Grundy Eunoia hosts ribbon cutting and open house in Mazon

The two-and-a-half year process by the Community Foundation of Grundy County to open the Grundy Eunoia Wellness Center is nearly complete, and the new mental health center focused on children held a ribbon cutting and open house on Thursday at the former location of Mazon Bank, 606 Depot St., Mazon.

Clinical Director Adam Kotowski said it will be open and accepting clients by January, with scheduling of appointments starting in December.

“I’ve been doing this part-time as a coach and mentor, working with challenged youth in different capacities for about 20 years,” Kotowski said. “You have the beliefs that get imprinted at a very young age. That can be, emotionally, in different capacities, traumatically, whatever they experience. I think it’s a great opportunity to work with the youth, figure out where things started and guide them along the way before they become adults.”

Adults, Kotowski said, are a little more solidified in their thinking and beliefs.

“It’s to serve the community, the youth population at large,” Kotowski said. “We want to do that from a collaborative care effort, which will be medically and psychologically, and then use different modalities that would be effective according to the individual and possibly their family.”

Kotowski said Eunoia will offer individual group therapy, music therapy, art therapy, horticultural therapy, animal therapy and other types of therapies once the program gets off the ground.

Sandy Rakes, a Grundy Eunoia Board member and a retired special education teacher, said Eunoia will fill a gap in resources to provide much-needed mental health services to kids.

“When you’re in a small community, there’s unfortunately not a lot of resources,” Rakes said. “We’re hoping to support the resources that are available and add to that.”

Rakes said there’s been many good ideas and a lot of support, and the board behind Eunoia has backgrounds related to mental healthcare.

Susan Dobbs, another Eunoia board member, works in probation and started her career in juvenile probation, having worked in that field for 25 years.

“It’s going to be a welcoming facility,” Dobbs said. “People here are very involved, very much wanting to help people and get away from the stigma, which we are getting away from as far as any mental health issues and treatment.”

Dobbs said it’s important for kids to be proud of themselves and understand they can be whatever they want to be.

Jay Fillman, who serves on the board of the Community Foundation of Grundy County, said it’s been a journey to getting the building in a usable state: The building flooded a couple years ago and Mazon Bank hadn’t been using the building. The batteries went dead in the thermostat so the furnace didn’t turn on during a deep freeze. The pipes froze and then thawed out, flooding the building.

Fillman said the wiring, drywall, painting and carpeting all had to be redone.

“We’ve talked about this at the Community Foundation for years, that we needed something like this in the area,” Fillman said. “So, when we got the people that we could hire to work here involved, it was just finding a building we could put them in to work out of. It’s a great thing for the community.”

The staff at Eunoia will also include Stacey Johnson, a part-time nurse practitioner with her endorsement in psychiatry. Her role, at the beginning, will be to do physical exams on new clients to ensure they don’t have anything physiological like high blood pressure, blood sugar or chronic pain, causing them problems.

Residents wishing to support the Grundy Eunoia Wellness Center can make monetary donations, or donate needed items. Eunoia had wishlists of items at the open house. Items on the wishlists include art supplies, bean bag chairs, two electric fireplaces, a tablet and speakers for background music, toys for the waiting area, paint and decorations for the baby changing and nursing area, comfortable chairs, diapers, wipes and storage.