Illinois Partners’ 2021 Policy and Advocacy Agenda, Upcoming Events, & our next webinar!

This update is made possible by all of our coalition partners who have made a partner pledge this year.

We are so grateful for your financial support! There is still time to make a contribution and become a contributing partner today! Donate here. What are the benefits to being a contributing partner?

Click here to find out.

Illinois Partners is committed to keeping you informed and engaged on pieces of legislation that affect your work and mission. To that end, we’ve assembled a list of 2021 bills that affect the human services sector organized according to the 3 pillars of Illinois Partners’ 2021 Policy and Advocacy Agenda: Equity, Investment, and Access.

Some may fit under more than one pillar; we picked one to keep the list shorter. For each pillar, we’ve included bills that are 1) supported by many of the health and human services trade associations as well as many partners and/or 2) are moving and appear to have momentum. Under each pillar, bills are listed in numerical order.

Equity: Proposals that target systemic and institutional racism and its impacts on BIPOC, including HB158, the large health and human services omnibus package that awaits the Governor’s signature, for which we’ve linked a detailed summary.
Investment: Proposals that call for new programs and/or increased investment by the State. Note that Illinois Partners’ efforts on the Investment Pillar primarily relate to state budget advocacy; stay tuned for more information about budget proposals over the coming weeks.
Access: Proposals that increase access to health and human services by expanding eligibility and/or the number of persons served, or removing barriers.

To see who registered their support for a bill, click on one of the hyperlinked bill numbers in our list, and then click on “Witness Slips” in the menu near the top of the page on www.ilga.gov.

If you want to share feedback on any bill in the list, or you notice something that we missed or didn’t get quite right, please contact Holly Ambuehl at holly@illinoispartners.org; we will keep updating this document.

Join the Shriver Center on Poverty Law for the first in a three-part virtual event series, The Road to Recovery, that will explore how we can seize opportunities to address and dismantle racial inequities as we

work to recover and rebuild.

Learn more and register up here.

If you're a coalition partner that would like to have an event,

fact sheet, or webinar featured, email lauren@illinoispartners.org.

Join Illinois Partners for Human Service

for a conversation with

Comptroller Susana Mendoza

We will discuss:

The State of Illinois' finances in light of the American Rescue Plan Act
What to expect for the FY22 Budget
Ways human service providers can be prepared and navigate payments as we transition through the remaining stages of the pandemic.

Our health and human service partners will have the opportunity to submit questions before and during the webinar.

This conversation will be facilitated by Lauren Wright, Executive Director of Illinois Partners for Human Service.

Promise Council, Inc.

Promise Council has a mission of to create a sustainable network of caring adults to connect and engage community resources to meet the specific needs of

students as identified by teachers and staff at a

designated Promise Council school.

How does Promise Council work to promote individual potential and community well-being?

Promise Council’s mission is to connect and engage community resources to meet the specific needs of students as identified by teachers and staff at all Promise Council schools. We support students in three primary ways: a) providing adult mentors and tutors for students, b) meeting physical needs of students when they stand in the way of academic achievement, and c) increasing opportunities for parental engagement with schools.

How has Promise Council adapted in response to COVID-19?

COVID-19 presented a significant barrier to the work Promise Council was routinely engaged in. Since our operating model is based on responding to the identified need of individual children, we rely on teachers, administrators, and staff members who are engaged with children all day to identify those needs. When COVID-19 shut down our schools, it also shut down our referral source. Once we realized we would be less effective identifying individual needs, we shifted to active engagement with superintendents’ offices, principals, and school counselors. By doing this, we were able to identify pockets of need within the districts and address those.

What accomplishment of the past year is Promise Council most proud of?

We are proud that with the help of the district offices, we were able to provide hygiene products to hundreds of families who lost their income. We created family-fun kits to distribute to families quarantining at home for months on end. We distributed books to children as they picked up school lunches. We paid to increase internet connectivity for low-income families, and purchased headphones, desks, and other supplies to support on-line learning.

What do you want your community to know about Promise Council’s work? What support does Promise Council need?

Promise Council does not duplicate or replace social service agencies or other organizations in our community. Rather, we strive to complement the work of local agencies and organizations by connecting them to our students and schools. We reach out to churches, social organizations, businesses, corporations and individuals to help meet physical needs and provide caring adults as needed. Promise Council has recently added several new schools and an entire school district to its “family”. Where we were serving 13 schools in 2 districts, we now serve 23 schools in 3 districts. In the coming months we will be reaching out to our community to increase our “Army of Caring Adults.”