The vision is of a streamlined system of social services that will cost less and work at the community level to provide the best for families as well as help them end dependency on welfare. The vehicle is the Waukegan Community Federation, a grass-roots, independent organization spawned by the Governor’s Task Force on Human Services Reform. The fuel is the enthusiasm and dedication of the 30 volunteer members of the board of directors.
When Gov. Jim Edgar set up the task force in 1993, he said its purpose was to “make sure we’re spending those billions in the most effective manner,” referring to the $8 billion Illinois spends annually on social services.
Funded with a $2.5 million grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (a trust established by Jim Casey, founder of United Parcel Service, and his siblings to honor their mother), the task force chose Waukegan as one of five sites in the state in which to research and recommend new approaches to human services delivery. Waukegan was chosen because of its diverse population, 48 percent of which is under age 30. According to a report prepared by the Waukegan Community Federation, 30 percent of the population is receiving welfare.
Other sites are the Grand Boulevard neighborhood of Chicago, the seven counties in southern Illinois, DuPage County and Springfield.
Each community has formed its own organization composed of private citizens and representatives of schools, churches, local government and social service providers.
The Waukegan Community Federation began organizing in December 1994 and by March 1995 had a board in place, chaired by Lucy Rios of Waukegan, a counselor for the Lake County Health Department.
“I am concerned about delivering human services in the best way,” Rios said. “I think sometimes people have to go through so much red tape to get help from one agency to another. Big-time politicians make people think the poor people are taking so much money, and actually most of the money goes to administration.”
Sally Foster, vice president of community service for United Way of Lake County and also an organizer of the federation, serves as vice chairwoman. “This is a real grass-roots effort,” she said. “We are modeling what the future of social services delivery will look like in Illinois, where providers will sit down and talk about what is best for the family.”
Once the federation received its budget in July 1995, the organization began laying the groundwork and in December brought in Thomas Sullivan as executive director. He had worked for 16 years with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and now looks forward to helping re-invent the way social services are delivered.
“The idea of statewide planning is exciting,” he said. “And it is important to bring it into the community . . . , to go into the neighborhoods and ask, `What are the issues you see?’ “
The goal is to provide “one-stop shopping for human services,” he explained, offered by the Departments of Public Aid, Children and Family Services, Aging, Rehabilitation Services, Public Health, Mental Health and Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. “We’re trying to consolidate services for seven different agencies under one case manager. The idea would be that you wouldn’t be duplicating seven different intake processes and seven different people’s time involved going over the same information. You’d have one site that the person could go to. I view it as somewhat of a takeoff on a managed-care health-care model.”
The federation hopes this results in streamlined social services that cost taxpayers less.
Over the summer, the federation identified a pilot group of 25 families, each of which has been receiving aid from several state agencies and which includes at least one member between 18 and 25 years of age. Their services will be coordinated, and they will be helped toward self-sufficiency.
“This is an outcome-driven project,” Sullivan said. “We will help them get their GED (general equivalency high school diploma), a degree from the College of Lake County, a job, whatever it takes.” He calls the federation’s functions the “exit doors” of public aid.
One of the first clients is Sherry Hughes, 23, of Waukegan, a single parent with two daughters, 4 years old and 11 months. She is a high school dropout receiving public aid and living in subsidized housing. She has no car, making it difficult for her to visit the agencies from which she receives aid. She signed up for the program for help in getting her GED. “I could get it on my own,” she said, “but (the federation) will push me” to complete the requirements.
The federation’s clients sign a contract on working toward goals such as getting a GED, with follow-up support provided by family-services coordinators. Volunteer mentors will augment the coordinators’ work.
One of the coordinators is Ann Wells, who has been redeployed from her job with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, where she has worked for five of her 15 years in social work.
“I applied for this because I will be able to supply insight and because it is an incredible opportunity to do real social work and not just be behind a desk,” Wells said. “I am excited. I will be able to solve problems. I understand that this is the way things are going to be changing.”
The foundation also will provide clients with motivational classes in social skills to make them want to try for their goals. In Hughes’ case, she also will receive help with transportation and day care.
At the same time, a second group of 25 families receiving traditional services will be monitored to learn if there is any economy in consolidating services.
Board member Rosalind Weatherspoon, 39, a dietary manager at the Pavilion of Waukegan nursing home, sees herself as a mentor. “I can identify with those who have to go on public aid because as a single mother, I have had to struggle,” she said. “I think I can help people make choices.”
Handout programs are not the answer, Weatherspoon said. Neither are government programs that penalize people for trying to help themselves. “I see that in my job at the nursing home,” she said. “People get themselves a little job but have to leave it because they will lose state aid and be worse off. I think the federation is on the right track, and I’m looking forward to working with the families.”
Employment is a big key to the success of the program, and already Cherry Electrical Products of Waukegan has agreed to provide 25 jobs, first training people as needed, sponsoring classes in English as a second language, teaching job responsibility, among other things. After clients are employed, there will be in-house overseers to try to ward off any problems, said Nancy Guarascio, Cherry’s director of human resources. “The company has always had a responsibility for people and the community,” she said, “and Peter Cherry (corporation president) liked what he heard about the possibilities of welfare reform.”
