Vision: Every child in Illinois grows up healthy.

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Children’s Mental Health Initiative Symposium

On September 19, 2019, ILCHF hosted a full day symposium focused on integrating mental healthcare into community based settings. PowerPoint presentations from the symposium are available here.

Since 2004

$110 Million Awarded

  • Oral Health 38 million

  • Mental Health 58 million

  • Other 14 million

642 Grants Awarded

  • 222 Oral Health Grants

  • 229 Mental Health Grants

  • 191 Other Grants

ILCHF is the only private Illinois foundation that funds children’s healthcare statewide.

ILCHF Grants Touch All 102 Illinois Counties

We work collaboratively with organizations to improve community-based systems of care that treat children holistically and focus on prevention, wellness and education. We partner with grantees to increase children’s access to mental and oral health services.

Quite simply we want to ensure that kids get the care they need, when they need it – regardless of where they live or what insurance card, if any, they carry.
— Jim Ryan, Former Illinois Attorney General

News

Jim Ryan and Tammy Lemke

Remembering Jim Ryan: Former Illinois Attorney General and ILCHF Emeritus Board Member

Dear Friends, It is with profound gratitude and a deep sense of loss that we remember former Illinois Attorney General, Jim Ryan. Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) exists because of Jim Ryan. Countless children and families have benefitted from the work of our grantee partners because of Jim Ryan. As Peter E. Doris, MD, one of three founding ILCHF Board members, former Board Chair, and Emeritus Board member said of his dear friend, “For the 40 years I had known
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UIC College of Dentistry Dedicates Pediatric Dentistry Outpatient Care Center to ILCHF

UIC College of Dentistry hosted the dedication of the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation Pediatric Dentistry Outpatient Care Center (ILCHF PD-OCC) on March 10, 2022 A year and a half after its soft-opening in September 2020, the UIC College of Dentistry proudly hosted the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation Pediatric Dentistry Outpatient Care Center (ILCHF PD-OCC) on March 10, 2022. The formal dedication was delayed out of an abundance of caution due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
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Grant Spotlight: New CSWI Grants

Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation Invests $8.3 Million In Children’s Mental Health ILCHF’s COVID School Wellness Initiative Funds 29 Grants Statewide  (Oak Brook, IL) – December 9, 2021 – The Covid-19 pandemic has fully exposed and exacerbated the children’s mental health crisis in Illinois and nationally.  The Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) has responded with the COVID-19 School Wellness Initiative (CSWI) – a statewide effort to address the mental health needs of children, their caregivers and teachers in communities hardest hit
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Open RFPs

Grant Spotlight: ILCHF and Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation Announce New Oral Health Nitrous Oxide Sedation Initiative

(Oak Brook, IL) – February 2, 2022 – The Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) and Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation announce the creation of the Oral Health Nitrous Oxide Sedation Initiative, a new oral health program aimed at improving the oral health of children in Illinois. Both foundations are contributing $500,000 each in funding for programs designed to enable safety net dental clinics to safely administer nitrous oxide to children requiring conscious sedation for oral health services.   
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Recent Publications

Healthy Minds, Healthy Children, Healthy Chicago

Spring 2020

Commitment. Community. Collaboration. Change. These four Cs were the vision for ILCHF as it pursued the goal of developing models for integrated children’s mental health in the Healthy Minds, Healthy Children, Healthy Chicago initiative. (Full Report)

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Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI 1.0)

December 2018

The Children’s Mental Health Initiative, Building Systems of Care, Community by Community (CMHI 1.0) was designed to enable four communities to find local solutions to these critical challenges. (Full Report)

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Oral Health in Illinois

October 2016

This assessment provides a foundation for understanding and strengthening the oral health infra- structure in Illinois. The assessment indicates numerous opportunities to move the system forward. (Full Report)

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