MATTER receives grant from The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust to address health equity in Chicagoland area
The grant will support new programming for innovators and organizations around advancing health equity
Chicago, IL — MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub, has received a $225,000 grant from The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust to advance health equity throughout the Chicagoland area.
“MATTER is cultivating an innovation community that improves healthcare for all, and we are thrilled to announce the receipt of a grant from The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust to help us with our work,” said Steven Collens, CEO of MATTER. “MATTER has launched several initiatives to date with more to come, and these funds will help our community make a bigger contribution to reducing unacceptable health disparities in the Chicagoland area.”
“Innovation is crucial to advancing health equity in the Chicago region,” said Nydia Searle, Searle Consultant to The Chicago Community Trust. “MATTER’s contributions to the innovation ecosystem—from startups to industry innovators — are vital to the expansion of health equity to underserved communities.”
The grant will support building upon MATTER’s programs and offerings to harness Chicago’s healthcare innovation capabilities improving health outcomes in Chicago’s underrepresented communities. In the coming months, MATTER will be developing educational offerings to support both entrepreneurs and large organizations that are building health equity solutions and developing healthy equity competencies.
Currently, MATTER is working on addressing health equity through a number of programs. Together with the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, MATTER recently launched the Health Equity Innovation accelerator to support entrepreneurs with solutions that advance opportunities for fair and just access to health. MATTER also operates BRIDGE, a free mentoring program to support underrepresented entrepreneurs focused on disrupting healthcare, and produces a speaker series on advancing health equity.
About MATTER
At MATTER, we believe collaboration is the best way to improve healthcare. The MATTER collaborative includes more than 200 cutting-edge startups from around the world, working together with dozens of hospitals and health systems, universities and industry-leading companies to build the future of healthcare. Together we are accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health and follow @MATTERhealth.
About Advancing Health Equity
MATTER’s Advancing Health Equity initiative aims to unravel the various forms of inequities affecting our healthcare system today and understand the role innovation and technology can play in shaping a more equitable future. The initiative examines health equity through two lenses: resilient communities and inclusive technology.