Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and NASCAR Foundation are supporting Central Illinois mental health efforts through a surprise $30,000 grant to the McLean County for Center Services [MCCHS].
The three organizations held a news conference Thursday — World Mental Health Day 2024 — at the Bloomington-based health and social service provider’s building at 520 N. Center St. to share the good news. MCCHS CEO Joan Hartman told WGLT she had no idea the agency was even being considered for the grant.
“We were floored because there’s just so many great facilities and great agencies out there,” she said.
Dave Van de Walle with Blue Cross Blue Shield [BCBS] said the health insurer decided to funnel money into mental health and contacted NASCAR to help fund the no-strings initiative. He added the insurer did a statewide search, and wound up honing in on Central Illinois, where MCCHS stood out.
“This is a 24/7, 365-day-a-year effort throughout Illinois to make sure that people’s whole health is taken care of,” he said.
Hartman said the funding come at an apt time.
Multiple air conditioning units across the center’s downtown buildings recently went out, and she said the money will go toward replacements. While that’s a basic operating need, Hartman said it allows the center to focus on its other services, such as the recently opened A New Horizon community recovery center and Behavioral Health Urgent Care.
As a nonprofit, the Center for Human Services relies heavily on donations, such as the BCBS-NASCAR grant. Government funding helped the organization make recent building repairs that Hartman said can improve client services. For example, the center used Illinois Department of Human Services’ mental health funds to make one of its lobbies more trauma-informed.
“We’ve been really blessed to be able to have some of these monetary gifts,” she said.
World Mental Health Day
To give people a glimpse of how MCCHS helps people, client and Peer Recovery Support Specialist Shayla Woodworth shared how she’s always felt ostracized by the community.
“I have always felt left like let down by the system. I’m the daughter of a local police officer who was arrested and put in prison,” she said. “I was never able to find treatment that really helped, so I self-medicated.”
Woodworth wound up in McLean County Recovery Court that helps people with serious mental health, and connected with the Center for Human Services. She said the non-hierarchical structure helped her find family and for the first time, providers who were genuinely dedicated to helping her get sober and succeed.
“It just helps me build a very strong foundation to where I can actually proudly say that today I graduated recovery court… and I have over 20 months of sobriety, and I know that I definitely could not have done that without the center and all of the help and the support,” she said.
Government support
Elected officials also spoke at the event, including state Rep. Sharon Chung,D-Bloomington, who highlighted her longtime support of MCCHS — dating back to her time on the McLean County Board.
“I’ve seen [Behavioral Health] Urgent Care start from the [McLean County] Triage Center that we had to now… in this lovely building, and then to be able to see it reach so many people here in the community, is very inspiring, and it’s just really humbling,” she said, adding she and state Sen. Dave Koehler. D-Peoria, have a goal to continue improving mental health services statewide.
Normal Mayor Chris Koos and Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens also shared their support of the center and encouraged continued collaboration to ease homelessness in the community, which Koos said could help with people’s mental health.
“This is such a daunting issue, but we’re up to it, and we’re going to tackle it with the help of organizations like this,” he said.
Jurgens came in place of Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe, who was unavailable, and said he knows the “investment and donation is making a difference.”
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