Salvation Army in St. Charles reaches out to meet increased needs of people
As lawmakers in Springfield struggle to fix holes in the state budget, many clinics and other organizations like PADS of Elgin and the Community Crisis Center in Elgin might have to either close or greatly reduce services. It's places like the Salvation Army Tri-City Corps that step in and fill the gaps when it comes to providing social services to the area.
In the past year, many of the Tri-City Corps services are more sought after than ever. Since the center does not receive the bulk of its funding from the state, the Tri-City Corps has been able to expand on the social services it offers to meet higher demand from the community.
"I'm actually glad (Tri-City Corps) doesn't rely on state funding because otherwise we'd be severely affected by the state budget issues," said Jennie New, social services director for the St. Charles Salvation Army at 1710 S. Seventh Ave. The center relies mainly on private donations and grants to meet its needs.
Those needs now include offering low-cost health services and foodstuffs to an ever growing segment of the population who has never needed them before.
"I cannot begin to tell you how many stories I hear about people who come here who said, 'I used to give to the Salvation Army and now I'm here asking for food.' They're blindsided and don't even know where to begin to start," New said.
In June 2008, the Tri-City Corps Social Services Department served 262 people, providing them either with food or referring them to other programs to meet their needs. In June of this year, that number was up to 363 people.
According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security, unemployment for Kane County was at 6.3 percent last year. As of May 2009, it's 10.9 percent, meaning that 75 percent more people are unemployed.
For the last five years the Tri-City Corps has offered a Free Bread program from 9:30 to 11 a.m. every Tuesday and Friday. According to New, who has been working with the program for two years, last year about 40 people a week would come to it. This year about 110 people show up, many of whom are recently unemployed and do not qualify for food stamps.
St. Charles businesses like Blue Goose, Costco and Starbucks donate bakery items and other food to the program, which asks only that participants list their name, hometown and number of people living in their household in order to receive food.
In June 2008, the Free Bread program distributed about 1,000 food items to families in need. This year, from June 1 to 27, it distributed 3,668 food items in response to the greater number of people arriving every week.
Many of those new arrivals have also seen their insurance benefits disappear along with their employment.
"We've seen an increase in people who wouldn't ordinarily be seeking reduced price health care, people who had private insurance and have lost their jobs," said Pat McNamara, program director for Kid Care Medical.
Kid Care, which has offices in eight suburbs including Hanover Park and Arlington Heights, works with many social service groups to provide low-cost or free school physicals for children.
Last year, Kid Care began a partnership with the Tri-City Corps in hopes of reaching out to families that are unable to come to their office centers for care.
This year, Kid Care offered $20 physicals and $5 immunizations at the Tri-City Corps. McNamara estimates that a typical doctor's physical can range anywhere from $75 to $100, and that might not include the cost of lab work or immunizations many schools require. If patients could not afford to pay, Kid Care would either charge families what they could afford or charge them nothing.
Tri-City Corps also works with health care providers like Delnor Hospital to offer free heart disease risk assessment and osteoporosis screenings.
"People are very grateful for our services. A lot of families have never been in this situation where they need assistance - it's actually quite scary for them," New said.