The Encompassing Center’s location provides a mental health alternative in the East and West Garfield Park and North Lawndale communities
The opening of the Encompassing Center last month has given Garfield Park and North Lawndale residents have access to a new mental health service option. Located at 3019 W. Harrison St., the Encompassing Center was brought to life after a four year process led by West Side residents who recognized disparities in mental health services, obtained funding and eventually won public support to fund the clinic in their community.
The 5,000 sq. ft. building is equipped with a conference room, a children’s area with toys, and therapy rooms. The clinic’s free resources are managed by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago and they include individual, family, and group services. In the first year of its existence, the center is expected to serve close to 400 residents.
It all began in 2015, when residents began gathering petitions and ended up with approximately 10,000 signatures. A year later, more than 86 percent of voters approved to have their property taxes raised by $4 in order to fund the center. Associate Vice President of child, youth, and family services Laura Keuver talked about the process of getting the clinic off the ground.
“So I worked with my team here, and we put our heads together and came up with a proposal of how we thought we could have successfully implement mental health and substance use programming for those communities. And we wrote a proposal and we submitted it to the commision. And about two months later, they ended up telling us that we are the provider that was chosen for the services,” Kuever said.
Janice Oda- Gray, member of the West Side expanded mental health services program and governing commission expanded mental health initiative said that her role will be making sure everything is running smoothly and people are being served with respect and dignity.
Oda-Gray also shared what was going through her mind the day of the grand opening. “I think one of my feelings when I was there my emotions was that of, I cannot believe he brought us this far and we’re really opening these doors and doing this. You get the feeling of gratitude,” she said.
Don Peterson, a resident of North Lawndale, said it’s important for the community to have the Encompassing Center because there are a lot of families who have drug addiction and trauma issues.
Additionally, local resident Kathy Williams believes the clinic will put an end to all the violence.
“A lot of the crime, mental health, mostly if you look at the statistics, its crimes, its mental health are together, something is wrong with you mentally for you to commit certain crimes and we have a lot of crimes in this neighborhood, shootings and stuff. I think it will calm down a whole lot,” Williams said.