Research and Policy
CHAS conducts rigorous, community-engaged research at the intersection of climate, health, and equity. Our work is designed not only to generate knowledge, but to drive policy and systems change. We do not study communities from the outside. We build research infrastructure that communities co-govern and directly benefit from
CHAS, in partnership with Cook County Health and the Cook County Department of Public Health, is funding and supporting community organizations to design and implement interventions addressing:
- Extreme heat exposure and cooling access
- Air quality and respiratory health
- Chronic disease management in climate-vulnerable populations
Extreme heat drives a 35% increase in emergency visits at Cook County Health, with the greatest impact in South and West Side communities, where temperatures run 8-12 degrees higher due to urban heat island effects. 67% of CCH asthma patients live in areas with the poorest air quality. Cook County Health currently lacks a systematic mechanism for identifying, evaluating, and scaling community-based interventions that address these conditions.
Generate rigorous outcome data that supports integration into clinical care and long-term financing through Medicaid and public health systems.
The CHAS/CCH Micro-Grant Program provides seed funding to support promising research initiatives.
CHAS recruits and coordinates University of Chicago faculty from across the university, and partners with faculty at other Chicago-area medical centers and research universities, to serve as research partners paired with individual community grantees. These collaborations strengthen evaluation design, data interpretation, and long-term sustainability, building lasting research capacity within community organizations rather than extracting data from them.
Our research partners include:
- ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET)
- The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth
- Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development
- Institute for Population and Precision Health (IPPH)
- The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)
- Pritzker Plant Biology Center
- Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU)
CHAS advances policy solutions that enable scale, including:
- Medicaid coverage for community-based climate-health interventions
- Dedicated Cook County and state funding for health system innovation
- Cost-effectiveness evidence to support sustained public investment