Help Stop Howe DC and Tinley Park MHC Closures‏

Council 31 -

As you may know, Gov. Blagojevich is attempting to close down Howe Developmental Center and the Tinley Park Mental Health Center. These facilities provide essential services to some of our state's neediest citizens. Howe DC provides residential habilitative programs for individuals with severe developmental disabilities, while Tinley provides inpatient treatment for individuals with severe mental illness. Those who rely on these facilities are almost invariably individuals who could not be served by community programs which offer less intensive services.

Not only would these closures cause serious harm to individuals in need, but they would also threaten the jobs of the hundreds of AFSCME members who provide these vital services, many of whom live in minority communities already hard hit by the recession.

It is essential that all of us in AFSCME come together to mount the strongest possible resistance to the closure of Tinley and Howe. If your members live in Cook, Will or Kankakee counties, they could be directly impacted by these closures if they ever needed care for a loved one with serious disabilities. If your members work at other state-operated mental health or developmental centers, they could see their own jobs at risk as closing Tinley and Howe could open the door for wholesale downsizing. But no matter where your members work, the threat of these closures calls out for a strong expression of union solidarity.

On Thursday, December 11, the General Assembly's Commission on Governmental Forecasting and Accountability will hold a public hearing on the Governor's closure plans for Howe and Tinley. We've attached a flyer with further information on this hearing. Please distribute this flyer to your activists right away--and begin organizing the large possible delegation of your members to attend this hearing. Even if you can't get there by 4 PM, or can't stay till the end, it's critical that you bring as many people as possible for as long as possible.