Recent Successes

Your donations have led to the following successes in the last six months:

• Organized 275 community residents and elected officials to support the development of two sites that would allow for 300-400 housing units, including rentals, resident-owned and some homes for those with diverse needs, such as people with mental or physical disabilities
• Continued work to establish free internet WI-FI access in Waukegan
• Kicked off, with our member organizations and allies, a bulk purchase to leverage buying power and save on natural gas costs
• Joined 592 people including representatives of municipalities and 31 law enforcement agencies (including Lake County, Deerfield, and Highland Park) to advance a strategy to reduce gun violence by applying market pressure on gun manufacturers
• Welcomed two new dues paying members to LCU: Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) and North Shore Housing
• Provided numerous leadership and organizing training programs

We are grateful to you for your continuing support.

Ongoing Issues

Many persons suffering from mental illness end up in jail or emergency departments because there is no other place for them to go. It cost five times more to house someone in jail than provide appropriate treatment.

Strategy

1. Increase Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police,
2. Establish mental health crisis centers to divert from jail or emergency rooms,
3. More quality housing.

Progress on this Strategy

CIT Training

Lake Behavioral Hospital is open with 46 in patient beds and was approved at state and local level to add 100 more beds.

Support for Lake Behavioral Hospital

LCU Leaders at Health Facilities and Services Review Board in Bolingbrook  support approval of Lake Behavioral Hospital in Waukegan.

LCU speaker describes her experience

Christa Haberkorn speaks to Waukegan Village Zoning Committee about traveling outside of Lake County to access mental health in patient treatment for her daughter and losing her job due to long distant daily travel to support her daughter.

Lake Behavioral Hospital

Lake Behavioral Hospital is open with 46 in patient beds and was approved  at state and local level to add 100 more beds. The hospital committed to accept patients regardless of their circumstances.

Attorney General Action

In March, 1257 leaders from 85 member institutions from Lake County United and affiliate organizations, United Power for Action and Justice (Cook), DuPage United, Fox River Valley Initiative (Kane), met with all 10 Republican and Democratic candidates and won a commitment from each candidate to meet with the four organizations within 30 days of the November election, if elected. Each candidate responded to how they would address key issue strategies of the organizations - reducing incarceration of people with mental illness and/or addiction, quality housing, responding to hate crimes in 24 hours, and disrupting the flow of illegal guns and making guns safer. This short video (2 minutes, 33 seconds) will give you a sense of our commitment to having a dialogue with elected officials. The full length video (70 minutes) of the meeting is also available.

Reducing Gun Violence

Strategy Progress

Press gun manufacturers to be responsible corporate citizens by making guns safer and helping reduce illegal sale of guns.

1. Shareholders from the only two publicly traded gun manufacturers VOTED YES to require a report on how the company is working to reduce gun violence.
2. Police chiefs, sheriffs, and top officials representing 124 municipalities, counties, and states across the U.S. jointly submit-ted a request for information to major gun manufacturers seeking answers on their safety practices and technologies.

Lake County United is a vehicle for our member institutions (congregations, non-profits, associations) to take action on issues that impact their membership. Issues vary and change as the interests of our members change, but the issues and strategies react our shared values of our membership and get to the root of the cause.