Changes at the top for DuPage Co.'s People's Resource Center

Mary Ellen Durbin likes to say that if Hull House founder Jane Addams and social activist Dorothy Day had discussed how to help the poor in the suburbs, they would have come up with the People's Resource Center.

Durbin is retiring as the center's executive director on Wednesday, June 30, with the satisfaction of knowing that the 35-year-old organization has become the kind of full-service agency that would have made Addams and Day proud.

In the 15 years she has been at the center's helm, the Wheaton-based organization has grown from a food pantry and clothes closet to a one-stop nonprofit that offers an array of resources, encouragement and hope to those in need.

Just as important to Durbin is the comfortable community feeling in the center at 201 S. Naperville Road, Wheaton, where a greeting is as often a hug as a handshake.

"My entire life has been about trying to erase the dividing lines that keep us from realizing that we belong to each other," she said. "Nobody gets through their lives without help."

Durbin, 70, said she decided to step down now because she felt it was a time when an effective transition could be made.

"People's Resource Center will always need to be here in the community. The need for a new, energetic, visionary leader would be essential," she said.

Kim Perez will take over as the PRC's new executive director. She most recently served as vice president of Child and Family Services for Lifelink Corporation headquartered in Bensenville.

Durbin said she has given one piece of advice to Perez, who begins June 28.

"That was to listen," she said. "I think she will be very much a listener."

Growth in servicesDurbin credits listening to the center's volunteers - now numbering 1,100 - with the PRC's growth in services."Volunteers over the years came to me with ideas and, fortunately, I didn't say no," she said.Clients can receive help learning English, finding a job and mastering the computer. Computers refurbished by volunteers are given to those who might otherwise be left out of the technology revolution."We've distributed probably 12,000 computers in the last 13 or 14 years," Durbin said.Emergency assistance funds are used to prevent homelessness by staving off an eviction or foreclosure.The center has started and spun off a free dental clinic and medical clinic, and opened a satellite location in Westmont two years ago to serve southeast DuPage County.Like the social reformers she emulates, Durbin knows that caring for people goes beyond meeting their physical needs. Work done by students in the center's art enrichment program brightens the walls of the PRC as well as other community facilities willing to host a display."So many people face a barrier that is more emotional," Durbin said. "People are so thrilled when they see their work exhibited." During the fiscal year ending June 30, the center served 30,000 people, up 38 percent from two years ago. Durbin has led the center in keeping up with the growth in need while maintaining its culture, said Tom Okarma, president of the center's board of directors."Serving the client, respecting the client, putting the client first. It's not a job, it's a calling to her," he said.A calling to serveService to others has been part of her life as long she can remember, Durbin said. She grew up on the south side of Chicago where her parents impressed on her the need to be part of the solution to social problems in practical ways."Our home was always open," she recalled. "I don't ever remember living just as our nuclear family."Too poor to afford college, Durbin worked her way through St. Mary's of Notre Dame, Ind., with the support of the sisters who helped her figure out how she could pay her way.She and her husband, Ron, raised three children together and shared a sensitivity to social issues. Together, they marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."We got very involved in the Civil Rights Movement," Durbin said. "Martin Luther King really taught us how to live our faith."The Durbins, who have lived in Lisle 28 years, started the DAYBREAK Transition Housing Program there in 1989 through their church. The program, which provides housing and support for homeless families, started with one apartment and now has five. The Durbins continue to be involved as mentors.A client's storyBefore joining People's Resource Center, Durbin served 12 years as the community services director for Catholic Charities in the Joliet Diocese. That's when longtime friend and PRC client Pam Gallagher met Durbin. Gallagher, a victim of domestic violence, was living with her five sons in transitional housing provided by the People's Resource Center.Durbin asked Gallagher to serve as on the board of Catholic Charities, an appointment that led to Gallagher serving on other community boards and task forces. After Gallagher and her family had moved into subsidized housing, Durbin startled her by suggesting that Catholic Charities sponsor her to purchase a home."I was really skeptical because I was low-income," Gallagher said. "I couldn't even get a credit card."But with the help of Catholic Charities, the DuPage Home Ownership Center and the DuPage Community Development Block Grant program, Gallagher moved into her home in Warrenville in 1992. While working full-time, Gallagher went on to earn a two-year degree from the College of DuPage, doing her homework on a computer provided by the PRC. She did an oral history on Durbin for one of her classes."I can't say enough about Mary Ellen Durbin," Gallagher said. "She always has a smile on her face. She's always encouraging and hopeful. It's just a phenomenal gift to people."Now retired, Gallagher continues to be part of the PRC's women's art program and writing group and maintains her contact with Durbin."I don't hesitate to e-mail or call her when I'm concerned about something," she said.Close community Durbin treasures the relationships the PRC nourishes among the haves and the have-nots of DuPage County."That's so important to me that in helping we don't look at others as less or lacking," she said. "Everybody has something to teach me."Donors may support the PRC out of their abundance, but those in need contribute too, Durbin said."Everybody needs to give back," she said. "I'm most proud of volunteers who have been or continue to be clients, who are coming to help others and they themselves are in need."Durbin recalled that recently when the PRC's parking lot attendant died suddenly, the center handled the funeral arrangements because no next of kin could be found."Three hundred people came to his funeral, 300 people!" she said. "He had touched all those lives."The recipient of many awards for the lives she's touched over the years, Durbin said she is proudest of one she recently received from the DuPage Homeownership Center, where she serves on the board. The Robert Christ Award is named after a mentor who helped her to be more collaborative, she said."He taught me how to do community organizing in the suburbs. He was such a gentle, shrewd, savvy person," she said.Durbin learned the lessons well. She has no personnel problems among her 30 full- and part-staff, she said. And in a day when many social agencies are reducing services due to cuts in state aid, PRC is expanding to meet needs."The biggest challenge to me is the continual grinding effort to get the resources needed," she said.Sixty percent of PRC's $2.5 million budget comes from individuals and churches, she said. The center receives federal and state monies for its housing programs, which have income guidelines. All the other programs are open to anyone who expresses a need."If you made $90,000 a year and thought you needed food, we would provide that," she said.The food pantry is especially close to Durbin's heart. She said the space was carefully organized so recipients would not feel a stigma as they selected food from the shelves. Each recipient family is able to receive about $100 worth of groceries and fresh produce a month."I think of the courage they have to first of all acknowledge that need, then do whatever they have to to make sure their children are fed," Durbin said.Active retirementDurbin plans to volunteer at the food pantry after she retires. She'll also be found in the PRC's open classroom, where clients can come to get help with homework, English skills, filling out applications or other tasks."I don't think I'll be doing a whole lot of relaxing," she admitted. "I'm getting a little concerned I might be getting overcommitted.'She plans to stay involved with the DuPage Homeowership Center and the DAYBREAK transitional housing program. She'll continue to serve on the Lisle Library board.Durbin said she also plans to work with a ministry in Kenya to help people with AIDS and hopes to travel to Kenya next year. She also may connect with networks giving support to immigrants.On a more personal note, Durbin wants to spend more time writing her memoirs for her 10 grandchildren and join a watercolor class at PRC that she was too busy to take before."I hope to have a hobby of watercolor," she said.True20001291Mary Ellen Durbin chats with PRC Housing Director Tonya Latson.Bev Horne | Staff PhotographerTrue <p class="factboxheadblack">Perez takes helm at the People's Resource Center</p><p class="News">An experienced social work professional has been chosen to replace Mary Ellen Durbin as executive director at the People's Resource Center in Wheaton.</p><p class="News">Kim Perez, who begins today, will have three days of working with Durbin before the latter officially retires from the position she has held 15 years.</p><p class="News">Durbin, 70, said she is pleased with the choice for her replacement.</p><p class="News">"The PRC is fortunate to welcome the right leader at the right time," she said in a news release. "Kim Perez brings experience, vision and energy to our organization and community."</p><p class="News">Perez has spent 121/2 years with Bensenville-based Lifelink Corporation, where she served as the vice president of child and family services for most of the last four years. In that position, she was responsible for a $12 million budget and more than 200 employees in four states. Programs she oversaw included early childhood care and education, child welfare, domestic violence and international adoption.</p><p class="News">At PRC, she takes over a 35-year-old community-based nonprofit offering a wide array of resources to help the needy in DuPage County. People's Resource Center served 30,000 this past fiscal year on a budget of $2.5 million, with 60 percent of the funds coming from a donor base of individuals and churches. A staff of 30 are aided by 1,1000 volunteers.</p><p class="News">"I am thrilled to have been selected by the PRC board as their next executive director," Perez wrote in an e-mail. "I have deep respect for the work of this organization and the leadership that Mary Ellen Durbin has provided. Thanks to her 15 years of dedication to the PRC, countless residents of the DuPage community have benefited."</p><p class="News">Perez holds a master's degree in social work and is a member of numerous boards dealing with foster care and youth and family services.</p><p class="News">She resides in Chicago with her husband and son.</p>