CHAT’s Anniversary Benefit at The Newberry Library to celebrate 45 years of providing speech and language therapy services to children throughout Chicagoland with few – if any – other options.

100% of proceeds will go to the Phyllis Kupperman Scholarship Fund to enable under-resourced children to receive speech and language therapy at CHAT.

For 45 years, CHAT (formerly known as Center for Speech & Language Disorders, or CSLD) has given children in need the gift of communication. Focused on inclusion and centered in social justice, CHAT provides life-changing speech therapy to individuals with few—if any—other options. Through our clinic, in schools, Early Intervention, and in partnership with community nonprofits, we tailor services specifically to a person’s needs and build on their strengths. We approach our work with deep cultural humility and understand the need for systemic change in healthcare and education so that the people we serve can be more sustainably supported. We strive for more communication justice by serving under-resourced and neurodivergent individuals whose communication disorders and differences contribute to their inequitable treatment, and by working to remove structural barriers to access. We accept Medicaid while many others don't and bring therapeutic services and programming into communities where they are needed.

Communication is a human right. Every child needs to communicate with the world around them. CHAT exists to include and empower children whose voices have not been heard, helping them to access a better future.