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.
Due to disruptions in federal funding in late March, PHIMC temporarily paused our Next Generation Wellness Network program and Youth Health Conference planning. We are thrilled to resume this work. We are also heartbroken that so many non-profits remain deeply impacted, and we encourage continued action to reverse the tide.
PHIMC’s inaugural Youth Health Conference: My Health, My Voice, Authentically Me, will amplify and engage young people and their champions across Chicago in strategic conversations around health-related topics, including substance use prevention and education, mental health, LGBTQIA+ health, HIV prevention and education, and justice involvement. Attendees will experience student-led learning, real conversations, and fresh insights on delivering quality health services to young people. What’s happening now in our country impacts young people and their future as adults. Events like this give space for people to share how they’re feeling in this moment. The conference is free and open to the public. It will be held at UIC Student Center West in Chicago on Saturday, May 31, 2025. Learn more here.
Through our Next Generation Wellness Network, PHIMC uses a harm reduction framework, working with each of our direct service partners to incorporate a spectrum of strategies from safer substance use to managed substance use, to address mental health and trauma, and to incorporate a non-judgmental, non-punitive, non-coercive approach. Learn more here.
PHIMC also facilitates leadership-building among young people who hold LGBTQ+ identities, and works with teachers, school administrators, and providers in a multitude of ways to support youth in Chicago and across Illinois. Learn more about The Alliance here and about our School Health Access Collaborative, which is co-hosted with Healthy Schools Campaign, here.
PHIMC partnerships ensure that people most impacted have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them.
Please join us.
- Register here for the Youth Health Conference on May 31, 2025.
- Access PHIMC’s online Substance Prevention and Awareness Resource Kit (SPARK), designed to support Chicago youth in developing healthy relationships with substances. You can find the SPARK Portal here.
- Help us spread the word about the Youth Health Conference and SPARK Portal.
Follow us on social media.
- Instagram: @PHIMCnews / @AlliancePHIMC / @NextGenPHIMC
- LinkedIn: Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago
- Facebook: PHIMCnews
