OUR HISTORY

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The Pilsen Wellness Center began as an outgrowth of a federally funded program in 1967 and formally incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in June 1975. The organization has historically served the predominantly Latino-origin communities of Pilsen (Lower West Side) and Little Village (South Lawndale) in Chicago, and has since expanded the original service areas to include Brighton Park, Gage Park, McKinley Park, Chicago Lawn and South Chicago as well as the suburban communities of Cicero, Berwyn, Stone Park, and Melrose Park, Illinois.

Formerly known as the Pilsen-Little Village Community Mental Health Center, Inc., the name change to the Pilsen Wellness Center, Inc. in April 2008 reflects the organization’s continued expansion into new service areas in keeping with their multi-dimensional approach to treatment and recovery interventions. Understanding wellness to mean an actively sought goal, which considers both physical and mental health, prevention and education, the new name better defines the Center’s holistic treatment approach.

The Pilsen Wellness Center has deep roots in the community and adheres to a philosophical approach to general service delivery which considers the traditions, values and culture of the program participants served. It provides human services that are holistic, family focused, and tailored to the needs of its consumers. As an active community partner, the Pilsen Wellness courageously embraces a commitment to persons served in the behavioral health, prevention and education fields. The Center has brought together a clinical and management team of dedicated professionals who are held in high regard by the local professional community.

Pilsen Wellness Center’s professional staff is motivated, soulful, and passionate in providing services. The Center provides services to a challenging population in an ever-changing funding environment and has a strategic plan and vision that enhances clinical and educational service provision with strong organizational leadership which remains focused on a sound vision of dedicated, uninterrupted services.

Nestled within the arms of the Pilsen Wellness Center, program participants and their families have a powerful advocate and support systems powerhouse with decades of experience in responding to the array of challenges faced by the children, adolescents, and adults served by the organization. Without the need of potentially less effective linkages with external violence prevention, mental health, addictions treatment, alternative secondary education, and food pantry providers, Pilsen Wellness Center leverages this vast array of expert interventions to complement the work, resources, and support necessary for the many families we serve.

CULTURAL COMPETENCY

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The agency provides culturally sensitive services to a multicultural population with limited financial resources. The organization’s mission has remained providing quality human services to economically disadvantaged children and families.

Pilsen Wellness Center values the uniqueness of the bicultural person. This translates into supportive programs that appreciate how language and culture influence therapeutic strategies. This in-depth understanding facilitates a process of healing for participants by taking into consideration how levels of acculturation and the immigrant experience impact treatment services. Common among many Latinos, the immigrant experience is one of the most stressful events a family can undergo. The Center’s staff helps families address acculturation, behavioral, emotional, and adjustment problem issues.

Pilsen Wellness Center (PWC) employs a 80 percent bilingual and bicultural staff. PWC’s expertise rests on the ability to grasp the significance of acculturation and how life experiences are encoded in language. Facilitating the participant’s access to the effective or “emotional” aspect of a problem through the language in which it was experienced is a fundamental treatment component. Language and its subtleties, strongly related to identity, and expertise in treating acculturation difficulties are a hallmark of services provision.

PWC’s professionally-trained staff recognizes that the overall needs and dynamics of the family are integral to successful problem resolutions. Strong organizational and administrative linkages between and among the Center’s various programs ensure consistency, inter-agency cooperation, and optimal interventions.

As an agency with deep roots in the community, the philosophic approach to general service delivery considers the traditions, values and culture of all program participants. The organization provides social services that are holistic, family focused, and tailored to the needs of participants.

PROGRAM SERVICES

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The Pilsen Wellness Center expanded its original outpatient Mental Health Counseling programming to include Substance Abuse Treatment, Youth Prevention Services, Teen Mom services, as well as Alternative Secondary Education through its Latino Youth High School. With 18 programming sites located throughout the Chicagoland area, it remains one of the few community-based, not-for-profit organizations with offerings across a vast array of service options.

ACCREDITATION

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CARF accreditation provides a solid measure of assurance that accredited programs and facilities are of the highest quality and superior performance using internationally accepted standards that guarantee services remain among the leading best elite for excellence.

The organization satisfies each of the CARF Accreditation Conditions and demonstrates substantial conformance to the standards. It is designed and operated to benefit the persons served.

The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) has awarded 12 Pilsen Wellness Center, Inc. programs with a prestigious three-year accreditation award from 2022 through 2025.

FUNDING SOURCES

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• Illinois Department of Human Services
• Division of Mental Health
• Division of Substance Use Prevention & Revovery
• Division of Family & Community Services
• Division of Early Childhood
• Division of Rehabilitation Services
• Chicago Department of Public Health
• City of Chicago Department of Family & Support Services
• Start Early
• Youth Connection Charter Schools
• Alternative Schools Network
• Town of Cicero, Community Mental Health Board
• The Greater Food Depository