McLean County is encouraging area families to connect with more than a dozen Bloomington-Normal behavioral health providers at its Youth and Family Resource Fair from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at Western Avenue Community Center in Bloomington.
Stations will discuss resources for topics, including behavioral health, physical health, education, and at-home care.
It’s a free event that’s open to all, said Kelley Amigoni, project director for the McLean County System of Care [SOC] — a children’s mental health initiative aimed at providing wrap-around services across the county’s agencies. The county received federal grant funding for the project in late 2023.
The goal of the fair, Amigoni said, is to place potentially under-the-radar services in front of families who might need them.
“I think that maybe not everybody knows the extent of the resources available in the community, so this will be a good chance for them to see just how many supports are available and the different types of services that are out there,” she said.
In addition to the just under 20 provider booths, there will be crafts, a bake sale and a hot cocoa station.
“It’s just going to be a good time to connect low key, low pressure just to get information,” Amigoni said.
Agencies currently involved as sub-awardees of the SOC grant include the Baby Fold, the Center for Youth and Family Solutions [CYFS], the McLean County Center for Human Services [MCCHS] and the Regional Office of Education — all of which will be in attendance.
Organizations currently outside the SOC with more targeted audiences also will have stations, said Kalyn Rellihan, the lead coordinator of the SOC through the CYFS. That includes the Immigration Project and Autism McLean.
By getting additional groups involved in the fair, Rellihan hopes it will attract more providers — and community members — to SOC.
“We are still trying to get this program up and running, and the more providers that we can have that have the same mission as we do, we are welcome to partnering with them,” she said, adding around 25 families are in the program so far.
But she and Amigoni said they want to see more people participating in SOC as clients and as voices on the project. A board is being created, which will have seats for both youth and guardians who have personal experience navigating the mental and behavioral health landscape in McLean County.
Rellihan said those members will inform future work.
“The purpose of the System of Care is to identify gaps within the mental and behavioral health system, and so in order to do that, we really need the voice of the community,” she said.
Meetings for that board should begin sometime in January.
While this is SOC’s first resource fair, Amigoni said it likely won’t be the last, describing this one as the "kick-off."
"So it's a smaller scale, but we're definitely looking to have these on a more regular basis with a more targeted audience," she said.
