We help service members and their families in Lake, Southern Kenosha and McHenry Counties with care services, financial crisis help, family support, peer counseling and camaraderie.
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COMMUNITY CARE AREAS
We foster a community of care for 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
For Veterans and their Families.
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- • 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
- • Post-traumatic Stress
Ruck Up 2021...
was our most important annual fundraising event of the year. Your involvement as a marcher, supporter, volunteer or corporate sponsor was invaluable to us and our fight in stemming the suicide trend. We thank all of the women and men who participated to raise awareness and donations.
Accepting Ruck March donations until 12/31/2021
St. Patrick High School Ruckers Take Off
GO SHAMROCKS and THANKS!
Bees Don’t Like Ruckers Who Walk Into Their Nest
Patrick Pinder. USMC
Annette Monk
The Ruck March for 2021 was a huge success for all of us, thanks to Paul Meincke and other testimonials featured here. Thanks to all!
Andy Kidd, Aptinyx
*********** Major Foundation Donors ***********
Major Resource Partners
The Latest News from LCVFS
The Foundation
Foundation:
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 County Communities who have served, sacrificed, and continue to struggle emotionally, financially and vocationally.
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.
Financial Disclosure: Click here for latest filed 990.
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.
Employment and Volunteerism
We believe that employment and volunteer work are significant contributors to an improved feeling of worthiness and normalcy for our target consumer. Our focus is to develop these principles of connection in our community for veterans and their families.
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
Veterans are 1.5 times for likely to die of suicide than Americans who never served in the military.
For years the number 22 represented the average number of veterans committing suicide every day.
That number increased 50% from 2007 to 2017 and has increased four of the past five years.
Accomplished in 2020
By The Numbers
People Engaged
Cases Handled
Dry Hooch Contacts
%
Increase In Contacts
Those We Have Helped
Don Stressler
Veteran
The only thing worse than having your refrigerator die is finding out it would cost $800 to repair. Being disabled and unable to work, Don S. didn’t have $800. That left he and his two sons without a refrigerator and struggling to make meals at home.
Don contacted Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation to ask for help. The foundation’s staff actively searched online and visited several appliance stores in and around Don’s Round Lake Beach home, looking for a good fit for Don’s family.
They quickly found a good fit and made the purchase. Don’s sons saved delivery charges by picking up the refrigerator and taking it to its new home.
“My sons and I thank the foundation for helping us out,” Don said. “We’re back to eating our regular meals at home.”
The Carlton W. Family
Veteran/Father/Family Person
Veteran Carlson W. depended on his car to get to work and to take his special needs child to physical therapy. But he discovered that his car’s suspension was shot, and the vehicle was unsafe to drive. He needed a quick repair job fast but did not have the funds to pay for it.
Carlson reached out to LCVFSF and the foundation was able to contribute a large part of the total bill. But some of the bill remained. That is when a LCVFSF Veteran Peer Specialist (VPS) called the maintenance manager of the dealership repairing the car. The VPS negotiated the bill downward so that there was no remaining balance.
Carlson now is back on the road and very grateful to the foundation.
Keenan Chapple-Brown
Veteran
Veteran Keenan Chapple-Brown had a problem. He had travelled all the way from Arizona to Lake County to see his mother. He had finished his visit and now he needed to get back home. But someone had stolen his debit card, the one and only source of cash he had available.
He contacted Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation to ask about any possible funds to cover his trip home. LCVFSF’s Dean Adams arranged for gas and food cards through the foundation’s Vets-in-Need program. Keenan had what he needed to get home.
That should have been the end of the story. But Keenan got as far as Missouri and found that there were no gas stations around with the same brand as that of the gas cards. Dean figured out a way to transfer him funds via a bank transfer application. Keenan then bought enough gas to get him home and returned the unused gas cards. He’s home now — safe, sound and very appreciative.
DryHootch Drop-In Center
Free Coffee and snack
100 So. Atkinson, Suite 110
Grayslake, Illinois 60030
Hours We’re Here
Mon-Fri: 10am – 5pm
Contact Us 24/7
847-986-4622
