Donate

Help us to ensure every child receives the services they deserve. Donating to CHAT enables us to serve children regardless of their ability to pay. This includes children on Medicaid who are often turned away from other providers.

Please consider a minimum gift of $50. Why $50? Every increment of $50 given to CHAT enables us to provide one more therapy session for a child on Medicaid. Help us make an exponential impact on children’s lives today.

  • $50 provides one session of therapy.
  • $100 buys a set of children's books for our literacy program.
  • $250 funds a comprehensive speech-language evaluation.
  • $500 provides a month of speech and language enrichment in a preschool classroom.
  • $750 covers three months of speech and language sessions.
  • $1,500 buys the technology we need for one SLP to provide services (laptop, iPad, hotspot).
  • $2,500 funds an evaluation for a court-involved individual.
  • $5,000 sponsors communication red flag trainings for 15 nonprofits that work with at-risk youth.
  • $7,500 sponsors a clinician to serve as an expert witness for a child in legal proceedings.
  • $10,000 sponsors the development of neurodiversity-affirming resources to educate and train caregivers and educators.
  • $20,000 enables 15 uninsured children to attend an intensive CHAT program (Literacy, Executive Functioning, Social Communication).
For donation purposes, our legal name is “Center for Speech and Language Disorders”, doing business as CHAT. CHAT is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3). Our EIN number is: 36-3018276.

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Provide materials to help make therapy FUN and items that keep our clinic up and running!

CHAT
The go-to place for those with
few—if any—other options.

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
—Desmond Tutu

At CHAT, one of the only nonprofits dedicated to changing lives through speech and language therapy in the country and the only one committed to “communication justice”– our work to effect change for under-resourced and under-represented people whose communication disorders and differences contribute to their inequitable treatment, we know how important verbal communication is to the overall quality of one’s life. That’s why we’re dedicated to making sure that ALL individuals have access to the superior care we provide, particularly those with financial, language, geographic and other barriers to getting the care they need.

For people with speech or language disorders, early diagnosis and effective therapy can make the difference between success in school, in relationships, and ultimately in the work place. People with widely accepted insurance plans and deeper pockets can receive quality care from other providers in our area, but very few accept Medicaid. None provide the summer literacy and social communication programs that we do, free of charge to children who attend them. We also provide scholarships to families who are underinsured or unable to meet their out of pocket insurance costs for therapy.

In addition to our reduced cost and free services, we are constantly innovating to help underserved populations like pre-schoolers in publicly funded programs. In order to do all of this, we need your help.

How does your support help?

Supporting CHAT enables us to include more children whose communications disorders and differences contribute to their inequitable treatment. Your donation allows us to: 

  • Meet our growing clinic demand so CHAT therapy remains accessible to all.
  • Partner with Chicagoland nonprofits to bring life-changing programs to more underserved communities.
  • Help children avoid the school-to-confinement pipeline by bringing our executive functioning program to at-risk youth and serving undiagnosed children in our juvenile justice system.

We hope that you not only believe in the powerful work we’re doing at CHAT, but that you’re willing to help financially support the children in our community who need your help. To donate, click here

Every dollar makes a difference. 

See Testimonials.

“Thank you for giving me the chance to be a part of this program – it changed everything for me. Because we couldn’t afford it, my mom told me it was a miracle. I believe her… thank you.”

Alex, age 13

“Anna was frustrated and experiencing failure in school, and we had no hope for help. We didn’t have insurance, but because of people who want to help, Anna was able to participate in the Language to Literacy program with CHAT. That was the difference between no hope and my child learning to love reading today.”

Maria, mother of 11-year-old Anna