​

​

In January 2019, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution on Public Mental Health Service Expansion, with 48 of the 50 aldermen signed on as co-sponsors. The resolution affirmed the critical role of city mental health clinics run by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and called for an independent study to investigate where new clinic services were most needed.

​

Dr. Leticia Villarreal Sosa of Dominican University School of Social Work and College of Applied Social Sciences was tapped by former Health Committee Chairman George Cardenas to help moderate the community public hearing called for in the resolution and synthesize the emergent themes from public hearing testimony with city budget data and previous research on community mental health needs. 

Pursuant to the resolution, a hearing was held at Malcolm X College on June 13, 2019. Attendees came from neighborhoods across the city—30 of Chicago’s 77 community areas—and contributed input via testimony and survey. Demographically, survey respondents were 57% Latinx, 27% Black, 8% White and 1.9% Asian.

​

​