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United Way Joins Hundreds in Sounding the Alarm to Save Human Service in Illinois
On Tuesday, June 16, members of the Illinois Partners for Human Service attended a briefing at the Bilandic Building in the Loop. At the briefing Governor Quinn’s Chief of Staff Jerry Stermer outlined what he called a real-life “half funded, half hearted, half baked budget” that slashes appropriations for human services by $5 billion. The cuts include all pre-school funding, substance abuse prevention, programs for people with disabilities, teen pregnancy prevention, sexual violence, delinquency prevention and elder care among other services.
“We are in desperate need of economic recovery and what this disaster budget needs is a public dialogue to fix it,” said Stermer.
Hundreds of human service agency representatives, including some United Way partner agencies, voiced their concerns and opposition should this current budget stand. Lawmakers have until July 1st to come up with a viable solution.
“The human service sector in Illinois is comprised of three critical partners – the government, private philanthropy and community-based service providers,” said Laura Thrall, president and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. “The State of Illinois is the largest funder providing about 97% of the dollars for services. As the second largest funder of human services United Way invests about $100 million across Illinois with foundations providing another $73 million. No matter how generous individual or corporate donors are, there simply is no other source to fill this $5 billion funding gap.”
"Immediately following the briefing, hundreds of protesters converged across the street at the Thompson Center for a rally calling for full funding of human services. State Representative Julie Hamos, Laura Thrall and Julie Kasak Martin, YWCA coordinator of Victim Service, addressed the crowd that called for the General Assembly to put “people before politics”.