Photo caption: Rendering of the Sankofa Wellness Center (credit: Bureau Gemmell)
Revitalization Marks Beginning of Brand New Day for West Garfield Park
Community members across the Westside are eager to attend New Mount Pilgrim Church-Chicago’s Celebration Block Party on Saturday, July 29, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 4301 W. Washington Blvd.
The event is a local celebration commemorating Sankofa Wellness Village in West Garfield Park, which was named a 2022 recipient of the $10 million Chicago Prize. The money will support the development of the $50 million Sankofa Village Wellness Center.
According to the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, which administers the Chicago Prize, the Sankofa Village Wellness Center will “provide West Garfield Park’s more than 17,000 residents with health care and wellness programs, before and after-school care, and create quality jobs.” Rev Marshall Hatch, the senior pastor of New Mt Pilgrim Church Chicago has been critical to casting the vision for this project and has worked tirelessly to make sure that this life transformative initiative comes to his community.
This multi-million community led development project will be a Chicago showcase for the nation”, says Rev. Marshall Hatch, civil rights leader and prominent pastor of West Garfield Park’s largest church. “This community will finally rise from the ashes after the assassination of Dr. King in 1968…just in time for the Democratic convention next year”, Hatch added.
West Garfield Park residents live to an average age of 69, compared to age 85 for people living in the Loop, according to a recent Virginia Commonwealth University report.
The Center will also house the Erie Family Health Center, a Leaders Network credit union, a facility focused on building entrepreneurial skills, a pop-up grocery market initiative and the MAAFA Center for Arts and Activism, which will provide artistic expression and job training. The Center could break ground by the end of the year and could be completed by 2025.
Alderman Jason Ervin is among many community leaders who has voiced his support of the Sankofa Wellness Village: “We have to put resources toward helping people in the overall maintenance of their health”, says Alderman Jason Ervin.
Saturday’s local celebration will give residents who will directly benefit from the Center an opportunity to celebrate the upcoming project and to learn more about how it will impact their lives.
Both Alderman Ervin and Pastor Hatch will address the community from the sound stage at 12 o’clock noon.
