Geneva committee recommends continuing social worker services to aid police

Geneva alderpersons acting as the Committee of the Whole unanimously recommended approval of a renewal of its agreement for a social worker to be on-call for the police department.

The agreement is for $35,000 to continue services from the Association for Individual Development, which it has since 2014.

“They provide a social worker on-call 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and a social worker who provides services from the police facility one day per week,” City Administrator Stephanie Dawkins said at the May 20 meeting.

“The social workers provide a valuable service to the community and to the police department,” Dawkins said. “They are regularly utilized to assist with those experiencing a mental health crisis, homelessness, death notifications, hoarding and much more.”

Since 2022, AID has assisted 562 clients and the police in reducing repeat calls for service, she said.

The new contract calls for the social worker services to increase to two days per week at the police facility, as well as 24/7 coverage the rest of the week.

The City Council will take final action.

According to the proposed agreement with AID, which is a nonprofit, the agency will respond to requests for assistance with no limit for on-scene crisis stabilization counseling, community and emergency personnel debriefings, critical incident mental health response, judicial advocacy, case management follow-up and referral assistance to victims.