Legal Council for Health Justice works with Illinois communities to overcome and dismantle barriers to the care and services they need to stay healthy, fed, and housed. Read our mission and vision.

Here's how we work:
Step One: Our legal experts partner with medical providers and other care providers across Chicagoland. Through these partnerships, medical staff receive training on what social, economic, or environmental issues might harm the health of their patients. Some issues include access to affordable insurance or prescriptions, problems with housing, lack of steady income, or access to food.

Step Two: Providers screen their patients for these health-harming legal needs. The providers then connect patients to our legal team on site.

Step Three: Clients receive free legal assistance and advocacy from Legal Council. With the help of our advocates, clients get the care and services they need to manage their health and to reach their full potential.

Step Four: The issues we find affecting our clients inform our large-scale policy advocacy, where we fight to change the institutions and systems in our country so that they work well for everyone.

What is health justice?

Put simple, health justice is the elimination of all unjust health disparities. When we fight for health justice, we fight for affordable, accessible, and equitable health care and services for all communities, regardless of race, gender, age, ability, or income. We fight for access to affordable health coverage and prescriptions, safe and stable housing, a free and appropriate education, the nutritious food communities need to stay healthy, and other resources influenced by the social determinants of health.