What’s New?

Charity from faith groups brings hope

The tough economy has made it a hard year for many of us.  Five local faith groups made significant charitable contributions to Family Service First Call for Help this past year to help people with critical needs.  First Call for Help is the community’s entry point to access all other services in town.  First Call specialists make thousands of referrals to food pantries, shelters, and other assistance sources each year.  Donated funds allow us to fill urgent needs in pressing situations—such as buying critical medicine to cover a holiday weekend.  We have also been able to help with power bills, medical supplies, and some rent assistance. We want to honor the following groups as our July Sponsors of the Month for their generosity this last year.  Together, they doubled previous years’ support and provided $9,450 that we allocated directly to First Call clients.

Thanks for the hope and the cheer—some days it’s made all the difference in the world.

•  Council of Congregations
•  Faith United Methodist Church
•  First Presbyterian Church of Champaign
•  First United Methodist Church
•  Mattis Avenue Free Methodist Church

Staying Cool when it’s Hot ‘n Humid

Our tropical summer has been especially tough on seniors who are more prone to heat stress than younger people.  Many don’t have central air or even fans and they take medication that makes it harder to regulate their body temperature.  Two local nursing homes–Heartland Healthcare and C-U Rehab decided to get some cool relief to local seniors.

Pam Britt of Heartland Healthcare called the Family Service Senior Resource Center and asked Rosanna McLain if we could help them distribute fans.  She delivered 15 box and 4 oscillating stand fans on June 16.   We had so much demand that all the fans were gone in two days!

More people called and we started a waiting list, so we were ready when Heather Gudgel of the Champaign-Urbana Rehab Center called us about more fans. Heather, Tiny, and Laura drove over a van equipped with a mechanical lift and stuffed with 20 fans to the ceiling.  We called all 15 people on the waiting list to get their fans in time for the holiday heat wave.

Many thanks to Heartland Healthcare and C-U Rehab staff—you’re our kind of COOL!

2009 HelpBooks: Get Yours Today

Family Service collaborated with the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and United Way of Champaign County to improve this community resource guide for human and social services in our county.  We are excited to announce that the alphabetical listing (in larger font) has returned in addition to the comprehensive category index.

Other exciting features include:
• Government-at-a-Glance lists area offices of local, state, and federal agencies
• A comprehensive food pantry listing gives all the details including eligibility and services provided for local resources.
• Websites are listed in a larger font with more white space on multiple pages for reading ease
• Service descriptions are written in an easier-to-read 2 column/page format

Community Presentations

The Family Service Counseling program sponsors monthly community presentations by area professionals.  The presentations are free and open to any interested community professional to attend.  They are usually held the second Tuesday of each month, 9:30-10:30 am.  Please call (217)-352-0099 and ask for Dawn McKinley to make your reservation, as space is limited.

Senior Task Force

Anyone in the community interested in learning about or being a local voice for senior issues is invited to join this collaborative group.  They meet monthly on the third Wednesday, 9:00-10:00 am at Lincoln Square Mall outside the Health Alliance offices unless otherwise specified.  Call Rosanna McLain, Family Service Senior Resource Center Director at 217-352-5100 for more information.

Note: There will be no August Senior Task Force meeting

Listen to the Wisest of All

The essence of Listen to the Wisest of All is to illustrate life through the retelling of the experiences of extraordinary people ages 88 to 104, some of them from Champaign County.

It’s intergenerational:

These sages of the Great Depression/WWII generation provide lessons that will inspire readers facing today’s challenges.

It’s interactive:

The Leave Your Legacy section at the back of the book provides space and questions for readers to record their own family’s life lessons for generations to come to savor.

It’s a free book benefit for senior services:

Our new friends, authors Rita Blockman and Kim Morin, have reserved 2,000 books to support the work Family Service does with older adults.  If you order from us directly at 217-352-0099 you can get the additional promotion of buy 2 books and get 1 free.

One-half of the proceeds of the sales will come to Family Service!

Check out sample sections of the book and/or order the book directly by clicking this link to their website. (Note: If you order from their website, you get free shipping.)

Support Group Directories Available

Our 2009 Annual Report

Our 2009 Annual Report is available for download in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Download PDF file (2.0MB)