The key to the strategy in Elgin is "bringing people together" and whenever that happens - change is the result. Between the launch of One Collective in Elgin in the summer of 2019 and the end of 2020, 1 new staff member joined our team. Dozens of people volunteered to assist with the community needs assessment, spending dozens of hours logging these conversations with the added benefit of getting to know friends and neighbors better. 2 data-specialists spent dozens of hours studying lines of data. Over 100 people have chosen to partner financially to help launch the project.
60+ Local Partnerships
non-profits, city departments, the school district,& 2 colleges
30,000+ People Reached
DURING THE “ELGIN CARES” CAMPAIGN
100+ Financial Partners
EQUIPPING ELGIN FOR THE FUTURE
When COVID-19 hit, the priority of these conversations changed from information gathering to collaborative problem-solving. Over 60 organizations including non-profits, city departments, the school district, and both colleges in Elgin joined the COVID-19 response calls our team organized. As part of these calls, a dozen volunteers organized 100s of volunteers to serve in food pantries and mobile pop-ups so that people could access food. Out of these organizing efforts, Bobby was elected the Chair of the Elgin Human Services Council (EHSC), a group made of the executive directors of Human Service Organizations, and dozens of ED’s joined the Council this summer. Members seek to learn from each other and align their limited resources so they can serve the most people possible.
Together, the EHSC created a mental health campaign called “Elgin Cares,” and developed a mental health tool, which is a social media and print resource for people to use to check-in on themselves and share with their friends and neighbors. Each organization in the EHSC shared this campaign on their own social media page and the result was that in three weeks, the Elgin Cares Facebook received over 1000 follows and over 30,000 views on Facebook. The team translated it into both English and Spanish and are now hard at work distributing 5,000 hard copies of the mental health check-in tool around the city with the goal of printing another 16,000 copies in the next couple of months. This campaign grew so rapidly that the Daily Herald sought us out to report on our work. The Facebook site and social media handles are now being used as a platform for other shared social services initiatives.
You can participate in this collaborative work by following the page yourself and sharing it with your friends (click here to go to the site)
As the research continued, it was discovered that there are people trapped all around us in human-trafficking and that there are no organized, consistent anti-trafficking efforts in Kane county. Our friends at Naomi’s House agreed to expand their efforts to care for victims of trafficking to Elgin. People came together to help them find space to run programming and organized their first fundraiser this past September. A coalition of people who want to fight against trafficking on both the victim and “demand” sides are beginning to form.
Fundraising
Elgin Community Fund
The Elgin Community Fund is a general fund that has been set-up in order to have money available to meet urgent needs as they arise. Examples include -- hotel rooms for people who have been displaced, food drives, scholarships, and production costs for communicating our work with partners.
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Elgin Freedom Fund
The Elgin Freedom Fund is set up in order to start a support group for those who have been affected by the sex trade. In Kane County, there are over half a million residents, but we have found zero resources for those stuck in trafficking. We are partnering with Naomi's House in Dupage County to start a brand new work here in Elgin. The money will go to help pay for a licensed therapist to run the group, group supplies, and promotional materials.
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