We Help Service Members and Their Families
in Lake and McHenry Counties with care services, financial crisis, family support, peer counseling and camaraderie...free and confidentially, regardless of discharge status. Get In TouchGet Involved
Our Vision
Our Vision is to embed community developed services that provide 100% care for service Members and their families throughout our counties by establishing a network of certified services, volunteer Veterans and certified Veteran Peer Support Specialists.
Our Mission
Our mission is to connect Service Members and their families with each other and to the resources and benefits, they earned and deserve, free and confidentially regardless of discharge status. Through our professionally trained Veteran Peer Specialists, we provide “help from those who’ve been there” for support services, counseling, program resources, and a sense of hope and purpose.
Our Approach
The Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation is a 501c (3) non-profit organization founded in 2012. Originally a Department of Health and Human Services grant, today we are 100% funded by private donations which means we need your help to serve those in our Lake, McHenry and Southern Kenosha Counties who have served, sacrificed, and continue to struggle emotionally, financially and vocationally Through our professionally trained Veteran Peer Specialists, we provide “Help from Those Who’ve Been There” for support services, counseling, program resources, and a sense of hope and purpose.
Guiding Principles
Peer Support
Peer support is an essential component for our success. Those who have been there are the ones who can truly understand and guide someone through recovery from the impact of their military experiences.
A Community of Care
Community support is not bound by legal or traditional military restrictions. When issues emerge that affect our target consumer, we will engage all those affected.
Volunteerism and Employment
Family Integrity
Our primary goal prior to, during, and after deployment is to keep families intact, engaged, and flourishing. We acknowledge support persons as a part of the family to be included in the process.
Confidentiality
All interventions will be confidential, and any discussion or dissemination of information associated with the interaction of our programs or partners will be consumer-controlled.
Suicide and Homeless Prevention
Our support of programs that thwart suicide and homelessness is grounded in the value of developing the individual’s hope that things can get and stay better.
Sustainability
We will support programs that recruit, train, and certify the next generation of trauma-informed providers of our transformational care.
Major Resource Partners
The Latest from LCVFSF
CARE COMMUNITY
We foster a community of care for serving the needs of Lake County Veterans and Families.
A community is only as strong as those who build it, and we need your help in the form of funding and volunteer services in order to sustain our objectives which are:
- Connect Veterans with each other and the resources they need and deserve through a bond of trust.
- Reduce the time it takes for a warrior to ask for help.
- Provide 100% free and confidential services to Military, Veterans, Service Members, and their Families with service-related issues through a strong peer support network.
- Educate and counsel families supporting Veterans or Service Members through trauma-informed care.
- Raise competency in trauma-informed care.
- Reduce Veteran hospitalizations.
- Provide a safe environment for those in need to reduce the stigma associated with their needs.
CARE RESOURCE AREAS
• Post-traumatic Stress
• Domestic Violence
• Children’s Emotional Issues
• Legal Issues
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Substance Abuse
• Mood Issues, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression, Anxiety, Hopelessness
• Adjustment related to Deployment, Re-Deployment, Discharge or Reintegration
• Grief
• Education, Employment and Vocational Support
• Financial Support
• Housing/Homelessness
Accomplished in 2020
Measuring Our Mission
by the Numbers
People Engaged
Cases Handled
DryHooch Contacts
%
2020 Increase in All Contacts
Veterans Suicide
Veterans are 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide than Americans who never served in the military. For female veterans, the risk factor is 2.2 times more likely.
For years the number 22 represented the number of veterans committing suicide every day.
In fact, the total number of suicides among veterans has increased four of the last five years on record. From 2007 to 2017, the rate of suicide among veterans jumped almost 50 percent.
Veteran Leadership
“The Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation is guided and staffed by Veterans who have been there. “
Now and over the coming years, many Veterans, military members, and their families will go through a transition to the civilian world. Many will need support and guidance. Warrior training makes it difficult for them to reach out for help. We want to make it easier and safer by providing support guided and provided by those who’ve been there.
Those We Have Helped
“We’re learning something new while Daddy’s away.” Mother and daughter take archery lessons together.
When LCVFSF began offering free archery lessons, it caught the attention of Navy spouse Elizabeth Hernandez. “When my husband Eliseo is deployed, my daughter and I try to find something to do together so we can show him what we’ve done while he’s gone.”
Eleven-year old Isela finds archery challenging and fun, Elizabeth says. “She’s working hard to show Daddy what she’s accomplishing. We’re both learning a lot about the sport and about ourselves.”
Both Elizabeth and Isela plan to continue the lessons at least until Eliseo is scheduled to comes home in December.
Sharon Epps is the author of several books of poetry and is an accomplished motivational speaker. As the keynote speaker at our 5th Annual Chat ‘N Chew, Sharon spoke of the loss of her elder brother Eddie in Vietnam and what it meant to her and her family. Eddie Lee Walker was 19, served as an Army infantryman and was killed after only 85 days in Vietnam. Sharon had never told the story of the loss until Chat ‘N Chew in February. As a result of her story telling, she asked us if we could recover the medals and citations that Eddie had won. She and her family desperately wanted them to memorialize Eddie Lee’s service.
Veteran Peer Specialist Dean Adams went to work and got Eddie’s DD214 and his medals: the Combat Infantry Badge, the National Defense, Good Conduct, Vietnam Campaign, Vietnam Service, Vietnam Gallantry, and Purple Heart. Dean mounted all of them with his 4th Infantry patch in a beautiful shadow box that will be presented to Sharon by her colleague, Dr. Mary Roberson.
For the past two years, a local caring citizen has been on a mission. He gathers and refurbishes used computers and then donates them to a charity that help Veterans get jobs.
Paul Gerdes seeks out old computers, then cleans them up and installs equipment that makes them operate as good as new. He started by donating a few of his finished products to Mitch Siegel, who works as a Job Developer for Catholic Charities.
The laptops and desktops grew over the past few months to a total of 40. “We’re grateful to Paul for his generosity and commitment to helping Veterans,” Mitch said. “It’s a time in which more and more people are working from home. These computers are essential to making that happen.”
The 2020 Annual Report
Click to download
DryHootch Coffee Center
100 So. Atkinson, Suite 110
Grayslake, Illinois 60030
Hours We’re Here
Mon-Fri: 10am – 5pm
Contact Us 24/7
847-986-4622