Mission, Vision and Core Commitments
Our Mission Heading link
Our mission is to cultivate an environment of belonging and trust for health professionals that are underrepresented and to facilitate action in pursuit of health equity.
Our Vision Heading link
Our vision is to foster a collective culture for all people to be able to flourish by centering people who have been placed on the margins of society for generations, and yielding power, space and resources for UI Health and UIC’s health professionals to be best equipped to deliver the highest standards of care to their patients and communities.
Our Five Core Commitments Heading link
Trust
We are committed to cultivating trust with our communities – both within and outside of UIC.
We acknowledge that our other core values will be more difficult to embody if we do not first express the importance of establishing trust and act upon this principle in all of our initiatives.
Similar to trust being our first value and the basis for all we do, tobacco was the “first gift” from the Creator and represents respect, guidance and protection.
Health Equity
We are committed to mitigating health inequities through our education, research and clinical practice.
We acknowledge that with our privilege and positionality as a university we have resources that many other community members do not have, and we will yield our time, space and power to strive towards a more equitable society.
Sage is known as a “multidimensional herb” that addresses many different health conditions, similar to health equity that addresses the varying causes of disease from the most macro to the most micro.
Community Care
We are committed to power in numbers.
We acknowledge that this work cannot and should not be done alone, but rather as a collective that moves forward together, shows vulnerability and offers consistent support for one another.
The honey bee represents what it means to build community and we strive to uphold this principle by implementing a teamed-approach to practice and caring for others and ourselves.
Cultural Humility
We are committed to establishing a community that constantly deepens their self-reflection practices, questions the power dynamics and cultivate relationships that are mutually beneficial between institutions and local communities.
We acknowledge that doing health equity work successfully means that we do not center ourselves.
As the cedar plant is known as the “restorer and purifier,” it symbolizes the cultural humility which requires a lifelong commitment to self-reflection, analysis and growth.
Flourish
We are committed to moving past recruitment and retention, and focusing on flourishing and belonging.
We acknowledge that metrics and representation are important, while also owning that how our communities are feeling, doing and thriving is even more important to our cause.
In order for us to be able to flourish, we also need to heal and sweetgrass is a “kindness medicine” that helps us, generations before us and generations after us go back to our roots to bloom.