Melissa Ellin
ReporterMelissa Ellin is a reporter at WGLT and a Report for America corps member, focused on mental health coverage. You can reach Melissa at maelli5@ilstu.edu.
Melissa joined WGLT in 2023. Melissa graduated from Boston University. She previously reported for Boston.com and Metro West Daily News.
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YWCA Stepping Stones in Bloomington outlined in its proposal that it will use the funds to hire a new counselor and continue paying for six months of a current staff member’s salary in the hope of bringing down a wait list that reached up to 65 people when the group recently lost annual federal funding it typically received.
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McLean County Board Chair Catherine Metsker suspended meetings for the behavioral health advisory committee. She's given little detail about what that might mean for committee members or the public. Here's what WGLT knows so far.
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A request for $100,000 in stopgap funding for YWCA McLean County's Stepping Stones has proved contentious, with multiple County Board meetings mired by discussing proper protocol and procedure. Despite this, two boards approved the proposal and the full County Board is set to vote on it Thursday.
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McLean County Board’s Behavioral Health Coordinating Council (BHCC) meetings were indefinitely suspended Friday because it has not been fulfilling the goals set out in 2016, according to an email obtained by WGLT from County Administrator Cassy Taylor. The email said it was “sent on behalf of the County Board Chair” Catherine Metsker.
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21 Women Who Shaped B-N: Tina Sipula touched thousands experiencing homelessness and food insecurityTina Sipula undeniably touched thousands in Bloomington-Normal who’ve experienced homelessness or food insecurity through her nearly 40 years at Clare House, and after it closed in 2015 through Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.
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Maura Toro-Morn has made herself known in the academic world of Bloomington-Normal, catapulting the Latin American and Latino/a Studies program forward and connecting with students on an personal level.
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Stepping Stones is 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.
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Eva Jones was the first woman and person of color to make the District 87 school board. That was in 1971. Six years later, she became president and three years after that she was on the Bloomington City Council.
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Home Sweet Home Ministries in Bloomington launched a master leasing program roughly six months ago that allows the shelter to sub-let units to clients who wouldn't normally be approved to rent.
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The person killed Saturday when Illinois State Police responded to a report of shots fired on Interstate 55 has been identified as 37-year-old Trayvon C. Little of Springfield, according to the McLean County coroner's office. Police are not releasing further information about the incident until an internal investigation is completed.