Open for less than a year, the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60’s Wraparound Center continues to grow, with more than a 50% increase since November in helping students and community members with general mental health and other needs.
Growing 30% from the time it opened in July until late November, LeBaron Moten, the district’s deputy superintendent for operational supports and programs, said that since then, the number of referrals grew from 54 to 116.
“There has been an almost 50% increase in referrals for the Wraparound Center program,” he said.
Moten presented an update on the Wraparound Center’s operations to the District 60 Board of Education’s Operational Services Committee on Tuesday at the Education Service Center in downtown Waukegan, keeping the board up to date on the efforts of the facility.
Opening with two service providers in July — A Safe Pace focusing on sexual abuse and domestic violence, and Community Youth Network (CYN) offering mental health social support and social-emotional counseling — a third service, GRO Community, joined in February.
GRO provides “trauma-informed mental health services and behavioral support,” according to information on the district’s website referenced by Moten. Bridget Dotson, the director of the center, said GRO focuses more on male students and men.
“Their specialty is developing boys into men,” Dotson said in February. “They are already known in the community, and they will enable us to enlarge the scope of our work in the community and the scope of the Wraparound Center.”
Dotson said after the meeting that approximately 70% of the people receiving services are students in the district’s elementary and middle schools, as well as Waukegan High School, while the others are community members. The primary reason is general mental health.
Tirzah Norwood-Jones, the Wraparound Center’s manager, said she is pleased with the growth, particularly in the last few months, where it has continued to accelerate.
“We are extending our reach,” Norwood-Jones said. “We’re going to keep it up.”
Board member Christine Lensing said at the meeting that she and her colleagues should tell all the people they can about the Wraparound Center since it serves residents of the city as well as students in the schools.
“We should be promoting this as much as we can in the community because it’s not only for our students, but we have adults that use the services and, from my understanding, things are really going well,” Lensing said. “People are responding to the services we’re providing.”
When visiting schools, Lensing said board members, as well as administrators, should talk to school leaders. Collaboration between the schools and the Wraparound Center is part of the overall process of helping students.
“We should make sure we’re promoting this,” Lensing said. “It is a big investment, but it is a big investment because our community needs it.”
Operating by appointment only, Dotson said students can refer themselves or a counselor can help them with the process. They can do it online through the district’s secure system. Adults can go to a different website and use the QR code, or they can make an appointment over the phone.
