■ Lurie health hub meeting draws crowd PAGE 6
FREE Vol. 37 No. 17
April 26, 2023 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
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Domestic violence shelter coming to East Garfield Park Chicago’s oldest domestic violence shelter to consolidate services, expand capacity By IGOR STUDENKOV Staff Reporter
The Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved the zoning variations and Special Use permits that will allow the currently Humboldt Park-based Connections for Abused Women and their Children (CAWC) domestic violence victim services and advocacy organization to move its shelter and offices to East Garfield Park. The organization is in the process of buying an industrial building at 3311 W. Carroll Ave., which was last used as artist studios. It plans to remodel the building to house administrative offices and social service spaces and build a three-story addition to serve as a 45-bed shelter with outdoor patios and laundry facilities. Stephanie Love-Patterson, CAWC executive director, told the zoning board on March 17 that its current offices in Humboldt Park, 1116 N. Kedzie Ave., See SHELTER on page 8
FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ
FACE-TO-FACE: A volunteer for the West Side task force is ready to distribute Narcan on the corner of Pulaski and Van Buren.
Boots-on-the-ground How a West Side group responds to the opioid crisis
By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
Keith Davis stood at a parking lot located at the intersection of South Pulaski Road and West Van Buren Street with a box of hygiene kits and drug
overdose kits. Wrapped in a plastic bag, the life-saving kits include two doses of naloxone nasal spray, commonly known as Narcan, pamphlets explaining how to use naloxone and a bottle of hand sanitizer. “Need any Narcan?” Davis said to a
WS ! NEF H S A L
passerby. Some people stopped and said no, while others nodded and approached the table to receive a kit and a 5-minute training on how to use it. One individual said no, reaching into his pants pocket for See OPIOID TASK FORCE on page 5
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