A Bloomington-based rape crisis center lost several hundred thousand dollars in what had been annual federal funding last July and is now struggling to manage a growing waitlist of clients needing sexual assault services in McLean County.
Since the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault decreased its grant to Stepping Stones, the waitlist has reached up to 65 people. Stepping Stones Director Jen Golliday said the current staff size can't meet demand, and there’s no money to hire additional hands.
“That can have long-lasting impact on the community, based on these people not getting the help that they need when they need it,” Golliday explained, adding that those people can turn to unhealthy methods of coping or be forced to pay for counseling, among other outcomes.
Unable to find adequate funding elsewhere for the time being, YWCA McLean County — which houses Stepping Stones — has turned to the county for help. It’s asking for $100,000 one-year stop-gap funding primarily to hire an additional counselor that will bring down the waitlist, and the Behavioral Health Coordinating Council (BHCC) is set to vote on the proposal Friday.
If the BHCC approves the vote it will go to the McLean County Board Executive Committee, then the full County Board for final approval. With the next County Board meeting being held March 14, that could mean funds get to Stepping Stones as early as this month, and they would be coming from the shared sales tax for mental health and public safety purposes.
County Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Johnston said she hopes to vote on the proposal soon.
“It's such a crucial and it's such an effective program, they definitely do not want to see those services impacted,” she said of Stepping Stones.
The nonprofit will use the funds to hire back the counselor it lost, fund part of a current staff member’s salary, and pay for volunteer stipends, according to the Executive Summary the organization created for the BHCC.
Client impacts
In the meantime, Stepping Stones is potentially losing clients. Golliday said the long waitlist has already deterred some from the program.
She pointed to one client who came in for on-site crisis services. The client was upset, they’d been having panic attacks, and the assault had happened recently. They were interested in pressing charges.
“We had a very long session probably close to two hours and went through all the paperwork and at the end, I had to tell that person that they were number 60-plus on the waitlist and I had no idea when we would be able to serve them,” Golliday explained. “And that was truly heartbreaking. I mean, it brought tears to my eyes to have to tell them that that was the case.”
When the client’s turn finally came at Stepping Stones, Golliday said they were no longer interested since so much time had elapsed.
Golliday estimated this is the case with 60% to 70% of people who wind up on the waitlist. She added that sexual assault services are crisis services, so there’s usually an immediacy to when people would like to receive help.
“We are reaching people past the time that they were ready to start and begin this journey,” she said.
There are also a lot of people in the community who need these types of services, said YWCA CEO and President Liz German.
“There is not a single person in this community that does not know somebody who has been assaulted, or they themselves have been assaulted,” she said. “If we were really serving every single client that we could, it would be probably about a third of this community.”
Since July, Stepping Stones has seen around 200 people, more than 100 of whom received counseling services.
Funding
If the county is to pass this stop-gap measure, it would mark the first time shared sales tax dollars are used to support an existing program in the county.
The fund created from the tax — often referred to as the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund within the BHCC — has historically been used to help launch new programming related to behavioral health, such as the Behavioral Health Urgent Care center (BHUC). (Note, BHUC was previously run by the county under the name Triage Center. It’s now under the management of the McLean County Center for Human Services with its new name).
County Administrator Cassy Taylor said YWCA’s request fits nicely with the fund’s purpose.
“Certainly, when a person is a victim of sexual assault, they are put into a crisis, and so we do have a component of the Mental Health Action Plan that is deliberately concerned with our crisis system within McLean County,” she said.
County Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Johnston said the parameters of the proposal are clear.
“This is not meant to be an ongoing fix for the YWCA,” she explained. “This is something [where] they have a waitlist, and if they don't have the money, they will lose a counselor.”
Going forward, German said YWCA and Stepping Stones will continue looking to other grants and donations to help fill the funding deficit the organization faces. She added that the decision to come to the county came from necessity, and it was the nonprofit’s “final stop in appealing for funding.”
The BHCC meeting where the first vote will occur starts Friday at 7:30 a.m. in the Government Center.
