$25 million gift from Kathleen and John Schreiber to Lurie Children’s Hospital to support early childhood programs

Kathleen and John Schreiber are donating $25 million to Lurie Children’s Hospital to create a center focused on the health and well-being of children from birth to age 5.

Called the Schreiber Family Center for Early Childhood Health and Wellness, the program will bring together Lurie professionals and community organizations to support children and families. It will be part of Lurie’s Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities, which focuses on community-based initiatives.

It will support programs that connect expectant parents with doulas and home visits. It will also work with programs designed to build children’s resilience and social-emotional well-being, and work to improve the training of early childhood professionals. The center’s work aims to benefit children throughout the Chicago area, with a focus on the city’s West Side.

The money will also be used to research ways to help newborns and very young children who are facing injustice.

“Providing quality medical care and cutting-edge research is essential, but not enough to meet the critical needs of our youth,” said Dr. Thomas Shanley, President and CEO of Lurie Children.

“We need to focus on the upstream factors that lead to health and racial inequalities experienced by our children and communities. The visionary gift of the Schreiber family will support us in this work.”

Schreiber grew up in Chicago and attended Loyola University before transferring to Harvard University’s business school. He then spent 20 years in real estate investment management and founded the real estate investment management business of New York-based Blackstone Group.