Ken­neth Young Cen­ter Part­ners with Endeav­or Health to Expand Access to Behav­ioral Health Services

January 12, 2026

We have excit­ing news to share! Ken­neth Young Cen­ter has been award­ed $420,000 through Endeav­or Health’s Com­mu­ni­ty Invest­ment Fund to upgrade and inte­grate tech­nol­o­gy that will make behav­ioral health care more acces­si­ble, effi­cient, and con­nect­ed for our community.

Every day, peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ty face chal­lenges that can feel over­whelm­ing — men­tal health strug­gles, sub­stance use, hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty, and more. Our pur­pose is to walk along­side them with com­pas­sion, care, and hope. This invest­ment allows us to reduce wait times, serve more clients, and ensure that our staff can focus on what mat­ters most: deliv­er­ing excep­tion­al care. 

With this fund­ing, we’re rolling out three major upgrades: 

• A Uni­fied Phone Sys­tem so reach­ing us is eas­i­er and faster. 
• A Redesigned Web­site with mul­ti­lin­gual resources, a secure client por­tal, and a com­mu­ni­ty resource guide link­ing to over 1,700 local services. 
• An Inte­grat­ed Elec­tron­ic Health Record (EHR) that improves care coor­di­na­tion, sup­ports mobile access for field teams, and reduces admin­is­tra­tive bur­dens — so our staff can spend more time where it mat­ters most: with clients. 

These changes will trans­form how clients engage with care and how our team deliv­ers it. When launched togeth­er, these sys­tems will cre­ate a seam­less expe­ri­ence that reflects our mis­sion and pro­vides com­pas­sion­ate, com­pre­hen­sive care for every individual. 

“This invest­ment is a trans­for­ma­tion­al moment for Ken­neth Young Cen­ter and for the com­mu­ni­ties we serve,” said Mau­rice D. Ware, Pres­i­dent & CEO of Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. ​“By mod­ern­iz­ing and ful­ly inte­grat­ing our tech­nol­o­gy plat­forms, we are remov­ing bar­ri­ers to care, reduc­ing wait times, and cre­at­ing a more seam­less expe­ri­ence for clients, fam­i­lies, and part­ners. Endeav­or Health’s sup­port allows us to strength­en our infra­struc­ture, so our clin­i­cians and staff can focus on what mat­ters most — deliv­er­ing time­ly, high-qual­i­ty behav­ioral health care to those who need it most. This part­ner­ship accel­er­ates our abil­i­ty to expand access, improve out­comes, and meet the grow­ing behav­ioral health needs across our region.” 

Endeav­or Health select­ed Ken­neth Young Cen­ter as one of nine new Capac­i­ty Builder recip­i­ents and 42 cur­rent part­ners across Chicagoland to col­lab­o­rate on com­mu­ni­ty health needs relat­ed to behav­ioral health, food and hous­ing inse­cu­ri­ty, access to care and careers in healthcare. 

“Endeav­or Health is here every day to sup­port the health and well-being of our patients and their fam­i­lies,” said Kris­ten Mur­tos, Chief Inno­va­tion and Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer of Endeav­or Health. ​“Through our Com­mu­ni­ty Invest­ment Fund, we’re col­lab­o­rat­ing with local orga­ni­za­tions that peo­ple know and trust — help­ing them remove bar­ri­ers to care, meet imme­di­ate needs and cre­ate long-term solu­tions that help indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies thrive.” 

We are deeply grate­ful to Endeav­or Health for their part­ner­ship and to our incred­i­ble staff and com­mu­ni­ty for mak­ing this mile­stone pos­si­ble. Their Com­mu­ni­ty Invest­ment Fund is dri­ving change across our com­mu­ni­ty. Togeth­er, we’re build­ing a future where care is acces­si­ble, con­nect­ed, and cen­tered on the needs of every individual. 

To learn more about Endeav­or Health’s Com­mu­ni­ty Invest­ment Fund, vis­it endeav​orhealth​.org/cif.

About Endeav­or Health

Endeav­or Health℠ is a Chicagoland-based inte­grat­ed health sys­tem dri­ven by a mis­sion to help every­one in our com­mu­ni­ties be their best. As Illi­nois’ third-largest health sys­tem and third-largest med­ical group, Endeav­or Health℠ proud­ly serves an area of more than 4.1 mil­lion res­i­dents across sev­en north­east Illi­nois coun­ties. Their more than 28,300 team mem­bers, includ­ing more than 1,900 employed physi­cians, are the heart of our orga­ni­za­tion, deliv­er­ing seam­less access to per­son­al­ized, pio­neer­ing, world-class patient care across more than 300 ambu­la­to­ry loca­tions and nine hos­pi­tals, includ­ing eight Mag­net-rec­og­nized acute care hos­pi­tals – Edward (Naperville), Elmhurst, Evanston, Glen­brook (Glen­view), High­land Park, North­west Com­mu­ni­ty (Arling­ton Heights), Skok­ie and Swedish (Chica­go) and Lin­den Oaks Behav­ioral Health Hos­pi­tal (Naperville). For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.endeav​orhealth​.org

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