Self Help staying open; support is still needed

“Give me a tin can, and I will go door to door to collect money for Self Help.”

“How can we help you, Self Help cannot close?”

“I have put Self Help on my church’s prayer chain.”

These and many more comments were called into the agency after it was reported that Self Help might be closing in 9 months. Upon investigating the origin of the quote, we found that someone had, in fact, erroneously reported this to the reporter who attended our client awards banquet.

The facts are that the state of Illinois is approximately 9 months behind in making payments to social service agencies, and for Self Help, this means about $500,000.

At this time, our accounts receivable total $900,000, of which the state owes us $500,000.

We are a solvent agency and have no intentions of closing.

As many of you will recall, we participated in Save Our Services rallies over the summer months because we had been informed of state funding cuts that would have been devastating to us and other social service agencies. The funding cuts were restored through Dec. 31, 2009.

In September, we held a Support Our Services Auction to raise money for the agency. Thanks to the Sauk Valley community, we raised more than $40,000. Please understand that this was done to support our services, not to save them.

Because there have been no increases in state funding, we need to come up with other sources of income to purchase special supplies for those we serve and pay for the rising costs of utilities, gas, food, etc.

Our Parents Association hosted a pancake breakfast on Nov. 7 to help provide some extras for those we serve.

Not unlike other businesses, we look daily at ways to reduce spending and increase profits. We recently agreed to work with the Department of Mental Health to convert 22 of our clients to a Medicaid-funded program, which will help to secure some of our funding as well as bring more federal dollars into the state.

We call on industries weekly to seek out additional subcontract work for our clients. Subcontract work also is vital to this agency, as it provides work and, consequently, pay for our clients as well as dollars to help pay staff salaries and other operating expenses.