Healthy West Chicago seeks new director

Community leaders have agreed to hire a director for Healthy West Chicago in hopes of growing and strengthening efforts to make the city healthy.

A request for applications from qualified candidates was issued at the end of December and Mayor Ruben Pineda said the new director likely will be hired before February.

The director's primary focus, he said, will be to implement the recently published Healthy West Chicago action plan.

"I want the person we hire to be the quarterback, to lead us in that direction," he said. "That's going to be crucial - somebody that's going to hit the ground running and be very aggressive and very proactive and just makes sure this thing succeeds."

Pineda started the Healthy West Chicago initiative two years ago after meeting the mayor of Oklahoma City, who helped changed his town from one of the most obese in the country to one of the healthiest. Aware that the obesity rate in West Chicago schools was around 48 percent, Pineda decided he wanted to start something similar.

Since then, he has gained the support of about 40 community partners who are helping raise awareness about healthy eating, the importance of physical activity and "making the healthy choice the easy choice."

Pineda goes on weekly walks with residents and visits schools to talk to kids about exercise and eating right. But because there isn't a lot of Healthy West Chicago-specific programming, he said there are still a lot of people in town who have heard about the effort but don't really understand what it is.

A $140,000 budget has been gathered from several Healthy West Chicago partners - including the city, United Way, WeGo Together for Kids and Central DuPage Hospital - that will include the new director's salary and money for programming.

Pineda said he would like to hire someone who is a grant writer and has successfully led a similar initiative before, in a different community.

"I don't want to start from scratch," he said. "We're not reinventing the wheel here."

The person who is selected will be a "go-getter" who works hard to inform everybody - not just within West Chicago's borders - about Healthy West Chicago initiatives, Pineda said.

The director also will be responsible for directing Healthy West Chicago programs, fundraising, growing the organization's community health initiatives, engaging partners in programming and creating stronger relationships with residents and other stakeholders.

"There's so much that is going to happen once we get that director. It's just going to be exciting," Pineda said. "My goal at the end of it all is I want people to go, 'You see what West Chicago is doing? That's where I want to live.'"

Applications are due by 4 p.m. Jan. 15. Information can be found at www.westchicago.org.