Bloomingdale Mental Health Auxiliary hosts roundtable to discuss grant use

Following a referendum passed in April 2017, Bloomingdale Township has a new community 708 mental health board which recently awarded their first grants totaling $550,000 to 12 organizations.

The Bloomingdale Township Mental Health Board grants will fund a wide array of community needs involving mental illness, addiction and developmental disabilities.

The League of Women Voters Roselle/Bloomingdale and the Bloomingdale Township Mental Health Auxiliary recently sponsored the "2018 Recovery and Progress Roundtable," which allowed all 12 organizations receiving grants to introduce their programs to the community and encourage community awareness of and participation in those programs.

During the meeting, each group explained how their services already help the community and how their services will be enhanced or expanded by the new funding provided by the mental health board. Other groups talked about how they are looking for community members to participate in these services, or getting community members to assist with these certain types of services.

"With this grant, we expect to train over 50 companions in the Bloomingdale Township that will provide eight hours of respite care for a caregiver per month," said Kris Blackwell, executive director, Voice of Care Rest Program, a church-based organization that trains churches to be more accommodating to people with disabilities, whether it be developmental or age onset.

"Caring for a developmentally disabled individual or an elderly person is stressful and can affect the caregiver's mental health. We know that anyone who is caring for someone 24/7 has a higher stress level and they are often isolated because they no longer can go to something simple as a church service, a Bible study, or a library book event," Blackwell said.

Blackwell noted that Voice of Care is partnering with Marklund, a nonprofit organization that serves infants, children, teens, and adults with serious and profound developmental disabilities and special health care needs, to recruit volunteers for the respite program. Blackwell also explained that she wants to engage with churches in the community to host training sessions for respite care volunteers. Marklund will work on locating other places in the community to host these trainings.

"The mental health board was gracious enough to fund our employment service grant application," said Meghan Higham, grants administrator, Ray Graham Association. The Ray Graham Association offers customized services to nearly 2,000 people with disabilities and their families through residential, life skills, employment, recreational, and family support services. " We are expanding our services into Bloomingdale Township and we will offer four employment seminars and expand our job training with this grant."

Each of the 12 mental health grantees will do meaningful work for the Bloomingdale Township community with the variety of services they offer.