Jesse White tours Palatine Opportunity Center

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White got a glimpse Tuesday into the work Palatine Township does to better the lives of its most at-risk residents.

Following a breakfast with several area mayors gathered for all-day hazard-preparedness training, White toured the Palatine Opportunity Center, which provides education, health care, counseling, recreation and library services through a collaboration of agencies.

White visited with staff, adults and children, including a mother working on a reading-skills computer program and a group of boys learning to play bucket drums from a Harper College student.

"I like the idea of this community reaching out to people of diverse ethnic backgrounds," White said. "We need to give them the tools necessary for them to navigate in society."

Kathy Millin, director of the Palatine Opportunity Center, said White's visit is critical at a time when social services funding is being cut.

"One of our many challenges is letting somebody like Secretary White know we do have underserved people here in Palatine," Millin said. "We have a need for state and federal resources to meet our goals to serve the community."

Groups such as Asian Human Services and Mother and Baby Outreach lease space in the center, 1585 N. Rand Road. The center is across from Northwest Community Hospital.

Cora Jones, 34, has faithfully made the walk from her apartment twice a week for the last year. She now reads at an 11th-grade level and is studying to get her GED this summer in order to "get a job making more than $7.50 an hour."

"I had my doubts because I've been so shameful about my education," said Jones, a single mother. "But rain, sleet or snow, it's worth it."

Millin said it really does take a village to help a woman like Jones, who has in turn become a volunteer herself.

"Cora's trying to improve her situation and at the same time thinking about how she can give back," Millin said. "She's empowering herself."

White and company continued on to the Edgebrook Community Center, a nearby facility that caters to the village's Spanish-speaking population.

"If we fail them, it's a loss for all of us because they have the potential to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, firemen. The list goes on and on," White said. "Shame on us that we don't provide the opportunity to fulfill their dreams."