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welcome to actv newsmakers recently we
talked about the Addison Township 708

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Mental Health Board its establishment
here in Addison Township uh they have

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held their inaugural meetings the board
and its work is now underway here in the

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community like to get an update on the
work of the board and also tell you

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about an upcoming event and find out
about some other things happening at

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Addison Township join us once again is
Addison Township supervisor Dennis

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reboletti so hi Dennis thanks for coming
in uh uh to talk about this and recently

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I guess the Township Board uh passed a
resolution kind of acknowledging some of

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the work that the new 708 board has been
doing which we talked about recently we

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did so the Township Board adopted a
resolution uh recognizing may as uh

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Mental Health Awareness Month here in
the township again trying to bring light

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to the circumstances of those who suffer
usually on their own and suffer un

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silenced and that need assistance with
mental health and uh with our Mental

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Health Board coming up we thought that
was appropriate to bring attention to

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the issue and uh on May 22nd our Mental
Health Board will be meeting to finally

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adopt their budget okay uh and this May
22nd event actually there is an open

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house attached to it so why don't you
give us the details on that so our

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viewers are aware that they could be a
part of this and meet the mental health

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they can so in our Event Center at the
township the mental health board will be

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

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open house where some of myself and some
of our board members will be there some

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of the board members from the mental
health board will be there as well and

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we've invited some of the uh folks that
have testified in front of the mental

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health board I think Ray Graham will be
there UPC Seguin um I'm hopeful that

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we'll have a Serenity House will be
there uh I'm hoping the vet center will

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be there who's providing counseling and
they're going to have some tables with

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pamphlets and get a chance to meet local
elected officials members from the

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community uh to attend and open up that
dialogue and then that will transition

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into uh a vote by the Mental Health
Board to establish a budget it sounds

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like this meet and greet and the
opportunity to meet service providers

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that are in and near the community
groups that the mental health board will

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be working with um is maybe one of the
first steps in their overall plan of how

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they're going to engage
with the community on this subject and

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what better way to do that than to kind
of give them a platform to sort of

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showcase what they do and services that
are provided and any of your

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constituents your residents could come
in and find out about those services

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that are I think it's just easier in an
open setting in instead of trying to be

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in front of the board and and and public
comment we're going to have light

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Refreshments it's easy just to go and
have a conversation with these providers

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uh you know these are some of the groups
that'll be applying for Grants uh and it

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we also want to bring attention to other
not for-profit providers throughout the

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township and throughout the area that we
have uh a manal board we're going to

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have a budget and that Mental Health
Board will be going out to bid for

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different Services uh one of the
services that I think you have put on

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the township radar in fact you've been
talking about it for some time has been

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a establishment of a youth center yes uh
at the township building complex can you

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talk about that and you've actually
reached out to get some State assistance

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uh in this area also right so the alive
Center is a group we're partnering with

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they have facilities of nville Glendale
Heights or I'm sorry Glenn Allen and

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Hanover Park uh we're looking to have a
center open up 5 days a week drop in

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after school middle school through High
School they've applied for a $400,000

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Grant to provide for the services to
open it up and staff it that's through

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the DuPage uh Grant foundation and we've
applied for a uh infrastructure Grant

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from senator gloak who represents a good
chunk of Addison that we would uh

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looking for about $300,000 to uh improve
our building make new classrooms they uh

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make a stem classro art music uh build
out a kitchen Etc so that they can move

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into a newer facility and be able to
have something that's upgraded not from

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the 1950s oh which that building was at
one point right yeah used to be a school

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um what does a youth center do or what
is your vision of a youth center how

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would it operate in the township so any
students uh that qualify from throughout

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the township could come in they could
get tutoring they can get counseling

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they'll get a a meal they'll be able to
interact with the staff there and it's

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just a place for them to go and hang out
and they can play video games they can

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learn new skills they can play board
games video games whatever uh and just

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interact a safe place for them to go
after school and this uh would provide

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services for young people is there also
an opportunity for young people to meet

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with professional staff in fact I think
you told me that did the township just

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hire a psychologist we did we have a
staff psychologist um she's been with us

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for about five or six months she's been
helping me work with through these

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programs but we're going to have her uh
transition back to being counselor and

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that if any of these kids do need
further assistance and and they want to

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go that route we'll have somebody
available that they can begin to see in

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kind of an environment that maybe they
would be more comfortable in talking

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with a professional in this case with
the staff psychologist correct and so

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when the kids go there nobody's trying
to force any counseling on them or or

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identifying anything but they really let
the kids open up to them they do a lot

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of mentoring so they Addison I would
hope Addison Trail High School students

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would want to
participate um and we're working on some

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internships with some local colleges so
that we can bring other providers in

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have them get their internship hours and
hopefully maybe stay employed and come

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with us uh my understanding is and you
you're right on that internship is a big

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part of uh the curriculum uh and the
area of study uh for those who are going

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into uh social work for example to be a
licensed clinical social worker there is

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a lot of emphasis on internship and it's
pretty rigorous it is um people work in

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hospital settings they work in community
based settings such as uh you're

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describing so you'll probably do pretty
well to find yourself some interns I

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would imagine and we have uh so our
psychologist and other psychologist in

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the area have agreed to help Mentor them
and oversee them and provide that uh

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guidance for them they're actually
looking forward to that part to to mold

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those Minds that you know expose them to
the different circumstances that they're

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going to see and what better way than to
uh interact with young people to help

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them out now when you talk about all of
this happening at the township building

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what do you need need to do uh
infrastructure wise or facility wise in

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order to make all of this happen do you
have the space to do something like this

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right now we do it's just the fact that
the old classrooms all the rooms are

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built with uh brick and mortar and bl so
a lot of the spaces wouldn't work we

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have a large hallway which basically is
dead space so we're going to tear a lot

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of the old brick walls out and then work
with the alive Center to put together

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the right size classrooms and and office
space for them so that they can Pro

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provide these programs and have
up-to-date things for them do you have a

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schedule of construction on something
like this yeah so we're what we're

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hoping to do is between hopefully if
they get the Grant and we get our grant

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I think we can probably open up by
January 1st I think it will be uh that

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would be the Hope MH yeah uh but we'll
see what happens right right does the

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mental health board I mean where do you
get funding for something like this how

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are you going to pay or something so the
Staffing would be provided through that

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2-year Grant from the county so they've
applied for $200,000 which which would

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pay for all the staff in there um the
mental health board can also help the

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township with some of the renovations
because obviously it's going to be used

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for the community center and there's
also the hope of taking some of that uh

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land that open space we have on Oak
Street fencing that in to provide a safe

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area for the kids to go outside and play
when weather permits now of course on

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top of everything you're doing with the
Mental Health Board the proposals for

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the community uh Center the youth center
you also have another tenant in the

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building and that is the Secretary of
State's office and they are using your

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space also it's getting pretty busy over
it the it is getting very busy we went

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from having 45,000 ft above grade with
only about 20 employees in there to now

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the secretary of state has about 12
full-time employees there our employees

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this community center um so the
Secretary of State's opened

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Thanksgiving they have been growing
they're actually even talking to us

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about maybe taking additional space in
there taking our whole first floor at 50

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East Oak um right now you could do road
test uh real ID you can do uh you name

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it everything but CDLs and doing your
Titles and Registration for your vehicle

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right so a lot of the the things that we
knew about from the DMV offices the

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driver's license offices could be done
at 50 East Oak Street yes and another

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actually exciting thing for parents in
the neighborhood with kids that are

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looking to get their driver's license uh
secretary

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janulus uh has expanded a program that
will open up our facility and others in

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the around the area to allow for high
school students on Saturday mornings to

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go get their driver's license that will
start I think the first Saturday in June

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and that will go all summer MH now just
do a quick snapshot here you've been

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Township supervisor for many years now
you you've you've been a local

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government for for many years compare
what it was like back then to where

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you're at today did you ever think you
were going to have the Secretary of

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State's office a mental health board a
potential youth community center youth

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dropin center out of that facility over
uh on North Addison Road when you first

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came into office no you know it's been
seven years and the Hope was to reclaim

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the building to one day uh you help you
know give it to a usable area where we

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can have groups come in and I never
thought we would get this far I think

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we're very fortunate with my staff
working as hard as they have and working

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with other elected officials in the
village uh to put some of these programs

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together I think we're really turning
that building over to uh make it work

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for the community and weathering through
the pandemic where you had to re uh uh

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redo your business plan for your food
pantry which still operates there also

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right so we have the food pantry there
and we're looking at uh even our

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expanding our Event Center because now
we have 80 Days of early voting so that

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takes away so and we'll come in and talk
more about that in the another time yeah

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right right uh Dennis thank you very
much and a reminder if you are

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interested in attending the meet and
greet Open House Event uh very uh

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informal type event where you can come
and learn about the various uh partner

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agencies that'll be working with the
Addison Township 708 Mental Health Board

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

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Center at 401 North Addison Road
followed by their

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uh meeting of the mental health board
and if you want to keep up with more

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information on the Mental Health Board
uh and its work in uh DuPage County and

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here at Addison Township their website
is Addison Township

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mb.com and I suppose through the
Secretary of State's office website to

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get more information about the
operations at that location that's

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correct Dennis thank you very much for
coming in to talk about what's been

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happening at Addison Township sounds
like a busy place a lot of things

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happening especially with their Mental
Health Board and their upcoming

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reception on Wednesday May 22nd thank
you for joining us on actv newsmakers