Heartwood Center has provided yoga classes, cancer treatments, meditation, acupuncture, psychotherapy, and a plethora of other kinds of holistic healthcare to Evanston residents for 26 years. However, due to developments on the corner of Dodge and Dempster earlier this summer, they are in jeopardy of closing.
Founded in 1999 by Nancy Floy, a practitioner of Asian medicine and current Director of the center, Heartwood began as a small collective of holistic healthcare providers on Maple and Davis. Floy rented space to healthcare providers at an affordable cost, encouraging burgeoning small businesses to set up offices through Heartwood. Since moving to their current location at 1818 Dempster and acquiring a significantly bigger space, Heartwood has become home to acupuncturists, psychotherapists, tai-chi instructors, and many other practitioners. Multiple meditation classes are freely offered each week, and their Skylight room, seating 300 people, is open to the community for events. Heartwood also offers its parking lot to other local businesses on the block. With about 1,000 people walking through its doors each week, the resources it provides have made Heartwood an anchor of the West Village neighborhood.
“We never turn anyone away,” says Floy. Heartwood provides free holistic healthcare services for those in need, many of them elders. Floy raises money through donations and grant-writing to pay practitioners for work in Heartwood’s free healthcare programs. Their longest running program, the Heartwood Free Cancer Program, provides services at no cost for low-income women, men, and children living with cancer. Heartwood reaches beyond the Evanston community; Many of the patients in the cancer program are women from the south and west sides of Chicago with cancer in the final stage, who come to receive holistic treatments such as acupuncture, bodywork, or massage, and Heartwood pays for their rides home. Delivering free holistic healthcare to over 300 people a year, the community benefits from Heartwood’s commitment to care.
(Anya Gill)
Heartwood is not only there for the neighborhood’s healthcare needs, but they are dedicated to social justice. Floy sees it as her duty to help change an Evanston-wide problem: lack of affordable housing. In 2010, Heartwood bought three houses divided into seven apartments on the block of 1818 Dempster to rent to families at a reduced cost. These apartments are always full and Heartwood has even allowed rent-to-buy agreements in some cases. In this agreement, the tenants, many of whom can no longer afford their homes in the Second Ward due to gentrification, will eventually be able to buy the apartments, becoming property owners. In a primarily Haitian, Jamaican, African-American, and Latino neighborhood, Floy believes that ownership of the 1818 block of Dempster needs to return to those communities. “We displaced them, and it’s up to white people to remedy that situation,” Floy states.
However, the programs Heartwood provides may cease to exist due to the potential purchase of the property next door by a Popeyes fast food franchise. The restaurant intends to apply to open a location at 1830 Dempster, adjacent to Heartwood. The project has received support from Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, City Manager Luke Stowe, and Second Ward Alderwoman Krissie Harris. The possible opening has been met with vehement backlash from the neighborhood for a multitude of reasons: traffic concerns, more unhealthy food choices (especially so close to ETHS), and the impact on independently-owned small businesses. On top of this, the opening of a Popeyes could have detrimental impacts on healthcare providers practicing at Heartwood, with those on the west side of the building considering relocating or closing down their practices entirely.
Many of them, like yoga therapist Sarah Westbrook, whose practice space is five feet from 1830 Dempster, are expecting strong odors of grease and car exhaust as well as an increase in noise on the already busy corner. With a disturbance to the calm and meditative spaces Heartwood upholds, the practitioners feel they would have to move. Without the income from these practitioners, Heartwood cannot survive financially. “This is how serious it is for us,” Floy says.
But Floy and the Heartwood community are not giving in, instead persisting in their vision of a block of independently-owned businesses. In late July, Heartwood offered to purchase the property, with the support of generous donors. Their plan for 1830 Dempster involves bringing in two local, Black-woman owned businesses: 4 Suns, an organic cafe and juice bar, and Whole Woman Fitness, an exercise studio. “These businesses fit our community,” says Floy, disappointed by the lack of support from the city council. “Why are they pushing Popeyes so hard?” Heartwood has attracted media attention for the controversy, with outlets like NPR interested in investigating the motives behind the city’s promotion of the restaurant.
Over 26 years, Heartwood has hosted weddings, provided relief to people at the end of their lives, helped birth babies, and the community hasn’t forgotten. Floy says the most rewarding part of directing Heartwood has been invitations to the life events of the people Heartwood helps, such as Quinceañeras and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Many of their biggest donors in the bid to buy 1830 Dempster are clients whose lives have been impacted by Heartwood’s services, and are now repaying the favor.
For now, Heartwood and concerned neighbors are working hard to get their message out. This week, driving by the corner of Dodge and Dempster, one may notice a formerly white wall on one side of Heartwood Center vibrantly spray-painted with a call to action – the Heartwood and West Village community holding the cans.
