OLYMPIA FIELDS, IL - April 10, 2012 - Aunt Martha's Youth Service Center will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Chicago Heights Pediatric Health & Wellness Center on Thursday, April 12 at 10:00 a.m. at 500 Dixie Highway on the former site of the agency's Joe Orr Road administrative building.

Aunt Martha's CEO Raul Garza will be joined by Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2); Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez and other local community and project officials.

Rendering of the new health center, as seen from the East.

"This project is about more than Aunt Martha's. It's about a community coming together to capitalize on an unprecedented opportunity," says Garza.

"Aunt Martha's wants this health center to be a place that is a hub of activity, not merely a place that people go when they need to see a doctor."

The new health center, the construction of which is funded by a grant Aunt Martha's received under Facility Investment Program (FIP) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will house 9 medical exam rooms, 5 behavioral health offices and a gym/wellness center. The facility will have space for administrative offices for Aunt Martha's staff, as well as meeting space that will be available for use by other community organizations.

When complete, the health center will be part of a community health campus, along with Aunt Martha's adjacent Women's Health Center and Dental Clinic (233 W. Joe Orr Road).

The Pediatric Health & Community Wellness Center Joliet Community Health Center is one of two projects included in Aunt Martha's FIP award. The agency is also preparing to begin work on a health center in Joliet. Aunt Martha's $11.8 million FIP grant represents the largest such award received by any community health center in Illinois, and the third largest amount in the country.