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Investing in Healthier Communities

We’re leveraging the knowledge, experience and talents of community organizations and partners to address social and economic factors that influence health in our communities. 

With our Blue Impact℠ major grant program and other efforts, we're focused on social and economic drivers of health in five key areas:

• Optimal health outcomes
• Locally defined health solutions
• Economic opportunity and stability
• Nutrición
• Vecindario y entorno de construcción

As a health insurer, we recognize the importance of closing gaps in preventive health care to help people achieve their best health.

This extends beyond our members and into our communities with programs and investments focusing on immunizations, diabetes care, cardiovascular care, early detection cancer screenings, behavioral health, and maternal and infant health.

Through the Blue Impact major grant program, we invested in many organizations finding innovative ways to close these gaps in their communities. In McHenry County, for example, Harvard Community Senior Center is providing chronic disease education, community resources and counseling to older people and Latino residents in the area who have limited access to health care providers.

Our Care Van^® mobile health program works with public health departments and others to bring no-cost immunizations and other preventive services to communities across Illinois. In 2024, the program held more than 530 events, reaching more than 12,700 Illinoisans.

Organizations embedded in our communities are often best able to meet the diverse health and human service needs of the people who live there.

Our 2024 Blue Impact partners include Housing Forward, which is providing wraparound services for people experiencing homelessness in west suburban Cook County. In East St. Louis, Community Wellness Project is working to reduce violence by building trust among community members and law enforcement and improving access to mental health services.

In Chicago, we celebrated the five-year anniversary of supporting health and wellness with the Blue Door Neighborhood Center^SM program, which started in Pullman in 2019 and expanded to Morgan Park and South Lawndale in 2020.

The centers are helping community members learn, connect and focus on their health with classes, workshops and resources tailored to hyperlocal needs. In 2024, they hosted more than 1,700 events and more than 8,400 visitors.

Access to jobs. Opportunities to grow. A stable income. Meeting these essential needs provides a foundation for health and well-being.

BCBSIL employs more than 14,000 people in Illinois and creates job opportunities in communities that drive local economic growth. With the Blue Impact major grant program, we're helping community organizations provide the stability and opportunities that allow people to thrive.

In Evanston and Highland Park, Curt’s Café is providing at-risk young adults with job training in food service along with meals, housing referrals and other resources.

On the South Side of Chicago, the Pullman Tech Workshop teaches adults and teenagers woodworking techniques and practical skills and promotes mental wellness to help participants pursue jobs and careers.

“Being in this workshop made me learn how to fix problems in life, outside of construction,” said Keianti Darling, who participated in the Pullman Tech program.

We’re investing in efforts to connect people to affordable healthy housing, transportation and physical activity.

In 2024, BCBSIL announced a commitment to invest $12 million over five years in organizations addressing homelessness throughout the state and selected the initial programs and partners. They include South Suburban Women’s Health Initiative, which offers apartment housing for pregnant mothers and their children in Homewood, and Vivian’s Village, a new supportive housing development with wraparound services sponsored by SIHF Healthcare in downstate Cahokia Heights.

We’ve also continued our collaboration with National Fitness Campaign to help bring outdoor Fitness Courts^® to Illinois communities. Six new courts built in 2024 are within a 10-minute walk for more than 28,000 people.

The Blue Impact major grant program is funding other community-based efforts to strengthen neighborhood assets, including home repairs by Chicago’s Housing Opportunities & Maintenance for the Elderly.

With grants, community outreach, volunteer events, Blue Door Neighborhood Center locations and other avenues, we’re collaborating with community-based partners to reduce hunger and improve access to nutritional food.

BCBSIL hosted hundreds of events in 2024 that helped feed more than 147,000 Illinoisans.

Many organizations receiving Blue Impact major grant funding in 2024 are expanding access to nutritious food in ways that meet the needs of their local communities.

In Central Illinois, the nonprofit Sola Gratia Farm, a nonprofit produce farm teaches the benefits of sustainable farming while providing high-quality, affordable food for the region’s low-income and food-insecure communities.

“We’re trying to break down barriers to growing and preparing food in our community and empower people with the skills to be able to meet their own fresh food needs,” said Fiona Munro, the organization’s outreach and education manager.