Group hopes Elgin protest will save services
About 50 people gathered in the pouring rain and icy April wind in Elgin Tuesday morning to protest budget cuts to human service organizations.
The Association for Individual Development held a Save Our Services rally on South State Street in Elgin to draw awareness to the problem.
Herbert Hansen, an Elgin man who has made use of AID services for years, stood with fellow AID clients, staff members, families and allies as the group held signs and umbrellas at the side of the road.
“I don’t want to be out on the street and I don’t want to be out of a job just yet,” said Hansen, 64.
The association primarily helps Hansen secure piecework for extra money to round out his Social Security income. Other members of the developmentally delayed and disabled community reside in AID group homes in Kane and Kendall counties, six of which are in Elgin.
AID is in danger of losing more than $1.5 million this year because of state budget cuts. That would affect thousands of local residents, staff members said.
“This is a fight not just for our current people, but for our future,” said Wanda Thomas, senior vice president of programming and services.
A sense of frustration about the cuts permeated the rally as people remembered similarly painful cuts in the last budget year.
Joyce Helander, executive director of DayOneNetwork in Geneva, said her organization saw a 10-percent cut to services for children ages through 3 years old and may see another 6-percent drop this year.
“It’s someone else’s turn to be on the chopping block,” Helander said.
The organization urges residents to call their state representatives and speak out against the cuts.