multi-layered and interconnected, which is reflected in the report’s visual design.
Catherine says that the report “tells the story of the intersectionality of these issues. The compounding effects of environmental injustices overlaid with all the other components of health equity. Drivers of health that we see impacting people's ability to thrive in our communities. And how those are really deeply connected to where people live and to the communities that are around them.”
The report includes survey data from the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center, which has compiled its own Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) and Community Health Assessment (CHA). Residents were asked questions like, “What concerns, if any, do you have with visiting parks or open spaces?” The results were then separated by race to pinpoint discrepancies and areas of improvement.
The report also visually emphasizes how the culmination of these health and environmental issues results in worse outcomes for residents living in certain areas of Lake County.
Finally, it gives some tangible recommendations for governmental officials and community partners. They range from the broad (“invest in recreational infrastructure and programs”) to the specific (“remove the Waukegan coal ash ponds”).
FINDINGS OF THE REPORT
Catherine shared a few key statistics from the report, such as the stat that Black Lake County residents have double the “concerns about accessing parks and green spaces and concerns about maintenance and safety.” These rates are similar for Hispanic, Latine, and Asian residents.
She also notes that there is a high incidence of asthma and diabetes in the same areas that have high levels of industrialization – also the areas where Black and Latine residents live.
“There is a particular map where we overlaid 38 different data sets in health, climate, environment, to kind of bring it all together,” Catherine says. “It's an index that shows the levels at which a community is overburdened by systemic inequities. You see northeastern Lake County very highly concentrated. You see Lake Forest, North Shore communities much less so along with a little further west into the county.”
Catherine notes that, in many ways, the report’s findings echo what residents can see on the ground as they traverse Illinois. The environmental differences between regions are stark, and it isn’t difficult to see these statistics play out in the real world.
"You can just drive along Sheridan Road. You can drive all along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and you can traverse from wealthy North Shore communities up into the more industrialized northeastern Lake County, to Illinois Beach State Park where there's a decommissioned nuclear power plant, all the way up to the Wisconsin border. And you can see so clearly how these changes impact people's quality of life.”
Importantly, locals are aware of and actively trying to change these health trends. Environmentalists have been making progress in Lake County. However, even though everyday residents and activists may know of these realities, Catherine thinks there is a broader audience for the information presented in the report.
“One of the things that has been frustrating to us and to many folks in the community is that what the data shows in these reports is not surprising to anybody who lives in these communities or is familiar with the issues,” she says. “But it is surprising to a lot of people who don't. And so, it's a powerful storytelling tool in that way.”
SHARING THE REPORT IN AN ACCESSIBLE WAY
The report was designed to be accessible to all community members. “When we introduced the report, we knew this is a 92-page document with some technical content, and not everybody's going to pick this up and just dive right in,” Catherine shares. “Working with artists, making sure that we had this available in multiple languages – we were very intentional in our creation and our process.”
The report is available in print and digital versions in English and Spanish. It makes heavy use of color coding and heat maps as a data visualization tool. There are also art pieces and photographs in the report that were collected through Brushwood Center’s public arts program, making the design a collaboration likely to resonate with the local community.
Brushwood Center’s “It’s A W.I.N.” group developed a coloring book based on the report findings for children and adults who may want a more story-focused, interactive version. The book centers on the ideas shared in resident surveys, and it encourages community members to “Find Yourself Outside.”
For part two about how the “Health, Equity, and Nature” report was turned into a musical performance series, click here.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS
Those interested in learning more about Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, the “Health, Nature, and Equity” report, and the “Convergence” performance series can visit the following resources:
“Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, IL” report
“Convergence: Health Equity in a Changing Climate” performance series
Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods is one of 184 grantees who received Healing Illinois funds for 2023-2024. You can view more sub-grantee stories on the Healing Illinois website and Healing Illinois Instagram page, as well as view past and upcoming Healing Illinois events.