"HELPING COMMUNITIES HELP THEMSELVES"
These simple words set the course for us at ICCS.....
Since the days of our initial charter, our passion has been focused on Healthy Communities with a
strong social justice component in the state of Illinois.
The website name, Organzing Communities clearly states our task in meeting our mission statement.
Since 1985, ICCS, a 501(c)(3), has been improving the lives of people in need in rural communities throughout Illiniois. Our mission is to interrupt generational poverty by assisting local faith-based and community organizations (FBCO's).
With assistance from ICCS, local agencies address community needs through education, advocacy and grassroots organizing. ICCS works in 74 distressed Illinois counties whose unemployment or poverty rates exceed state and/or national averages.
ICCS is the only statewide organization providing community organizing in rural communities.
ICCS is organized as:
- Full time staff of 12 community organizers
- 15 active board members.
- Provides services to 74 counties
- 14 Active ICCS area projects
- Centrally located administrative offices in Springfield.
For more information about Illinois Coalition for Community Services (ICCS) please contact:
Nancy Tegtmeier - ICCS Associate Director
nancy@organizing-communities.org
Tel: 217.522.2378
A Brief History of Time
1934 - First community-based deliquency prevention program, CAP funded by Illinois Department of Public Welfare's Division
For Deliquency Prevention.
Clifford Shaw, a Chicago sociologist instituted the concept of local responsibility with CAP.
1953 - Illinois Youth Commisson - Division of Community Services assumed oversight responsibility.
1981 - Services and programs placed under the Departmement of Children and Family Services (DCFS).
1982 - Senate Bill 1500 established Division of Youth and Community Services (DYCS) which added the responsibility of
Community-Based Youth Service and Delinquency Intervention Services.
1985 - ICCS incorporated with nine (9) member agencies on the board.
1995 - ICCS expands its programs to Human Services by coordinating Foster Care and Juvenile Detention Monitoring