COVID-19 affected Will County nonprofits in unique ways. Here’s how Stepping Stones Treatment Center in Joliet addressed it.

Editor’s note: This is the sixth installment of an eight-part series.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected nonprofits, especially nonprofits that provide health and human services, in very unique ways.

For instance, the need for their services increased – up to 300% in some cases – while nonprofits’ ability to fundraise to meet the need decreased.

Capacity restrictions and mitigations to keep staff and clients safe while providing the much-needed services added to the challenges.

In a December 2020 Herald-News story, United Way of Will County spokesperson Sarah Oprzedek said 30% of people in Will County were just over the poverty line, which meant they made too much to receive assistance and not enough to pay for necessities.

But even though society has opened back up doesn’t mean families and nonprofits have recovered from last year.

So the Herald-News recently asked eight Will County nonprofits the following questions: What was your biggest need pre-COVID? How did COVID affect your ability to serve your clients – as well as your ability to fundraise? What strategies did you implement? What is the biggest challenge for your organization in 2021?

Here is how Stepping Stones Treatment Center in Joliet answered those questions.

The need for substance abuse treatment has always been “so beyond resources” – pre-COVID and today, according to Paul Lauridsen, executive director of Stepping Stones Treatment Center in Joliet, which offers intensive outpatient, outpatient and residential treatment programs.

So it’s no surprise that Stepping Stones’ biggest need is additional funding and staff.

“It can be difficult finding people to work,” Lauridsen said. “But I think everyone is experiencing that.”

Lauridsen said Stepping Stones is struggling to compete with employers that can offer remote work or warehouses that can offer more money than Stepping Stones can. He would like Stepping Stones to be “more competitive, pay-wise.”

Stepping Stones receives about 1,600 calls a year for help but can only serve 600 to 700 of them, he said. Everyone else is referred to other resources, Lauridsen said.

Another challenge is that the time from the initial call to admission into residential services can be several weeks, he said. Still, Stepping Stones does offer interim groups, too, which is not considered treatment, according to its website.

“So with many people, we end up losing touch with them,” Lauridsen said. “We really don’t know what happens with those folks.”

COVID drastically reduced even further the number of clients Stepping Stones could serve.

For instance, Stepping Stones served 660 clients between April 1 of 2019 and April 1 of 2020. But from April 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021, Stepping Stones only served 295, Lauridsen said.

“That was due to having to meet the public health guidance on providing for social distancing and providing an environment that was so for clients and staff,” Lauridsen. “That had a big impact on our income. We get paid for how many days of service we provide or how many hours of service, depending on if its residential or outpatient.”

Capacity-wise, Stepping Stones could care for 15 in-patients at a time, with three people to a room in each of Stepping Stones five bedrooms, Lauridsen said.

With the advent of COVID, Stepping Stones reduced capacity by one third in three of the rooms and left two rooms empty “in case we admitted someone, and we didn’t know if they were positive or not,” Lauridsen said.

Clients in the extended care and recovery homes are currently tested weekly since they are “out in the community working,” Lauridsen said. The Will County Health Department also came out and vaccinated about 55 staff members and “some of the clients,” of which Stepping Stones is thankful,” Lauridsen said.

But having the ability to screen residents really helped boost capacity, Lauridsen said. Stepping Stones is now in the process of admitting people back into outpatient services, he said.

Stepping Stones doesn’t really fundraise, although it does receive funds from the annual grassroots fundraiser Witches Night Out, which went with a virtual model in 2020.

Lauridsen said Stepping Stones’ main source of funding comes from the Illinois Department of Human Services as well as the Illinois Department of Corrections and Medicaid. This last comes to Stepping Stones through large insurers that have contracts with Illinois to manage the funds, he said.

Stepping Stones did receive the Payment Protection Program loan, which was forgiven, and then Stepping Stones applied for a received a second loan, which it also received, Lauridsen said. The Illinois Department of Human Services provided retention payments to offset revenue loss, he said. Stepping Stones also received Provider Relief Funds, he added.

Plans for 2021 and beyond include renovations on the interior and exterior of the Stepping Stones building at 1621 Theodore, “which is older and needs work, not just cosmetically but also structurally,” Lauridsen said.

“We were able to get a capital improvement grant to pay for that and support from the county using CARES money,” Lauridsen said.

Stepping Stones is also planning an eight-unit recovery home for women and children on its property on Theodore Street, Lauridsen said.

“It would house seven woman and two or three of their children.” Lauridsen said. “One unit would be for a house manager. Again, we’ve gotten big support from the city and county for that. They have community block development grant funds set aside for this project for us.”

Lauridsen said Stepping Stones has also applied for other funding. The total cost of the project is $2.5 million, he said.

For more information, visit steppingstonestreatment.com.