[0:07] welcome to actv newsmakers recently we talked about the Addison Township 708

[0:12] Mental Health Board its establishment here in Addison Township uh they have

[0:17] held their inaugural meetings the board and its work is now underway here in the

[0:21] community like to get an update on the work of the board and also tell you

[0:25] about an upcoming event and find out about some other things happening at

[0:28] Addison Township join us once again is Addison Township supervisor Dennis

[0:32] reboletti so hi Dennis thanks for coming in uh uh to talk about this and recently

[0:37] I guess the Township Board uh passed a resolution kind of acknowledging some of

[0:41] the work that the new 708 board has been doing which we talked about recently we

[0:45] did so the Township Board adopted a resolution uh recognizing may as uh

[0:51] Mental Health Awareness Month here in the township again trying to bring light

[0:56] to the circumstances of those who suffer usually on their own and suffer un

[1:01] silenced and that need assistance with mental health and uh with our Mental

[1:05] Health Board coming up we thought that was appropriate to bring attention to

[1:09] the issue and uh on May 22nd our Mental Health Board will be meeting to finally

[1:14] adopt their budget okay uh and this May 22nd event actually there is an open

[1:18] house attached to it so why don't you give us the details on that so our

[1:22] viewers are aware that they could be a part of this and meet the mental health

[1:25] they can so in our Event Center at the township the mental health board will be

[1:29] meeting at their 600 p.m. usual time but from 4:00 to 5:45 p.m. we're having an

[1:35] open house where some of myself and some of our board members will be there some

[1:39] of the board members from the mental health board will be there as well and

[1:43] we've invited some of the uh folks that have testified in front of the mental

[1:47] health board I think Ray Graham will be there UPC Seguin um I'm hopeful that

[1:52] we'll have a Serenity House will be there uh I'm hoping the vet center will

[1:56] be there who's providing counseling and they're going to have some tables with

[2:00] pamphlets and get a chance to meet local elected officials members from the

[2:04] community uh to attend and open up that dialogue and then that will transition

[2:09] into uh a vote by the Mental Health Board to establish a budget it sounds

[2:13] like this meet and greet and the opportunity to meet service providers

[2:18] that are in and near the community groups that the mental health board will

[2:22] be working with um is maybe one of the first steps in their overall plan of how

[2:29] they're going to engage with the community on this subject and

[2:32] what better way to do that than to kind of give them a platform to sort of

[2:36] showcase what they do and services that are provided and any of your

[2:41] constituents your residents could come in and find out about those services

[2:44] that are I think it's just easier in an open setting in instead of trying to be

[2:47] in front of the board and and and public comment we're going to have light

[2:51] Refreshments it's easy just to go and have a conversation with these providers

[2:55] uh you know these are some of the groups that'll be applying for Grants uh and it

[3:00] we also want to bring attention to other not for-profit providers throughout the

[3:03] township and throughout the area that we have uh a manal board we're going to

[3:08] have a budget and that Mental Health Board will be going out to bid for

[3:12] different Services uh one of the services that I think you have put on

[3:17] the township radar in fact you've been talking about it for some time has been

[3:21] a establishment of a youth center yes uh at the township building complex can you

[3:26] talk about that and you've actually reached out to get some State assistance

[3:31] uh in this area also right so the alive Center is a group we're partnering with

[3:36] they have facilities of nville Glendale Heights or I'm sorry Glenn Allen and

[3:40] Hanover Park uh we're looking to have a center open up 5 days a week drop in

[3:46] after school middle school through High School they've applied for a $400,000

[3:50] Grant to provide for the services to open it up and staff it that's through

[3:55] the DuPage uh Grant foundation and we've applied for a uh infrastructure Grant

[4:03] from senator gloak who represents a good chunk of Addison that we would uh

[4:08] looking for about $300,000 to uh improve our building make new classrooms they uh

[4:14] make a stem classro art music uh build out a kitchen Etc so that they can move

[4:21] into a newer facility and be able to have something that's upgraded not from

[4:26] the 1950s oh which that building was at one point right yeah used to be a school

[4:30] um what does a youth center do or what is your vision of a youth center how

[4:35] would it operate in the township so any students uh that qualify from throughout

[4:39] the township could come in they could get tutoring they can get counseling

[4:43] they'll get a a meal they'll be able to interact with the staff there and it's

[4:48] just a place for them to go and hang out and they can play video games they can

[4:52] learn new skills they can play board games video games whatever uh and just

[4:57] interact a safe place for them to go after school and this uh would provide

[5:04] services for young people is there also an opportunity for young people to meet

[5:10] with professional staff in fact I think you told me that did the township just

[5:14] hire a psychologist we did we have a staff psychologist um she's been with us

[5:18] for about five or six months she's been helping me work with through these

[5:22] programs but we're going to have her uh transition back to being counselor and

[5:28] that if any of these kids do need further assistance and and they want to

[5:32] go that route we'll have somebody available that they can begin to see in

[5:36] kind of an environment that maybe they would be more comfortable in talking

[5:40] with a professional in this case with the staff psychologist correct and so

[5:43] when the kids go there nobody's trying to force any counseling on them or or

[5:47] identifying anything but they really let the kids open up to them they do a lot

[5:51] of mentoring so they Addison I would hope Addison Trail High School students

[5:55] would want to participate um and we're working on some

[5:58] internships with some local colleges so that we can bring other providers in

[6:03] have them get their internship hours and hopefully maybe stay employed and come

[6:07] with us uh my understanding is and you you're right on that internship is a big

[6:11] part of uh the curriculum uh and the area of study uh for those who are going

[6:16] into uh social work for example to be a licensed clinical social worker there is

[6:21] a lot of emphasis on internship and it's pretty rigorous it is um people work in

[6:26] hospital settings they work in community based settings such as uh you're

[6:29] describing so you'll probably do pretty well to find yourself some interns I

[6:33] would imagine and we have uh so our psychologist and other psychologist in

[6:37] the area have agreed to help Mentor them and oversee them and provide that uh

[6:42] guidance for them they're actually looking forward to that part to to mold

[6:46] those Minds that you know expose them to the different circumstances that they're

[6:50] going to see and what better way than to uh interact with young people to help

[6:55] them out now when you talk about all of this happening at the township building

[6:59] what do you need need to do uh infrastructure wise or facility wise in

[7:03] order to make all of this happen do you have the space to do something like this

[7:06] right now we do it's just the fact that the old classrooms all the rooms are

[7:11] built with uh brick and mortar and bl so a lot of the spaces wouldn't work we

[7:17] have a large hallway which basically is dead space so we're going to tear a lot

[7:21] of the old brick walls out and then work with the alive Center to put together

[7:26] the right size classrooms and and office space for them so that they can Pro

[7:32] provide these programs and have up-to-date things for them do you have a

[7:36] schedule of construction on something like this yeah so we're what we're

[7:40] hoping to do is between hopefully if they get the Grant and we get our grant

[7:45] I think we can probably open up by January 1st I think it will be uh that

[7:50] would be the Hope MH yeah uh but we'll see what happens right right does the

[7:55] mental health board I mean where do you get funding for something like this how

[7:58] are you going to pay or something so the Staffing would be provided through that

[8:01] 2-year Grant from the county so they've applied for $200,000 which which would

[8:05] pay for all the staff in there um the mental health board can also help the

[8:09] township with some of the renovations because obviously it's going to be used

[8:12] for the community center and there's also the hope of taking some of that uh

[8:17] land that open space we have on Oak Street fencing that in to provide a safe

[8:21] area for the kids to go outside and play when weather permits now of course on

[8:25] top of everything you're doing with the Mental Health Board the proposals for

[8:29] the community uh Center the youth center you also have another tenant in the

[8:32] building and that is the Secretary of State's office and they are using your

[8:36] space also it's getting pretty busy over it the it is getting very busy we went

[8:39] from having 45,000 ft above grade with only about 20 employees in there to now

[8:45] the secretary of state has about 12 full-time employees there our employees

[8:50] this community center um so the Secretary of State's opened

[8:56] Thanksgiving they have been growing they're actually even talking to us

[9:00] about maybe taking additional space in there taking our whole first floor at 50

[9:04] East Oak um right now you could do road test uh real ID you can do uh you name

[9:11] it everything but CDLs and doing your Titles and Registration for your vehicle

[9:17] right so a lot of the the things that we knew about from the DMV offices the

[9:22] driver's license offices could be done at 50 East Oak Street yes and another

[9:27] actually exciting thing for parents in the neighborhood with kids that are

[9:31] looking to get their driver's license uh secretary

[9:35] janulus uh has expanded a program that will open up our facility and others in

[9:41] the around the area to allow for high school students on Saturday mornings to

[9:45] go get their driver's license that will start I think the first Saturday in June

[9:50] and that will go all summer MH now just do a quick snapshot here you've been

[9:55] Township supervisor for many years now you you've you've been a local

[9:58] government for for many years compare what it was like back then to where

[10:04] you're at today did you ever think you were going to have the Secretary of

[10:07] State's office a mental health board a potential youth community center youth

[10:11] dropin center out of that facility over uh on North Addison Road when you first

[10:16] came into office no you know it's been seven years and the Hope was to reclaim

[10:20] the building to one day uh you help you know give it to a usable area where we

[10:26] can have groups come in and I never thought we would get this far I think

[10:30] we're very fortunate with my staff working as hard as they have and working

[10:33] with other elected officials in the village uh to put some of these programs

[10:37] together I think we're really turning that building over to uh make it work

[10:41] for the community and weathering through the pandemic where you had to re uh uh

[10:47] redo your business plan for your food pantry which still operates there also

[10:50] right so we have the food pantry there and we're looking at uh even our

[10:54] expanding our Event Center because now we have 80 Days of early voting so that

[10:58] takes away so and we'll come in and talk more about that in the another time yeah

[11:03] right right uh Dennis thank you very much and a reminder if you are

[11:06] interested in attending the meet and greet Open House Event uh very uh

[11:11] informal type event where you can come and learn about the various uh partner

[11:14] agencies that'll be working with the Addison Township 708 Mental Health Board

[11:19] that event is Wednesday May 22nd from 4: until 5:45 at the Addison Township Event

[11:25] Center at 401 North Addison Road followed by their

[11:29] uh meeting of the mental health board and if you want to keep up with more

[11:32] information on the Mental Health Board uh and its work in uh DuPage County and

[11:37] here at Addison Township their website is Addison Township

[11:43] mb.com and I suppose through the Secretary of State's office website to

[11:48] get more information about the operations at that location that's

[11:52] correct Dennis thank you very much for coming in to talk about what's been

[11:56] happening at Addison Township sounds like a busy place a lot of things

[11:59] happening especially with their Mental Health Board and their upcoming

[12:02] reception on Wednesday May 22nd thank you for joining us on actv newsmakers

Addison Newsmakers Mental Health Board “Meet & Greet”

Transcript