Sarah’s Inn Needs Your Help.

It’s budget time in Springfield and Sarah’s Inn is bracing itself.  Our State Funding through the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) accounts for more than a third of our budget revenue and is uncertain as of July 1, 2010.  Last year’s 10% cut carved right against the bone.  And we’ve been told that we can expect worse come summer.

With just 16 full time staff and dedicated volunteers, Sarah’s Inn provides life-saving services to more than 7,000 survivors of violence and their children each year.  Another cut will go to the core of our programs.

And we are not alone: health and human services agencies across the state that make up an already dangerously stretched and brittle safety net are facing the same.  Many programs were severely hobbled last year and would have to close even more doors if we end up on the cutting floor again.  To read a summary, go to: Progress Illinois.

Imagine a business where revenues go down at precisely the time when demand is the greatest. For health and human services, programs across our state are being starved of the necessary resources to handle the worst emergency needs in generations. Please take action to send a clear message to your reps that you do not support a budget balanced at the expense of our neighbors who are in the greatest need.

• GOOD
  Go to Illinois Partners for Human Services to search for your representatives, review their voting records, learn about terms of office, and take action.  This site has it all to help you get the information you need to send an effective message.
• BETTER
  Encourage all of your contacts to send a message too.
• BEST
  Get moving.  Make phone calls, host a house party to help others understand the great work of social services agencies in the community, meet with your representatives, get educated and help others do the same. 

Further Resources:
View the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2011.
Read a recent essay in the Chicago Tribune.

The following websites may also be helpful:
Illinois Partners for Human Services 
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability   
The Responsible Budget Coalition
United Way of Metropolitan Chicago

For more on voting records, visit the Illinois General Assembly

For information on registering to vote, locating your polling place, etc. visit The Illinois Board of Elections