Journeys did not deserve bad press

A recent article in the Daily Herald reported that Journeys from PADS to HOPE was not funded by the Village of Arlington Heights this year. I am the person who replaced the outgoing staff who neglected to calendar the funding deadline. I deeply regret and acknowledge our error.

Because of our long-standing relationship with the village, I am disappointed no one let us know when our application did not arrive on schedule, as it had for years. Journeys is our second largest service area and has served the village well. In this fiscal year alone, 86 Arlington Heights residents have walked through our front doors as compared to 21 in 2006. These numbers include more families with young children.

Our PADS program began in Arlington Heights, and today six of our 18 shelter sites are there. We have helped to train the Arlington Heights Police Department in crisis intervention; we have participated on a village committee to brainstorm ways to divert the homeless from seeking refuge at the library and train station.

Journeys has been and is working hard to keep homeless individuals off the streets and prevent overburdening of public services.

I also am disappointed that the Daily Herald found it necessary to print this article without contacting us, or considering its impact on us. How anyone could exploit or condone our loss of funding in these difficult economic times is lacking an understanding of what Journeys is all about.

In addition to the homeless, Journeys is seeing a remarkable increase in clients who are one paycheck away from becoming homeless. It is not an enviable position to be in. They deserve our compassion.

If it happened to you or someone you knew, Journeys would be there to help. Clearly anyone who is homeless and mentally aware would argue that it isn't the direction they planned.

Journeys has a dedicated clinical staff who are in the trenches every day. They do not make a salary commensurate to the extraordinary energy they are asked to expend daily -- instead, they are compensated by the success stories they help to create for our clients.

If you haven't already done so, I invite you to visit Journeys and tour our facility.

I go home every night knowing that I helped to make our community a better place. While my entire career has been spent helping others, I have never experienced such fulfillment as I do at Journeys. While the rest of the world is falling down around us, and people are becoming desensitized to suffering, Journeys is a beacon of light and hope to those who have lost the will to carry on.

I am proud to be on the Journeys staff and am working hard to make up the funding we lost from Arlington Heights this year. We'll do a better job next year in meeting this deadline so we can continue serving the village's residents!

Peggy Dickson, director of development

Journeys from PADS to HOPE

Palatine