LOGAN SQUARE — A local teenager is asking Chicago to help him raise money for an advocacy group focusing on health care for children after funding was cut for its annual summit.
Leo Larvick, 17, is a Walter Payton College Preparatory High School senior and a youth advocate with the International Children’s Advisory Network, called iCAN. The global organization of kids and teens works to improve pediatric health care for young people with rare, chronic or complex medical needs and empower them to better understand their conditions.
The Logan Square resident, who was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder five years ago and has been part of the organization for three years, is the youth leader of his school’s iCAN chapter, one of two in Chicago that work with local children’s hospitals, researchers and health care experts to educate its young members via class seminars, events and community service.
Every year, iCAN hosts a summit in the United States or Europe for its chapter members to get together with researchers, health care professionals and industry partners to collaborate and empower youth on learning about their health conditions.
In years past, the summit has been sponsored by health care companies. But with federal budget cuts trickling down to the sponsors this year, iCAN’s 2026 summit is in limbo, Larvick said.
“A lot of kids rely on that stipend to go to the summit, so it’s primarily just to expand the access for people to go to the summit,” Larvick said. “We have youth members who come and talk about their personal experience, whether that be with chronic illness, a medical diagnosis, a journey, things like that.”
Larvick and his chapter are helping to raise $200,000 by Dec. 1 to make the summit a reality. The money will go toward stipends for kids and families who otherwise could not attend because of financial barriers and venue meals, accommodations and event costs, he said.
The fundraiser, started by iCAN staff at its Georgia headquarters, has raised about $5,000 since launching.
For Larvick, the summit has been a place to meet other youth with similar health journeys and feel less alone navigating the health care system, he said.
“I was diagnosed with OCD in seventh grade, and I really didn’t know a lot about what OCD was,” he said. “A lot of the time, when I went to the psychiatrist or I went to my primary care provider, they didn’t really have a lot of information on what it was. … So I felt really confused in my own health care, and I was just looking for answers that I really couldn’t get from anyone.”
When Larvick heard about iCAN in high school, he was excited to join to get a better grasp on his condition by learning from experts and finding more community, he said.
“At the summit, I was able to finally have an understanding of my own condition, because I met other youth who had OCD, I met practitioners who had experience with that who I never would have been able to meet just in Chicago,” Larvick said. “It was the first time I felt heard and listened to outside of my personal life.”
Even though the network is global, the high schooler hopes to raise awareness locally about the importance of youth-led advocacy in health care and the urgent need to fund the 2026 summit.
“We really want to get our message out there about how important it is for Chicago youth to be able to make this impact in health care and lead our voices into the doctor’s office or wherever youth are being treated with their medical journey,” Larvick said. “It’s really important for us to not be overlooked, and we really try to make that happen, especially in our community.”
Losing the summit this year means members risk losing one of the only spaces where youth voices truly influence the future of pediatric health care, Larvick said.
A virtual summit is a possibility for next year if the organization is unable to reach its fundraising goal, he said.
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