Self Help needs a hand: County employer of the disabled is 9 months from closing, agency director says

STERLING – Self Help Industries, a nonprofit employer of more than 300 physically and mentally disabled Whiteside County residents, has about 9 months to live, according to the agency’s director.

Self Help is facing a $500,000 shortfall this year – about half its overall budget – a trend that, left unchecked, could force the public service agency to start turning away clients in 6 months and possibly shut its doors in 9, Executive Director and CEO John Stern said.

“It’s a bad situation,” Stern said. “We don’t want to send these people away.”

The bad news came amid high spirits for the agency’s 50 staff members and 312 clients, most of whom had dinner Wednesday evening at the Latin American Social Club, where they celebrated Self Help’s 45th birthday.

The agency focuses on work skills and offers paid employment, tailored to the individual abilities of its clients.

“Work is the greatest rehabilitation known to mankind,” Stern said. “It really gives a sense of belonging and pride.”

A combination of declining donations and a freeze in state funding is largely to blame for the shortfall, Stern said.

When the General Assembly passed Illinois’ 2009-2010 budget and appropriations bills, the Legislature restored millions to public service agencies statewide, but did so without enough money in the treasury, said Arlan McClain, executive director and CEO of Kreider Services, a similar agency in Dixon.

“We’re having the same problem,” McClain said. “We’re bigger, so we’re able to hold out longer. ... We’re nowhere near having to shut our doors.”

All told, the state owes Kreider about $6 million, McClain said. “I don’t know when we’ll ever see that.”

“This isn’t just a Kreider and Self Help problem,” he said.

“This problem is everywhere. ... The state just doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills.”

Fundraiser 
Saturday

Self Help Enterprises is dangerously close to having to shut its doors to about 300 disabled Whiteside County residents.

The agency will host a pancake breakfast fundraiser from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday in its cafeteria, 2300 W. Lefevre Road in Sterling. Donations can be sent to the same address. Cost is $4 for adults and $1.50 for kids 12 and under.