[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