Crisis intervention services aimed at helping runaways and at-risk youth in Chicago's Englewood and West Englewood communities are expected to be suspended on February 15 due to the state budget impasse.
Children's Home + Aid provides the services as part of the state's Comprehensive Community-Based Youth Services (CCBYS) program, which serves nearly 7,000 youth statewide. CCBYS has gone unfunded since the state entered the new fiscal year on July 1 without a budget.
"This is the first of many program suspensions we are forecasting around the state," the Illinois Collaboration on Youth's CEO Andrea Durbin said in a statement. "Providers tell us they are expecting to make significant cuts in services and staff in February and March. These are the same providers who have been working in good faith since July 1 to meet the needs of kids and families in crisis in every county in Illinois. But without a budget or the possibility of payment any time soon, we will see more and more of these program suspensions and eventually every CCBYS program will close."