“We need facilities like this” – Peru Mayor Ken Kolowski
Starved Rock Country Community Foundation is pleased to introduce a new fund to help support the Maitrī Path to Wellness project to open much needed, affordable transitional housing for local residents with substance use disorder.
The mission of Maitri Path to Wellness is to provide hope and help to individuals and families that enable the community to grow, heal, and succeed in ways never imagined possible through empathy, loving kindness, compassion, respect, and counseling innovation.
Maitrī Path to Wellness is a mental health organization currently providing services in downtown LaSalle. In March of 2021, the practice was founded by Kelly Jones, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor. Kelly graduated from Aurora University with a Master’s in Social Work and a dual concentration in addictions and child welfare. She has a passion for providing rapid healing solutions to her clients who have suffered trauma, and she helps individuals and families to live high quality lives by providing care and treatment to those with addictions and mental health concerns.
In Kelly’s experience working in the LaSalle County Jail, the importance of creating this type of service locally became evident when she realized there was only one primary service provider for substance use disorder (SUD) outpatient services within a 30-mile radius of La Salle. LaSalle, Bureau, and Putnam Counties and the surrounding rural areas do not have close access to affordable transitional housing for those individuals being released from the county jail, discharging from treatment, and those seeking stable, recovery supportive living space.
Due to distance, lack of transportation both public and private, and insurance, clients typically do not have a choice in which service provider they can utilize. Also, many SUD clients in this area only have access to state health insurance. The goal is to provide an alternative option in the community for those with state AND commercial insurance.
A building located at 710 Peoria Street in Peru, Illinois and the adjacent 40- space parking lot has been purchased by Maitrī Path to Wellness. Connections have been made with contractors to secure requests for bids for the necessary renovations. Maitrī Path to Wellness has been awarded two significant grants by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, with plans to apply for more, to assist with the renovations needed for this project. The goal is to house 24-28 adult recovery residents.
When completed, the Maitri Path to Wellness affordable housing will not only provide housing, but also drug and alcohol counseling, assistance in getting employment, learning, or relearning life skills, group counseling sessions with people who share their need for services and other wrap-around services as needed. In addition, Maitri Path to Wellness will provide Recovery Residences, also known as Halfway Houses, which provide a safe and healthy living environment to initiate and sustain recovery—defined as abstinence from alcohol and other non-prescribed drug use and improvement in one’s physical, mental, spiritual, and social wellbeing. Individuals build resources while living in a recovery residence that will continue to support their recovery as they transition to living independently and productively in the community. Short-term affordable housing will be provided until the residents have obtained stable, independent housing and secure employment. Live-in employees will maintain a permanent residence within the recovery housing area to supervise and assist the recovery residents in whatever way possible. Counseling and support services for all residents will be provided by Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW), Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors (LCPC), Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselors (CADC) as well as Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS). Staff will assist residents to access housing and employment opportunities while they are receiving counseling services.
Administrative staff will deal with payments and billing issues, and the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation will serve as the Fiscal Sponsor to accept tax-deductible donations to the project and to manage and safeguard those charitable contributions throughout the initial phases of the project development.
Addiction is a chronic, devastating and too often deadly disease that has touched almost everyone’s life in some way. Approximately half of Americans report that addiction has affected their family. By addressing the underlying concerns, which are often overlooked, Maitri Path to Wellness can help build a better community, one person at a time.
Incorporating a variety of evidenced based approaches and helping clients find solutions to the problems that added to their involvement with drugs and alcohol, can help them find freedom and live a fulfilling life that allows them to be contributing members of the community. Maitrī Path to Wellness is located at 111 Bucklin Street, 2 nd Floor, in La Salle Illinois, and can be reached at (815) 780-0690 or by visiting www.maitripathtowellness.com/contact. Contributions made to this phase of the project will be used for the construction. Once the building is operational, insurance will be billed for most services.
