Thrive Together aims to connect Cook County residents with local resources

In 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to ease, Cook County Public Health, Sawtooth Mountain Clinic and North Shore Health conducted community health assessments. As the agencies reviewed the results, they identified a common theme: many residents were unaware of the services available in Cook County.

“We would try to promote things internally, either as the clinic, hospital, county, or nonprofit partners,” Cook County Public Health and Human Services Director Grace Grinager told WTIP. “And we all just noticed this trend of people less aware of what’s here. So even though we all do our best to try to get the word out about what we’re doing in our agencies, there wasn’t anything that was like a shared resource.”

Residents could use internet search engines such as Google to find local services, but results were often incomplete or outdated. People could also search the websites of individual agencies, but the assessments showed those approaches were not consistently connecting people with the resources they needed.

“We don’t want a lack of information to be the barrier that keeps somebody from connecting with a service that they need. That was really the impetus that we were all getting behind as we came together and tried to address this need through the resource directory website,” Grinager told WTIP.

The result was Thrive Together, a community resource directory that compiles services available throughout Cook County across a wide range of categories. The site launched Friday, June 12.

“It’s designed to be kind of a one-stop shop where people throughout the community can go if they’re looking for something and they’re not quite sure where to go,” Grinager said.

The need for a centralized directory is particularly apparent in Cook County, where some small businesses operate without traditional websites or rely primarily on social media pages. Seasonal hours and frequently changing contact information can make it difficult for search engines to provide accurate results.

Thrive Together is the product of a collaborative effort among local government, healthcare organizations and community partners. Over several months, the team compiled information on services, businesses, phone numbers and websites into a searchable database.

The group took a broad view of health and well-being when developing categories for the site, including listings for pets, community support services and other resources that may not traditionally be considered healthcare.

The directory is intended to remain a community-driven project. Residents can suggest businesses, organizations or services that are not currently listed on the site.

As the team developed the directory, members reviewed similar projects in other counties and evaluated vendors that specialize in community resource platforms.

“We really liked the Pine County example. There were several others that we felt kind of missed the mark, especially for our community, ” Grinager told WTIP.

Cook County currently maintains the website and plans to promote it throughout the summer through social media, community outreach and mailers that include magnets featuring the website address.

WTIP spoke with Grinager about the website and the effort behind creating the directory. Audio of that conversation can be found below.

Josh Hinke June 18, 2026