Family Counseling Center, Inc.
Awarded IDOT Grant For New Vehicles

Family Counseling Center, Inc. recently received notice that it has been awarded grant funds from the Illinois Department of Transportation for new vehicles that will fill a variety of roles in serving the over 2200 clients the agency sees each year.

CEO Sherrie L. Crabb is appreciative of IDOT for awarding the grant and credits the hard work of Chief Strategy Officer Kerie Moore for making this possible.

“Kerie put a lot of time into gathering the data for this grant and putting everything together. One of the toughest things about grant writing is there can be such a delay between the application and seeing the results of your efforts. In this case, we applied in May of 2018,” explained Crabb. “And here we are at the end of 2019 learning that we are going to receive funds for new vehicles. Kerie’s hard work has certainly paid off.”

The IDOT grant will cover the cost of four new vehicles: a 5-passenger minivan with an estimated value of $40,113, a 12-passenger bus with an estimated value of $59,000 and two 14-passenger buses with estimated values of $64,000 each.

One side benefit of this grant is that it freed up some funds that were budgeted for vehicle loans. This left Family Counseling Centers, Inc.’s Board of Directors with an opportunity to brighten the Christmas season for their staff.

“Our Board decided to use the money saved to give bonuses to all of our employees,” added Crabb. “This is a perfect example of the impact of human services beyond what people typically think about. We’re not only serving clients directly; we’re bringing grant money into the communities we serve. Thanks to the generosity of our Board, there are also extra dollars going into the pockets of our employees that will be spent at our local shops and restaurants. The work we do benefits entire communities in addition to the individuals we serve.”