Behavioral Health Clinic Receives Transformational Grant
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information: Mark Langan
MLangan@RayGraham.org
Ray Graham Association's Emerge Behavioral Health Clinic Receives Transformational Grant from DuPage Community Transformation Partnership
LISLE, Illinois—Ray Graham Association's Emerge Behavioral Health Clinic has received a generous Transformational grant through the DuPage Community Transformation Partnership (DCTP) to enhance behavioral health supports tailored explicitly for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The DCTP awarded $3.37 million to 15 DuPage County not-for-profit organizations serving DuPage County residents in the areas of food insecurity, housing instability, mental health, and substance use disorder.
Ray Graham Association's mission is to enrich lives by empowering those we support and those who care for them to reach, grow, and achieve. Founded in 1950, RGA serves nearly 2,000 people with disabilities and employs about 350 people.
"This grant will be instrumental in allowing Emerge to expand our services and provide critical mental health support to individuals with I/DD," said Erin Halden, Director of Emerge Behavioral Health Clinic. "We are incredibly grateful to the DuPage Community Transformation Partnership for recognizing the importance of addressing the unique behavioral health needs of this population."
"The DCTP Transformational grant program was designed to create measurable impact in our communities and pave the way for solutions," said DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy. "DuPage County and DuPage Foundation developed the partnership in response to the pandemic, providing both for our residents' immediate needs, and to contribute to long term solutions, creating a positive impact even after the pandemic. The goal is to provide more service and better outcomes for people struggling with mental health and substance use problems, housing, and food insecurity. What we've found is that a whole community approach is crucial if we hope to tackle some of the most persistent and challenging issues we face in DuPage County."
"The DuPage County Board and DuPage Foundation had a shared vision of creating transformative, collective impact for our community at the start of this partnership, and we could not be more pleased with the results," said DuPage Foundation President & CEO Mike Sitrick. "The challenges facing so many of our residents remain persistent and cannot be solved by either public or private intervention alone. Taking a 'community approach,' as Chair Conroy suggests, with our local government leaders, area businesses, private donors, and not-for-profits has the power to accomplish so much more as evidenced by the results we've achieved to date and will continue to see as these funds are put to work. I'm hopeful the DCTP will inspire future similar partnerships. It is already transforming our work at DuPage Foundation with our creation of new grant opportunities and the formation of a DuPage Funders' Collaborative. The key to transformative change is collaboration."
The grants made are the final DCTP grants to be made within the partnership established between the County and DuPage Foundation. Since 2022, a total of $10,450,000 in Immediate Impact and Transformational grants have been distributed to area not-for-profits. DuPage Foundation donor-advised fund representatives expanded the impact of this grant program by recommending an additional $450K to support Transformational projects. For more information, please visit dupagefoundation.org/DCTP.
For further information regarding Ray Graham Association, please contact Chief Development Officer Mark Langan at 630-628-7174 or MLangan@RayGraham.org.
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