Clearbrook to merge with CARC to expand services
Arlington Heights-based Clearbrook and Chicago-based CARC said Monday they plan to merge their organizations to better serve developmentally disabled adults and children in Chicago and the suburbs and better withstand potential drops in funding.
The merger is expected to be completed by July and no layoffs are planned at this point, authorities said.
Clearbrook President Carl La Mell said both organizations are financially sound, but the current economy and concerns over dwindling state grant funding to assist the nonprofits have been worrisome.
State grants have dropped about 20 percent in the last two years and corporate donations have plunged about 60 percent. So the two groups have discussed the merger over the past year to shore up resources and continue their missions, La Mell said.
"It's about protecting the future," La Mell said.
The combined organization will be called CARC/Clearbrook and include a total work force of about 700 full-time and 500 part-time workers. They will continue to span a region covering the city of Chicago from the Beverly neighborhood on the Southwest Side to suburbs as far north as Gurnee.
The combined organization is expected to offer similar services and perhaps more after the transition, officials said. Children's services include early intervention, home-based support and foster care. Adult nonresidential services involve home-based support, developmental training, seniors' programs, work centers and job placement.
Autism services are offered for adults, and adult residential options offer community living services.
The new organization also will continue to operate a number of business enterprises to generate jobs for adults with developmental disabilities.
"This will help us offer better options for those we serve, and it will help us to provide a stronger voice at the state and local government level," said Kristin V. MacRae, president and CEO of CARC, formerly known as the Chicago Association for Retarded Citizens.
Clearbrook serves about 3,000 developmentally disabled children and adults, while CARC serves about 1,500.
The Clearbrook board of directors unanimously approved the merger in October, while CARC did so this month. The transition will start in January, when each organization plans to review and combine operations, MacRae said.
By July, CARC/Clearbrook is expected to serve as a single organization with one board but two chief executive officers. MacRae and La Mell both said they intend to remain at the helm, but details of their duties as co-CEOs still need to be determined.
They also are unsure at this point where the central headquarters will be established, since Clearbrook has been based in Arlington Heights and CARC has two offices in Chicago.
"It's still too early to say," said MacRae.