Children's Advocacy Center in Gurnee to add medical facility
The Lake County Children's Advocacy Center in Gurnee, which provides a safe space for abused children, now has the funds to build a medical facility to better accommodate its clients.
The state's $45 billion capital bill, which awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signature, includes $100,000 for the project, according to the Lake County state's attorney's office. That money, in combination with private donations and some funds from the county, will pay for the $280,000 project.
The center, located at 123 O'Plaine Road, is an extension of the state's attorney's office and is mostly funded through donations.
State's Attorney Mike Nerheim said most of the children served need medical exams or other treatment that requires leaving the center.
"The whole idea of the center is to reduce the trauma placed on children," Nerheim said. "We're trying to make this whole process easy on the child and the family."
Nerheim said the medical facility likely will be built on the back of the center near the rarely used loading dock, which is a holdover from when the building was a post office.
The center also provides space for therapy, courtroom preparation and case management for the center's young clients.
The center received $250,000 from the county budget this year, but that money mostly is being used for other projects including replacing the audio and visual equipment used in interviews. Nerheim said some of the county money will likely go to the medical center project as well.
Nerheim said adding a medical facility has been a goal for several years, and in the past two years the center has been raising funds for it.
"This (state) money basically gets us to our goal," Nerheim said Thursday. "We are starting with the permitting and design now."
Nerheim said officials had never before tried the state budget route of securing funding for the center, and they were pleasantly surprised that it worked.
Nerheim gave credit to state Sen. Julie Morrison, a Deerfield Democrat, whom he called a "champion" for the center in Springfield.