Oak Park introduces ECHO care coordination team and recognizes winter warming volunteers

Village Manager Jackson and Neighborhood Services Director Jonathan Birch used the May 13 meeting to introduce the Neighborhood Services staff and to recognize volunteers and partners who helped run warming centers this winter.

Jonathan Birch introduced Neighborhood Partnerships Administrator Paola Garibay and said the Neighborhood Services Department was created in recent budget cycles to strengthen community engagement. Birch and Village Manager Jackson also thanked partner organizations and volunteers who supported the village’s warming-center operations, noting the village coordinated shelter on 17 critically cold days this past winter. The village acknowledged Housing Forward and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and singled out Emergency Preparedness Manager Lee Christiansen for his coordination role.

Vanessa Matheny, community services administrator, described the ECHO program (Engaging Communities for Healthy Outcomes) and introduced the team’s care coordinators, Kimberly Smith and Maxie Moses. Matheny said ECHO was developed in response to mental-health task-force recommendations and to provide an alternative, unarmed response option for specific low-risk calls for service. She described early implementation activities: outreach to taxing bodies and nonprofit partners, coordination with police and fire roll calls, creation of a referral form for first responders, weekly data reports, distribution of warming kits and direct outreach to people panhandling or staying at warming centers.

Kimberly Smith and Maxie Moses described casework examples. Smith said the team handled referrals for households with complex needs and coordinated with Oak Park Township, health-care providers and food programs to arrange home health services and meal delivery for an individual with cancer. Moses described assisting a young mother escaping domestic violence: ECHO helped arrange private interviews, transportation to a Maywood office to obtain a protective order, contact with the client’s housing case manager to prevent housing loss, and immediate material assistance (coats donated by partner organizations).

Matheny said the team receives referrals from police and fire as well as direct walk-ins; she said the program has broadened beyond strictly mental-health referrals to include housing supports, senior services, substance-use and medical needs. Matheny told the board the program will return to the board later this year with more detailed data on outcomes and referrals.

Why it matters: The ECHO team provides a nonpolice care-coordination option that connects residents — including older adults and people experiencing housing instability — to services and community partners.

Speakers quoted in this article spoke during the Village Manager and Neighborhood Services agenda items.