Social services proposal garners support of Downers Grove council

Downers Grove officials are strongly considering the action plan and recommendations outlined in the village’s human service and ad hoc committee report to address social issues that are impacting residents.

The advisory panel, created in 2018, was tasked in part with reviewing ways the village can better serve as a resource to the community and address needs. Village Manager Dave Fieldman delivered a presentation summarizing the report during Tuesday’s Downers Grove Village Council meeting.

The action plan and recommendations suggest that the village should implement a social services referral program, engage professional staff, appoint members to a human services commission and prepare a service gap analysis report.

The village believes it needs to better educate and inform the public of the various social services available to the community, officials said.

Commissioner Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt said she is excited that the village council will give the action plan and recommendations consideration.

“It is crucial that people are made aware of the resources that are available but also have help in accessing them,” Sadowski-Fugitt said. “That’s such a big step that’s been missing.”

Commissioner Nicole Walus said that while she has had questions about the action plan and recommendations in the past, she strongly supports what they aim to achieve.

“When I saw how many other municipalities already have some form of a social worker or social work service, I really feel even more strongly about this than I did before having something like this in our community,” Walus said.

Thirteen municipalities in DuPage County have a social services employee, officials said. Downers Grove is looking at a 12- to 15-month timeline to implement the action plan and recommendations, officials said.

“Since the colonial beginnings of our country, the government has been involved in addressing social issues,” Walus said. “I think it’s time—I think that some might argue past due—that we as a governmental entity, even though we’re local—we’re not at the federal level—but I think it’s time for us to look at residents in our town—again, like we did before, when we did have a human services commission—not just as another number counted in our Census data, but as human beings.”

The village had a human services commission years ago, officials said. Another panel, dubbed the human service and ad hoc committee, was created in 2018.

Mayor Bob Barnett believes the village has an opportunity to be a “center point for information and connectivity” if the council moves ahead with the panel’s action plan and recommendations.

“There’s a lot of good people doing good work that if they don’t get connected with the people who need it, it doesn’t do anyone any good,” Barnett said.

Not everyone is fully on board with the way the village is approaching the initiative.

Commissioner Cavanaugh Gray questioned if the timeline is too ambiguous to make a difference in the community. He asked the council to consider an amendment to the village’s policy on appointments to boards and commissions to allow for the implementation of an ad hoc service committee on a full-time basis.

“We had the two variation of this, and I would like see us act sooner than later as we go through a season where we could be losing some valuable time when people in our area need it the most,” Gray said. “I’d like to see a little bit more clarity for us to make a little bit more movement on some things that we might have some control over.”