Champaign Candidates on Investing in Social Services

This question was created by journalists and community members during the Democracy in CU: Let’s talk solutions to community violence event on March 14th.

How do you plan to invest in culturally competent mental health, housing, employment, health and educational services in the community?

MAYOR

Deborah Feinen:

I would advocate that we support the local providers that are engaging in this work. Most of these issues are outside of the scope of traditional City services so we would need to partner with providers or help to fund the work other entities are doing in this area.

For example, the City provided funds for the family emergency shelter but does not run the shelter and as a Town Board the City Council as supported the CU at Work program run in conjunction with CU at Home and the Township.

CITY COUNCIL

Tom Bruno:

Our support for the Small Business Development Center is a critical piece of the employment efforts. I intend to defer to the Unit 4 School District and Community College District 505 to provide educational services.

Andrew James Christensen:

Ultimately, cultural competence can only be achieved by including cultural representatives in the process. The city has many ways to incorporate diverse voices on boards and commissions, to hire them as city employees, to contract with their businesses, and to solicit their feedback in policy making. In some respects the city already excels at this, and in many others it needs to improve.

Housing and employment are of particular concern to the city council. Citizens with stable housing and income are more able to address other quality of life issues. The city council needs to push for measures that reduce segregation in housing, that provide unbiased access to housing, and that require and monitor a healthy living standard in rental property. The city can also increase its collaboration with and incentives for local employers to make sure that under-employed populations transition to contributing to the local economy, enabling them to more easily advocate for themselves.

Mental health, physical health, and educational services are extremely important to equity in our community. In addition to sensitivity and inclusion in city appointment, employment, and policing, intergovernmental collaboration with the Champaign County Mental Health Board, the Champaign County Developmental Disabilities Board, the Unit 4 School Board, and the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District can ensure disadvantaged youth are provided assistance to develop at the level of their peers; adults and senior citizens with special needs are provided adequate care; and community-based stressors are reduced or eliminated entirely.

Matthew Gladney:

Champaign is a part of the Community Coalition program, bringing together various community partners to better the lives of the people who live here. There is a focus on police/community relations, youth employment, homelessness, behavioral health awareness, and social justice. We have a plethora of Housing Assistance Programs through the city's Neighborhood Services Department.

William Kyles:

I will continue to support governmental partnerships with our surrounding governmental bodies including the Community Coalition, Housing Authority, Unit 4, Rosecrance, etc. Continuing to foster healthy relationships that support common interests are critical. Also, where funding has been required, I have and will continue to be supportive of targeted funding requested in addressing these issues.

Pattsi Petrie:

This is a very complex question that needs to be deconstructed to answer though the variables are intertwined. Unfortunately in this community, many of the agencies that addresses these variables are siloed causing minimal interaction.

Mental health—to an individual with whom I have spoken agree/mention the need for a local mental health facility. We have a model to use, The Center for Health Care Facilities, Bexar County, Texas. The director of this facility visited Champaign County for three days, interacting

with various agencies and decision makers working on the issue. This county brought together the policy departments, cities, educational institutions, mental health board (MHB), public health district (CUPHD), judiciary, not a definitive list, to develop an intergovernmental agreement to put in place a pilot project facilitated by funding from the listed entities. This did not happen like magic. It took three years to develop the correct services for that county and write grants for monies to continue the services. Today this center offers service for the breadth of needs. This model can be used here. The MHB annually receives from property taxes 4.8M and the CUPHD and the county board of health receive property tax money, repectively.

Housing and education—I have posited for years that “best practice” is to plan for economically integrated housing or inclusionary housing. This publication, Finding Common Ground: Coordinating Housing and Education Policy to Promote Integration, published by Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRACC) and The National Coalition on School Diversity has excellent articles that can be used to start the conversation locally.

Employment—there is talk about “diversity.” This ought to extend to increase the breadth of available jobs within the community. Not only is this important, but also the training and apprenticeships to have the skills to be hired. Aspects of both already exist. But it is a “chicken and egg” cycle in that if no jobs, then why pursue the education and vice versa. So an important focus is how to better build coordination between both.

Health—I am not certain how to answer this. Champaign, including the county, is fortunate to have sensitivity to a growing aggregated majority/minority population. It is my understanding that the various health facilities provide staff conversant in various languages. There are now several free health care centers in Champaign in addition to the CU Public Health District and Promise Healthcare Champaign. Promise offers dental care as do Parkland Community College and Public Health District. Both hospitals offer charity care. I am not aware of any data indicating if the medical needs are met by these entities. Champaign County Health Care Consumers, an organization that I helped establish, works with residents to access health care and means to afford according to an individual’s ability to pay.

Jon Paul Youakim:

Mental health is something that is in desperate need across the country. In the community we should work with mental health community partners such as Rosecrance and large hospitals such as Carle and OSF to ensure there is mental health access to those who need it. From a city council’s perspective I would want to discuss with local organizations what role the city can play in preserving mental health services.

In terms of health we have the Champaign-Urbana Public Health Department which provides many services including dental health, maternal and child health services and school physicals. Champaign is also fortunate to have Promise Healthcare better known as Frances Nelson Health Center which sees patients regardless of their ability to pay and their dental center, SmileHealthy, which provides vital dental care to the underserved in the community. Carle and OSF both provide financial assistance for those that qualify in order for individuals to receive medically necessary healthcare services. All healthcare providers including nurses and physicians are trained to be culturally competent and there are supposed to be mechanisms in place in those facilities to remedy instances when that is not the case.

In terms of housing and employment one of the purposes of the Human Relations Commission is to “eliminate all barriers to equal opportunity in housing, employment, education, public accommodations, health care and delivery of social services”. I would meet with the HRC, NAACP representatives, other community organizations, activists and local businesses to discuss how we can continue to move forward in ways that address these issues. I would encourage the city to continue its investment in the City’s Diversity Advancement Program.

NOTE: We reached out to Azark Cobbs, Kenton Elmore and Michael LaDue and received no or incomplete responses.