A myriad of events highlighted the second week of 2010 Social Work Month in Illinois, highlighting the community service theme of this year’s Social Work Month. On March 9th, the professional staff and several Chicago area members participated in a day of service at the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD). I have always been aware of the incredible work that the GCFD conducts in the Chicago area, but was never aware of how massive an operation it truly is. GCFD is located in a factory area on the southwest side of the city covering a four block area. Our assignment that afternoon was to work in the “clean” room, which meant we were repackaging elbow macaroni on this particular day. We were joined by an energetic group from Tilden High School. All in all, we packaged as a group 1,560 bags of elbow macaroni totaling 3,724 pounds.
That evenin g the Chic ago District held its awards event at Kingston Mines, a renown Chicago blues ba r. Having a n awards event at a blues bar is unique enough, especially when one of the awardees, the district’s Public Citizen of the Year Dr. Daniel Ivankovich, is the guitarist for the Chicago Blues All Stars. Dr. Ivankovich was recognized for his service as a surgeon to the underserved in Chicago and most recently in earthquake-torn Haiti. For more information about his work, go to the Bone Squad Web site.
Longtime NASW IL member Hazel Vespa received the district’s 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award. Hazel has been with Children’s Memorial Hospital for over forty years. H azel has spent her time a Children's Memorial Hospital meeting the psychosocial needs of the hospital’s complex populations, particularly children dealing with phenylketonuria (PKU). She has participated in research, clinical work, and advocacy for her PKU patients, as well as working with an interdisciplinary team to ensure the most comprehensive care available. She is recognized nationally as a psychosocial expert on PKU and has helped to set the standard of care for these patients.
Blues of another sort was in store on March 10th for the governor’s budget speech in Springfield. The governor outlined his plan to attack the state’s $13 billion deficit, which is a result of our structural deficit, skyrocketing pension costs, plummeting revenues, and unpaid bills. He stressed the amount of feedback his office has received by posting parts of the budget online and asking Illinois citizens for comment. In fact, we alerted the NASW IL membership of this opportunity as well. Governor Quinn’s five pillars of recovery include:
1. Creating jobs2. Cutting Costs3. Strategic Borrowing4. Continued Federal Assistance5. Increase State Revenues. He also outlined cuts, as well as a proposed 1% education surtax to help avert cuts in the state’s education budget. As you can imagine, the human services sector takes an enormous hit in this proposed budget. For example, a sampling of the cuts to the Department of Human Services (DHS) budget are in many areas: 1. Mental Health: Proposed $90 million in cuts to community mental health centers
2. Community Health and Prevention: 10% across the board cuts for all CHP programs
3. Developmental Disabilities: 2.5% rate cut for community providers and elimination of all grants serving non-Medicaid clients.
4. DASA: 8% cut in grants
During the DHS budget briefing, Dr. Lorrie Rickman-Jones of the Division of Mental Health became quite emotional as she outlined the projected cuts. An estimated 3,800 jobs in mental health will be eliminated following these cuts. The Governor’s FY11 Budget summary can be found here.Wednesday evening was the Peoria District’s Social Work Month Awards Event. Pam Briggs, director of the Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center at the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine in Peoria, IL, received the district’s Social Worker of the Year Award.
Keeping with the theme of “Social Workers Inspire Community Action,” I visited Aunt Martha’s Youth Service Center and Health Center on Friday afternoon. Founded in 1972 as a “drop in” center for troubled youth and staffed by volunteers, the agency has grown to an agency of ten divisions serving over 82,000 individuals in 120 programs in fifty locations and a staff of 900 employees. Aunt Martha’s has a presence in seventeen counties with a mission “to be a caring community resource for children, youth, and families.” I had the pleasure of meeting with the agency’s innovative CEO, Raul Garza, and some of his social work staff including Shelly Milosevich, Jerry Lowell, and Greg O’Brien. I had the opportunity to visit one of the seventeen Aunt Martha’s bustling community health centers in Chicago Heights. What is very noticeable is the fact that all types of healthcare, whether it be medical, dental, OB/GYN, or behavioral health, are provided less than one roof. More information on Aunt Martha’s can be found on their Web site.
