Elgin crisis center in crisis due to budget impasse
Faced with a massive cut in funding because of the budget impasse in Springfield, Elgin-based Community Crisis Center is thinking of creative ways to raise $250,000 to help it keep its doors open this summer.
Officials have launched an online campaign at crisisovernight.org to glean donations $10 at a time.
By early Thursday afternoon, people had donated about $8,000.
"We're getting donations by the minute. I don't know if it will be enough, but we're fighting to keep our doors open," said
Gretchen Vapnar, executive director at the center.
The organization provides services for more than 6,000 battered women and their children, operates an emergency food pantry and has a suicide hotline.
In addition to Elginites, the center serves people from Kane County, suburban Cook County, McHenry County and other Fox Valley area municipalities.
The center receives between $700,000 and $800,000 a year in state funding as part of its $2.15 million budget. In April, center leaders also were dealt a setback when the city of Elgin canceled the Fox River Festival of Balloons because of budget concerns. That event usually raised about $20,000 for the center.
Vapnar said even if a new state budget is crafted immediately, it would take months for the state to disburse money to the center - a delay that only adds to the urgency.
The online campaign is in cooperation Sarah Evans, the director of communications at Elgin Community College, who is volunteering her time, Vapnar said. Evans will spend tonight at the center and record her experiences on twitter.com.
Vapnar said the center's board of directors recently met and decided to stay open past July 1, but with limited services, if no budget accord is reached downstate. The center has cut expenses across the board and has laid off 10 people since Jan. 1.
Vapnar said officials at the center, along with their sister shelter in Mutual Ground in Aurora, want lawmakers to decide on a budget somehow.
"What we're saying is they need to do something. They need to have a budget," she said. "I'm not going to say they need (an income) tax increase. I'm saying they need to figure it out."
Vapnar said it's easy for someone from afar to zero in on the crisis center as a service to cut. But things are different for folks in the trenches who see people in dire need every day.
"Some people can say that the crisis center is trying to do too much. But people come to us, they have needs. We try to meet those needs," she said. "We have to look people in the eye and say 'No.'"
Donations are tax deductible. For details, call (847) 742-4088.
Word of the center's possible shuttering has mobilized some Elgin residents.
Jason Strackany said he went to the center for counseling after he was involved in a domestic incident. He and about 20 others plan to protest the possible cuts at 11 a.m. Friday on the Kimball Street bridge in downtown Elgin.
"It makes me feel like, where do I go from here? Where does everybody else go?" he said. "What are they going to do if the place closes? The community is already in crisis."