About Howard Brown Health
Howard Brown Health provides high-quality, integrated, patient-centered care that affirms each patient’s identity and experiences at seven health centers across Chicago. As the Midwest’s leading health center dedicated to whole-person care for the LGBTQ+ community and others seeking affirming care, Howard Brown offers a range of patient services including medical care, behavioral care, dental care, young adult care, sexual care, and aging adult care. Howard Brown is recognized as a federally qualified health center and serves more than 43,000 adults and youth each year, regardless of their health insurance coverage status and ability to pay.
Who We Serve
Howard Brown Health was founded in 1974 and is now one of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) organizations.
With an annual budget of over $200 million, the agency serves more than 40,000 adults and youth in its diverse health and social service delivery system focused around seven major programmatic divisions:
- Primary medical care,
- Behavioral health,
- Research,
- HIV/STI prevention,
- Youth services,
- Elder services, and
- Community initiatives.
Howard Brown serves men, women, trans and gender diverse folks, infants, youth, and children through a multi-site operation based in Chicago that includes a main health and research center in the Uptown neighborhood, Howard Brown Health Sheridan, and our other clinics Howard Brown Health Halsted in Lakeview, Howard Brown Health Clark in Rogers Park, Howard Brown Health 63rd Street in Englewood, Howard Brown Health 55th Street in Hyde Park, Howard Brown Health at La Casa Norte in Humboldt Park, Broadway Youth Center, and two Brown Elephant resale shops in Chicago (Northalsted and Andersonville neighborhoods).
Our Values
Patient-First – We place patients at the center of every interaction – providing efficient, coordinated, and affirming care that respects each individual’s experiences, preferences, and health needs within a high-quality, reliable and client service-driven environment.
Respect – We honor the dignity and identities of our patients, our colleagues, and our community partners through professionalism, collaboration, empathetic listening, inclusion, and by fostering environments where everyone feels they belong.
Innovation – We pursue forward-thinking, evidence-informed solutions that remove barriers, enhance services, and advance equity and wellbeing for the communities we serve.
Duty – We hold ourselves accountable to our patients and one another by taking responsibility for our own actions, while collaborating across teams and partners to achieve shared goals.
Excellence – We uphold clear standards and use continuous learning, feedback and sound evidence to deliver high-quality care while also promoting operational and financial sustainability.
Land Acknowledgement
Howard Brown Health acknowledges that our clinics and offices were built on the homelands of the Council of the Three Fires—Ojibwe (Chippewa), Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi), and Odawa nations—as well as the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Peoria, Kaskaskia, Myaamia (Miami), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux), and Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) peoples, before their forced assimilation, labor, and removal from their ancestral lands.
We recognize the Native peoples of these lands and invite all to consider supporting Indigenous communities and the fight for Indigenous racial justice. We encourage creativity in honoring the history of the lands on which we all work and live.
Recommended Resources:
- Learn more about the lands you inhabit
- Learn more about the Indigenous tribes of Chicago
- Learn from common questions about Native Americans
- Check out book lists recommended by the First Nations Development Institute
- Learn about the American Indian Center of Chicago
Commitment to LGBTQ+ and Minority Suppliers
In order to better support our communities and their businesses, we encourage the use of minority-owned vendors whenever possible for goods and services. Per our Vendor Selection and Purchasing Policy, all formal requests for the acquisition of goods or services must include at least one minority or woman-owned vendor as an option.