By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Mister Rogers famously said that his mother told him, when there is trouble, look for the helpers. And some of those helpers participated in a webinar put on by Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

Alexa James, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago, says the pandemic knocked non-profits for a loop. “Folks need community, a sense of purpose, stable housing’ all of those things have been stripped from people’s lives immediately. So when people call our help line, which is seven days a week, they are calling about much more fundamental basic needs.”

And Planned Parenthood president and CEO Jennifer Welch describes how her organization swung into action: “We consolidated seventeen health centers temporarily into six centers,” Welch said. “We also expanded the days and the hours. We really thoughtt about the demographics of the commuinties we were serving, and we wanted to make sure that we still had a distribution of services across the state.”

The non-profit leaders say the crisis has brought out the best in their employees. And James said even people calling her crisis line said they were concerned about how THEY were doing.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]