Stepping Stones

The YWCA of McLean County is ending a nearly 40-year-old program that coordinates volunteers for nonprofit organizations in the community. This comes in the face of changing federal priorities and the Trump administration's campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI] and its "War on Woke."

YWCA Stepping Stones started a fundraising campaign in 2023. They made more than initially anticipated and expect to finish renovations this summer.

A federal grant will send more than $350,000 to McLean County to help prevent domestic violence and sexual assault against children.

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.

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.

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.

There aren't enough multilingual counselors in the area to meet the need of the non-English speaker population, but finding these counselors isn't easy.

Stepping Stones rape crisis center at YWCA McLean County will face a $335,000 gap in its budget for the next fiscal year. Nonprofit leaders say they'll start the new fiscal year with about half of the staff they had in the previous year.

The City of Bloomington is putting a chunk of its pandemic relief money into homeless services, youth education and support, a program for sexual assault survivors, and the facility of a human services agency.

WGLT talks to Alicia Whitworth from YWCA McLean County about expansion plans for its rape crisis center, Stepping Stones. The expansion is funded in part by a $200,000 grant from the state’s Human Services Capital Investment Grant program.