HR1363 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1363 LRB095 21585 GRL 51547 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate Ginny Dewar on the occasion of her retirement as Executive Director of The Crisis Nursery of Champaign County; and

WHEREAS, Incorporated in 1983, the Crisis Nursery of Champaign County is the product of a dedicated group of concerned citizens, pediatric nurses, and social workers from Burnham Hospital, McKinley Health Center, the University of Illinois School of Social Work, and the Champaign-Urbana League; the Nursery was established as a not-for-profit, tax deductible organization which provides 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service and other crisis/emergency care to assist struggling families and to take prevention a step further; the program also offers an "Island of Safety" to children whose families are in crisis due to parental stress, illness, accidents, homelessness, and substance abuse and who have no other resources; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar received her bachelor's degree and master's degree in social work from University of Illinois in Champaign; she is a Licensed Clinical Worker in the State of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar was employed by CHASI from 1976 until 1992; she originally worked as a social worker and later supervised various programs, including child abuse treatment, adoption services, and treatment foster care, among others; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar served on the original board of L.W. Place, a substance abuse agency, for three years; as a board member, she assisted L.W. Place in achieving their 503.c.1 status, in locating suitable housing, and in building a board of directors; and

WHEREAS, After 16 years of social work experience, Ginny Dewar began working with the Crisis Nursery of Champaign County on September 21, 1992; in her 16 years of service, she has proven invaluable to the efforts of the Crisis Nursery; and

WHEREAS, As executive director, Ginny Dewar has been instrumental in the growth and efficacy of the Crisis Nursery of Champaign County; she was instrumental in increasing the Nursery's budget from $90,000 to its current FY08 budget of $647,000; she oversaw the Nursery's capital campaign, which began in December of 1998, and the building of a new facility, which was completed in February of 2001; she was responsible for integrating specific children's programming and training and moving the program care to a 24/7 format; she was responsible for growing the family support programming for families who have repeat crisis care needs and for heading up a Statewide voluntary coalition of crisis nurseries, which now totals 6 in the State; she was instrumental in initiating the Island of Safety endowment; she created the new job positions of Program Director, Accounting Manager, Development Director, and Family Outreach Worker, and hired additional bilingual staff members to assist the increasing number of Latino clients; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar has served as lead coordinator of the Illinois Crisis Nursery Coalition and has consulted in the start up of two others; she has taken an active role in working toward national collaboration of crisis nurseries still in its infancy and advocating for the recognition and funding nursery services at the State level; she has supervised the creation and implementation of a data collection system for the Coalition nurseries to report their statistics reflecting client and program demographics along with 3 performance goals, all of which have percent ratings of over 90%; such reports have reduced maltreatment and stress in client families and have helped to increase parenting knowledge and skills; she also established a Results Plus donation tracking data base in the fall of 1998; and

WHEREAS, Under Ginny Dewar's leadership, the Family Program of the Crisis Nursery of Champaign County has grown to include parent child interaction groups, home visits, respite care, parent support and education groups at the Champaign and Rantoul sites, resource and referrals services, holiday giving coordination, and a new program in perinatal depression available to clients; and

WHEREAS, Under the guidance of Ginny Dewar, the Crisis Nursery's admissions are now more than 3,000 annually, more than four times the admissions totaled 16 years ago; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar, along with Jeanette McCollum of the U of I Department of Special Ed and other peers, has co-presented research on Crisis Nurseries at various conferences; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar has been the recipient of many awards in recognition of her work, including the Congressional Points of Light Award, the Governor's Hometown Award, the U of I Extension Master Gardeners Team Work Award, the March of Dimes Franklin D. Roosevelt Health Leadership Award, and the U of I School of Social Work June Henderson Memorial Award for work in child welfare; she was also named one of the 4th Annual Working Women's Expo 20 Outstanding Women; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar is the mother of one daughter, who is employed as a high school chemistry teacher; she and her husband, a local farmer, have three children; and

WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar serves as a model of hard work, integrity, and dedication for the people of the State of Illinois; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Ginny Dewar on the occasion of her retirement and wish her continued success and happiness in the future; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Ginny Dewar as a symbol of our esteem and respect.