Part­ner

One of our goals is to edu­cate and encour­age peo­ple to take advan­tage of KYC’s men­tal health and senior ser­vices. To do this, we need to devel­op strong part­ner­ships and sup­port from our friends in the com­mu­ni­ty, and raise funds to sup­port our var­i­ous pro­grams. KYC works in part­ner­ship with busi­ness­es, cor­po­ra­tions, hous­es of wor­ship, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, and com­mu­ni­ty groups to bring aware­ness and hope to peo­ple need­ing help.

High­light­ed Partners:

Town­ship of Schaumburg

KYC is proud to part­ner with the Town­ship of Schaum­burg to sup­port the men­tal health of all res­i­dents in this com­mu­ni­ty. Through their sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in KYC total­ing almost $750,000 annu­al­ly, the Town­ship safe­guards our com­mu­ni­ty’s most vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens and helps us pro­vide men­tal health and senior ser­vices to clients in need. 

Read more about this partnership.

Elk Grove Township

Elk Grove Town­ship part­ners with KYC to pro­vide qual­i­ty, com­pas­sion­ate behav­ioral health ser­vices to its most vul­ner­a­ble res­i­dents through grants total­ly $205,000. By work­ing direct­ly with KYC’s trained and pro­fes­sion­al staff, res­i­dents have access to indi­vid­ual, group, and fam­i­ly ther­a­py; psy­chi­atric ser­vices; and inten­sive behav­ioral health sup­ports on a slid­ing scale fee basis. These grants ensure that Elk Grove Town­ship res­i­dents receive the men­tal health ser­vices they need, pre­vent­ing esca­lat­ing costs for hos­pi­tal­iza­tions or cri­sis interventions.

Employ­ment Partnerships

KYC’s Voca­tion­al Pro­gram is fund­ed by the Illi­nois Divi­sion of Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Ser­vices. The pro­gram began in 1998 and serves about 60 clients per year. We help peo­ple who have a diag­no­sis of men­tal ill­ness go to work, addi­tion­al­ly we pro­vide assess­ment, job-search plan­ning, job place­ment and on-the-job coach­ing. Our clients have var­i­ous edu­ca­tion and skill lev­els, and they have worked in a wide vari­ety of jobs. We can proud­ly say, we have a long list of sat­is­fied employers.

You should con­sid­er the ben­e­fits of an employ­ee-based part­ner­ship if you can:

• Give one of our voca­tion­al clients a job 
• Pro­vide an on-the-job eval­u­a­tion paid by the Divi­sion of Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Services
• Use a small group of work­ers super­vised by a KYC job coach
• Use assem­bly pack­ag­ing, pick­ing, clean­ing or inspec­tion ser­vices 2 – 3 days a week 

Or do you have any sub-con­tract work that you would like to outsource? 

The advan­tages to you are: 

• Aid­ing the recov­ery of a mem­ber of your community
• Tax cred­its in the form of the Work Oppor­tu­ni­ty Tax Credit
• EEOC and ADA compliance
• A val­ued, con­tribut­ing employ­ee who has the ben­e­fit of coach­ing and support

Cor­po­rate Sponsorships

There are also many advan­tages in part­ner­ing with us through cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship. Our events are attend­ed by promi­nent com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and key cor­po­rate per­son­nel. Events are fun, great net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and a chance to help out a wor­thy cause.

Through event spon­sor­ship, com­pa­nies have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to:

• Reach tar­get audi­ence via face-to-face marketing.
• Cap­i­tal­ize on mar­ket­ing invest­ment while endors­ing good­will in the community.
• Cross pro­mote with partners.
• Fos­ter team-build­ing among employees.

Group Vol­un­teerism

At Ken­neth Young Cen­ter, we know that being active, tak­ing on a project, and ​“doing good” all help us come out of our­selves, feel hap­pi­er and become more pro­duc­tive. Group mem­bers get to know one anoth­er bet­ter and build their team. Addi­tion­al­ly, your busi­ness or orga­ni­za­tion will receive pos­i­tive exposure. 

Here are some ideas for worth­while projects your group might consider:

Our Old­er Adults Pro­gram — oppor­tu­ni­ties for vol­un­teer­ing include:

• Adopt a Home Deliv­ered Meals route which deliv­ers nutri­tious meals to approx­i­mate­ly 6 – 8 elder­ly peo­ple per route. We deliv­er Mon­day through Fri­day over the noon hour. Your group could take turns to cov­er one route for every day of the week on an ongo­ing basis. KYC staff can vis­it your com­pa­ny to explain how indi­vid­u­als in your group can be matched with an elder­ly client for week­ly vis­its and assistance.
• Hold a fundrais­er for Senior Ser­vices to off­set the cost of Home Deliv­ered Meals.

Our Psy­choso­cial Reha­bil­i­ta­tion (PSR) Pro­gram — for this group, you could: 

• Host an infor­ma­tion meet­ing for your mem­bers to help them under­stand that the stig­ma of men­tal ill­ness, as much as the symp­toms, are what pre­vents men­tal­ly ill peo­ple lead­ing a nor­mal life. Mem­bers could learn how to become friend/​role mod­els in vol­un­teer match­es with peo­ple fac­ing the chal­lenge of men­tal illness.
• Your group (or indi­vid­ual mem­bers) might come in to demon­strate, per­form or teach the PSR group things such as: dance, sto­ry telling, music, demon­stra­tion of a hob­by, etc.

Devel­op­ment and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (includes aware­ness and fundrais­ing) — you can help by: 

• Orga­niz­ing a fundrais­ing event to ben­e­fit KYC
• Par­tic­i­pate in our upcom­ing spe­cial events like our 5K Run/​Walk (To find out what’s next, check our homepage!) 
• Advo­cate for KYC as an ambas­sador — dis­trib­ute fly­ers or pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als to friends and fam­i­ly or at com­mu­ni­ty events

We are open to any and all cre­ative ideas, and we wel­come the chance to brain­storm with you about how you can join us in our mis­sion to pro­vide men­tal health and senior ser­vices to those in need with­in our com­mu­ni­ty. To learn more about our part­ner­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties, as well as employ­ee vol­un­teer team-build­ing ini­tia­tives please con­tact our Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Kate Gar­barek, at (847) 524‑8800 ext. 199.