CARLINVILLE - There’s a new support group available for survivors of domestic violence.
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Locust Street Resource Center will offer a support group for domestic violence survivors at 6:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month at 320 S. Locust Street in Carlinville. Executive Director Maria Clark explained that Locust Street Resource Center has been providing mental health and social services support for over 50 years, and they look forward to offering this new resource to community members.
“We have some staff members who are in recovery and have experience with domestic violence, and they also wanted to start a domestic violence support group. We thought that was a great idea, definitely something that's needed in our communities,” Clark said. “They are peer-led, so those with lived experience along with mental health professionals are there to supervise the groups.”
The domestic violence support group is completely free to attend. Locust Street Resource Center also offers a free grief support group in their Living Room, a 24-hour walk-in clinic.
Clark explained that Locust Street Resource Center works with folks with developmental disabilities and elderly community members, and they also provide “a wide range of other social services.” But their “bread and butter” is mental health care. They have an outpatient clinic, a psychiatric clinic, and crisis services.
The mobile crisis team will travel anywhere in Macoupin, Montgomery, Greene, Jersey, Calhoun, Christian, Bond and Morgan Counties to assist community members in crisis. If you are in crisis and call their 24-hour line at 217-854-3160, Locust Street Resource Center will dispatch a mental health professional and a person with lived experience to your location.
Clark said they have met people at hospitals, schools, police departments, and even their own homes before. They will work with you to determine what level of care is needed. The crisis response team will also follow up with you the next day.
“We’re more than happy to help in any way that we can. Sometimes, it really is just having that third party there to help talk to someone and de-escalate,” Clark said. “When we deem them safe and no further action is necessary, that crisis response team also does follow-ups. So if they do get called somewhere and do a screening, we’ll do a 24-hour follow-up, a 48-hour follow-up, just to make sure everything’s still on track and everyone’s still doing well, or if they need any additional support.”
The organization’s newest program is called The Living Room. This state-funded 24-hour walk-in clinic is open to anyone age 18 or older. The Living Room is staffed by peers with lived experience.
“It’s crisis diversion,” Clark explained. “It was implemented to help people who are experiencing some sort of crisis to stay out of jail and stay out of emergency rooms. It’s open 24 hours a day and you can walk right in, and we have staff that are trained to help support you, deescalate, connect you to other services if needed.”
Locust Street Resource Center and The Living Room are located in Carlinville, but they also have a clinic in Jacksonville and a satellite office in Carrollton.
“Our agency is what we like to call a safety net provider, which means that regardless of your ability to pay, we will not turn anyone away. So if you are in need of services, please reach out. If it’s not something that we ourselves provide, we have hundreds of community partners that we can link you to get the help and support that you need,” Clark added. “We’re definitely in what the state likes to call a resource desert, so having something like our services here is so important to our community, and we just hope to keep providing the services that we have been for over 50 years.”
For more information about Locust Street Resource Center and their services, including their support groups or how to get help, visit their official website at LocustStreetResourceCenter.org or call their main line at 217-854-3166.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
