Health care, housing providers among recipients of new Des Plaines social service grants

Community groups providing mental health care, housing and immigration services are among those that will share $275,000 in new municipal grants from Des Plaines.

The city council approved the subsidies Monday. They’re part of Des Plaines’ annual social service grant program, which is overseen by the police department’s human services division.

A committee evaluated 40 grant requests totaling $365,380, documents indicate. The proposed grants were based on several criteria, including the number of Des Plaines residents served in the past year, local needs and data-gathering efforts.

Groups providing health care for seniors and children and those offering food services were among the priorities, based on the number of calls the city has received for such services, referrals and walk-in requests for help, city social worker Angelika Danek said before Monday’s vote.

Decreased federal funding for those types of aid has affected the Des Plaines community, Danek added.

Des Plaines-based recipients include:

• Bessie’s Table, a program at First United Methodist Church providing free dinners and sack lunches on most Monday nights, will get $10,000.

• The Family Behavioral Health Clinic at Maryville Academy, which provides substance-abuse counseling and other mental health services, will get $8,000 for service costs not covered by insurance.

• The Alliance for Immigrant Neighbors, which offers legal services to immigrants and refugees, will get $6,400.

• The Five Loaves and Two Fish lunch program at Trinity Lutheran Church will receive $5,000.

Other recipients include:

• Barrington-based Mane in Heaven, which partners with social services agencies to provide therapy to children and adults using miniature horses, will get $8,500.

• The Arlington Heights-based Northwest Center Against Sexual Assault, which offers free services to sexual assault survivors and their loved ones in Northern and Northwest Cook County, will receive $8,500.

• Arlington Heights-based Shelter Youth & Family Services, which provides emergency and longer-term housing for children and adolescents who are abused, neglected, dependent or in need of supervision, will get $5,000.

• Wheeling-based Avenues to Independence, which provides housing and care for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities at two locations in Des Plaines, will get $5,000.

• The Northfield-based Josselyn Center, which provides mental health services, will get $9,000.

Mayor Andrew Goczkowski praised the grant program and said the recipients have a “dramatic” effect on the community.

Forty-two grants totaling $250,000 were awarded last year. Nearly all of this year’s recipients also received grants last year.