Update of 4/21/2025:

The Next Generation Wellness Network team is back in action through June 2025! We look forward to connecting with you. We want to be a resource and support to you in reducing substance use among young people in Chicago.

Our Youth Health Conference has been put back into motion and will take place on a new date – May 31. We really hope you will join us.

We are thrilled to now be resuming this work. We are also heartbroken that so many non-profits remain deeply impacted, and we encourage continued action to reverse the tide. 

Last week, the federal Administration clawed back billions of dollars in public health funds, including $153M in Illinois for mental health services, substance use treatment, and infectious disease prevention. Gov. JB Pritzker says these cuts will inflict “immeasurable harm.”

“At a time when Americans desperately need support for mental health and substance abuse, the Trump administration has again prioritized cruelty over care and cut essential funds states were relying on to fund lifesaving programs,” Pritzker said in a statement, as reported on March 27 by WBEZ in Trump administration cuts $153 million in Illinois public health, substance abuse programs.

PHIMC is among those directly impacted. Our youth substance use prevention program has been put on indefinite hold and the six staff, one-third of PHIMC’s organization, have been either laid off or furloughed. The result is that young people in Chicago have been made higher risk for substance misuse and addiction.

We are proud of our work through the statewide Regional Substance Use Prevention and Integration Centers, an initiative of and funded by Illinois Department of Human Services Substance Use Prevention & Recovery (IDHS SUPR). Until last week, PHIMC served as the Chicago region substance use prevention subject matter expert, using available data sources to understand regional trends and provide support to youth serving agencies in Chicago. Through our Next Generation Wellness Network, PHIMC has provided access to resources, expertise, and data-driven strategies to enhance substance prevention efforts among Chicago’s youth.

For a taste of this work, you can listen to Melody, one of the young people we recently engaged who is interested in supporting her peers. Here, she shares her perspective on substance use.

Youth need comprehensive support, education, and information to navigate adolescence. It is a time when they test boundaries and begin the path to adulthood. It is a time when opportunities to be exposed to prevention education and support for making healthy choices should be increased, not decreased.

The Next Generation Wellness Network (NGWN) regularly convened youth-serving agencies across Chicago through its Community Advisory Board (CAB) to share information, resources, and best practices; build connections with other partners; and provide insight and feedback on how to best meet the needs of Chicago youth. In addition, NGWN provided training and technical assistance on how organizations can integrate substance use prevention into their existing youth programming – creating less formal ways to engage and support youth and increasing the number of times young people receive prevention messages. We must now place these efforts on indefinite hold, just as we were building momentum. When notified of the program pause, one CAB member responded that the program filled a gap the community truly needs.

According to the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 29.3% of high school students in Chicago have tried marijuana, 41.6% have tried alcohol, and 5.1% have misused a prescription drug such as Adderall, Ritalin, or Xanax, not including prescription pain medicine. 4.3% of Chicago high school students tried marijuana before the age of 13, and 14.3% tried alcohol before the age of 13.

PHIMC remains committed to supporting as much of the work as we can. Our Substance Prevention and Awareness Resource Kit (SPARK), an online resource hub we built in collaboration with Praxis Institute, Crossing the Flood, and Rudd Resources, will remain open. We encourage you to check it out. Our team just added new trainings that include:

• Talking to Youth About Substance Use
• Talking to Youth About Substance Use – Warning Signs and Intervention Conversations
• Fentanyl and Other Opioids
• Vaping and E-Cigarettes

We have also paused plans for our first Youth Health Conference, scheduled for May 10, 2025, to elevate youth health needs and solutions. The conference theme, My Health, My Voice, Authentically Me, would have centered youth and amplified and engaged young people and their champions across Chicago in strategic conversations around health-related topics, including mental health, LGBTQIA+ health, substance use prevention and education, HIV prevention and education, and justice involvement. Due to these cuts, the future of this conference is uncertain.

What Can You Do?

1. Make a Donation. Invest in our work to advance health justice and strengthen public health throughout Illinois.
2. Call the White House. Tell them they are decimating services, and people will die because of it. The number for the White House comment line is 202-456-1111
3. Call your U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask them to prioritize public health. Find your elected officials by calling the US Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (Senate); 202-225-3121 (House) or find your legislator here.
4. Rally. Engage. Participate. On Saturday, April 5, join the Chicago Federation of Labor, Equality Illinois, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Indivisible Chicago, Personal PAC, Sierra Club Illinois, and many others to rally and march opposing Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Trump Administration’s catastrophic attacks on our nation and the world. Learn more here about the Chicago rally. Learn more here about local events across the country.

You can read more about these cuts in reports by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.

For a 42-page list of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grants that have been terminated, click here. This list is published by TAGGS: Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System.