Bronzeville residents put mental health at the center of their community

Bronzeville community members picking up free bags and boxes of groceries at a mental health focused event in October. Residents have been forced to rely on community outreach programs to subsidize little available professional support since Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed half of the city’s mental health clinics in 2012. (Izzy Stroobandt / Medill News Service)

By Izzy Stroobandt

Plans to develop a publicly funded mental health center in Bronzeville are now underway. The community voted on the Nov. 6 election ballot with 88% approval for a referendum to establish the Bronzeville Expanded Mental Health Services Program. 

The program will provide free care to the community through a 0.025% increase in property taxes. The total increase comes out to approximately $16-$24 annually per household. 

Kimberly Griffin, a mental health professional and Bronzeville resident, happily put pen to paper when a group from the Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers came to her home canvasing for signatures in support of the referendum. 

“This was the first time that we’d have anything of this magnitude in our community,” Griffin said. She’s since joined coalition’s effort and is now a member of the Bronzeville Community Action Team. 

“Especially in these hard times, we need something like this,” she said. The coalition finished their community canvasing with 7,200 signatures in support of the referendum. 

The referendum is one of four of its kind in the Chicago area, according to Rebecca Jarcho, a staff member at Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers. They’re all a result of past legislation the coalition created to allow communities to raise their own property taxes to fund mental health services. 

Griffin envisions the space to be a safe place “for anyone to come in and get quality service to help them with their wellbeing.”

The next step is for Bronzeville area nonprofits to create a list of nominees to serve on the governing body that oversees the program area, called the governing commission.

The final group consists of four nominees chosen by the mayor of Chicago and five chosen by the governor of Illinois. Of their choices, each must also nominate one mental health professional and one person who has at some point been a mental health consumer. 

Jarcho said seven members must also live in Bronzeville so “these programs and this money stays within the control of the community and the community feels ownership over the program.”

Once the governing commission is chosen, they will select a medical service provider for the program. The commission and the service provider then collaborate to choose the location of the new mental health center. 

“Generally, they have tried to choose locations central within their program area and that are very accessible in terms of public transportation and adequate parking,” Jarcho said. 

Bronzeville resident Tytannie Harris is also the CEO of her own private practice and behavioral health clinic in the neighborhood called TMH Behavioral Services. She thinks the largest obstacles to accessing mental health care in her community are the cost and stigma. 

Harris hopes the creation of a free service with clinicians who look like the people they serve will push more people to get help. 

“A lot of folks don’t have insurance to cover mental health, so this is huge,” Harris said. “This is big for us.”