Reinventing Community Mental Health 

#SaveOurMentalHealth

Did you know that on the northwest side of Chicago something unprecedented is happening in community mental health? For the first time in over two decades, a new public mental health center opened up to provide new mental health services to residents of the community, regardless of their ability to pay. But this center is not like other centers- it was initiated, approved, funded, and overseen entirely by residents of the community it serves. Like the barn raisings that helped build this country, this new center was the result of a community joining together to make their neighborhoods a better place to live. Now we want to ask for your support to make this initial program successful while developing a model to help other communities throughout Chicago.

Read more about The Kedzie Center

Please support our work to reinvent community mental health and ask your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and email to support our work! #SaveOurMentalHealth

The Kedzie Center- The Pioneering First Center 

On October 29th, The Kedzie Center opened its doors and began providing the first new public mental health services in Chicago in over two decades. But The Kedzie Center is no ordinary public mental health center, it is a center that is deeply rooted in the community it serves:

• The Center is funded by residents of the North River community who voted on four different referenda—in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2014—to raise their property taxes a small set amount to support expanded mental health services. The average homes pays $16-20 per year. These funds are administered by the community Governing Commission with services provided by Expanded Mental Health Services of Chicago, N.F.P.
• The Center provides expanded mental health services for individuals in the community regardless of their ability to pay. These new services can include services for schoolchildren, seniors, families, couples, veterans, and many more!
  

• The Center is responsive to the needs of the community. The mental health needs of each community are as diverse as its people. The services provided at the center strive to meet the most pressing needs of residents in the community.
• And the law itself authorizing such funding by taxpayers (the Community Expanded Mental Health Services Act of 2011[405 ILCS 22/]) was conceived, drafted, introduced, passed in the Legislature, and signed by the Governor thanks to the efforts of the Coalition, community residents, and their equally determined legislative sponsors.

Visit the Coalition website to learn more:
The Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers