Petition — and rally on April 12, the 9-year clinic-closure anniversary

Rally with us Monday at 4 PM at the Woodlawn Health Center, 6337 S Woodlawn Ave

Let’s commemorate the 9-year anniversary of the closure of half of the City's mental health clinics.

We demand that Mayor Lightfoot uphold her campaign promise to reopen the clinics and invest FEDERAL RELIEF FUNDS into City-run mental health services.

Invite friends at fb.com/stopchicago/events

April 12, 4pm, 6337 S Woodlawn Ave

And sign the petition “25 Million and More” to Mayor Lightfoot

When Candidate Lightfoot was asked if she would commit to reopen closed public mental health clinics, she said yes. When asked if she would commit to spend $25 million dollars on rebuilding the public mental health infrastructure in the city she said, emphatically, "Yes and more." Share the video of her saying that: youtu.be/4X7Ura_tpho

NO MORE EXCUSES!

1) We demand that Mayor Lightfoot use money from the American Rescue Plan (of which Chicago is set to receive $1.8 billion dollars) to rebuild Chicago's public mental health infrastructure. According to a recent survey conducted by the Collaborative for Community Wellness, 90% of Chicagoans want city-run public mental health clinics available and accessible in their neighborhoods.

We are in the midst of a pandemic. People are suffering from emotional and mental health crises from dealing with the stressor of unemployment, evictions, homelessness, and grief due to the extraordinary death toll from COVID-19.

2) In addition, we also demand that the city fully fund the Treatment Not Trauma non-police crisis response pilot whose operations must be fully integrated with the expanded public mental health clinics.

“Because of the disproportionate volume of contact between individuals with serious mental illness and law enforcement, reducing the likelihood of police interaction with individuals in psychiatric crisis may represent the single most immediate, practical strategy for reducing fatal police encounters in the United States.” (Treatment Advocacy Center, 2015 report)

Sign at bit.ly/reopenclinics