State funding dries up for Daisy's Center
NORTH CHICAGO -- Daisy's Resource and Developmental Center, a Lake County institution that has helped troubled young women find jobs and stability over the past 32 years, may be closing.
Two buildings at Daisy's complex on Sherman Avenue in North Chicago have been sold. Others are up for sale, said Wadell Brooks. Brooks' wife, Daisy Brooks, is director of the center.
The buildings are being sold and programs are being shut down because the state is no longer funding them, Daisy Brooks said.
Washington said funding isn't available to Daisy's because the state doesn't have the money it had just a few years ago and federal aid hasn't been forthcoming.
Like Washington, state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, has helped get funding for Daisy's in the past.
"They came to me after the budget was approved," Link said. "I've talked with (Senate) President Emil Jones about it. We're working on it, but it's going to take some time. I'd like to do it because they've provided a good service."
Daisy's graduated 57 students last June and still has about 60 non-resident students taking vocational, high school and English as a second language courses, but the center's residential programs for young women stopped functioning last January. "We just can't find the funding to keep going," Wadell Brooks said.
The classes and an alternative high school program with about 40 students paid for by the North Chicago Unit School District are expected to continue at least through the current school year.
Day-care center operator Ron Finch bought two buildings at 1909 and 1920 Sherman Ave. The Boys and Girls Club of Lake County is looking at the center's main building at 1919 Sherman Ave., Brooks said.
The remaining building at 1911 Sherman Ave. has three apartments.
If a sale goes through, "That's it," he said.
Daisy's has been raising money through telethons and has received substantial donations from corporations and individuals, including Oprah Winfrey who donated $250,000 and conducted workshops for Daisy's residents. But Winfrey hasn't contributed this year and private donations don't come close to meeting the center's expenses, the Brookses said.
About 90 percent of the center's operating budget has come from the state, from the Department of Health and Human Services recently and, in the past, from the Department of Children and Family Services, they said.
"They told us not this year," said Wadell Brooks.
"We haven't been getting (state) funding for the last three years," Daisy Brooks said.
Daisy's started in 1974 with a day-care center. At its height, there were 220 youngsters being cared for.
A residential operation was started in 1989, Daisy Brooks said, when she realized homeless girls in the area had no safe place to go.
"I started getting calls from young women saying, 'My mom put me out,'" she said. "There were places for men, but nothing for young women except temporary shelters. So I decided to start this."
Daisy Brooks said she soon realized that many young women who came to her had no job skills. Vocational programs were started at the center in 1998. "Before, we sent them to other agencies, but that didn't work," she said. "Our clients couldn't function in a regular job setting."
Daisy's had two residential programs, one for girls age 12 to 18 and a "transitional living" program for young women age 17 to 21. Most residents came from shelters or were referred from the Department of Children and Family Services. Some were parolees from the state women's prison in Decatur.
Wadell Brooks' frustration over lack of support for Daisy's spilled over recently at a North Chicago City Council meeting.
Brooks, speaking Oct. 4, noted about $72,000 was raised for North Chicago Community Day. The money could have been used to provide 56 young people and adults with vocational training at Daisy's, he said. "If you could train them for employment, they would be off the streets," he said.
"We need Community Day," Mayor Leon Rockingham said, responding to Brooks. "I hope it'll be bigger and better next year. That's how you promote your community ... Community Day is something that should go on ... If you're going to have an event that's worthwhile and with quality, you're going to have to spend some money to do it."
Rockingham urged Brooks to stay involved in the community and to help "bring back" meetings of city leaders and businessmen that he organized through the Chamber of Commerce.
The city raised $72,823 for its first Community Day Aug. 5 and spent $53,850, not $72,000, as a Sept. 29 News-Sun headline stated.
The city has about $20,000 in seed money to kick off next year's event, if the City Council decides to have another event, project manager Tameka Wilson reported.
Washington said it would help if more federal funds were made available to Illinois.
"If there was a little more collaboration from (U.S. Rep.) Mark Kirk (R-Highland Park), I think we could alleviate a lot of social pain," he said. "If I had a friend in Washington, I could do better in the state."
