The Bridge postpones annual fundraising gala
The Bridge Youth and Family Services is a not-for-profit human service agency providing children ages 17 and younger, or 18 if still in high school, in Palatine Township with comprehensive mental health services for emotional and behavioral challenges they face.
In addition, The Bridge works with local schools and municipalities to provide crisis interventions for runaway, locked-out or homeless youth in Palatine, Barrington, Elk Grove, Maine, Schaumburg and Hanover townships.
These services are available to all Palatine Township residents, regardless of their ability to pay, which is made possible, in part, by private funding from individuals, businesses and organizations.
In 1965, Palatine Township became the second township in the state of Illinois to appoint a youth committee. Over the next few years, the committee opened a drop-in center, began outreach work and started a summer employment program.
When the Simon and Garfunkel song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" became popular, youth chose this as the official name of the agency. What then was a safe place for youth to gather evolved into a comprehensive mental health resource in the Northwest suburbs.
Today, The Bridge provides a continuum of services, including family and individual counseling, mentoring, substance abuse, social competence and trauma recovery groups, and parenting workshops to achieve social, mental and emotional health.
The overwhelming majority of youth served by The Bridge have experienced trauma due to abuse or neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, or losing a parent to death, incarceration or other life challenges.
Over the years, best practices and methods of helping youth have evolved and changed, however, the challenges they face today remain as serious.
The Bridge serves more than 1,000 individuals and families over three program areas: Counseling, Youth Advocacy and Crisis Intervention. In the early 1980s, Illinois identified a need for a program to intervene for runaway youth.
In 1982, The Bridge began its crisis intervention program. The program is staffed by skilled intervention specialists on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and serves almost 200 youths per year.
As the community responds to this world health crisis, The Bridge continues to help children and young people in our community with essential mental health counseling.
More than 75% of their clients are receiving therapy via telephone and confidential video sessions, while the remainder have chosen to wait until they can resume their therapies in person.
During this shelter-in-place, in-person 24/7 response to crisis calls in the community continues (in the safest ways possible) as essential services mandated by the Illinois Department of Human Services.
As this uncertainty works its way through our community, with no one really sure of the endpoint, The Bridge has decided the right thing to do is postpone its annual gala. As youth and their families rely on staff for mental health counseling and to cope with the challenges they face, it is donations from the community, local businesses and events like the annual gala that help to provide these therapies.
"This is an uncertain time for everyone, especially nonprofit organizations. We rely on the generosity of our corporate and community members to continue to deliver crucial counseling services and intervene in crisis situations," said Gregg Stockey, executive director of The Bridge Youth and Family Services.
"I know that when we do resume our fundraising, they will lend their support as they have for the past five decades."
For more information about The Bridge, or to make a donation, visit BridgeYouth.org.