CHAMBER CELEBRATES ST. CLARE FOUNDATION WITH RIBBON CUTTING
St. Clare Foundation
618-472-9007
420 N. Pleasant Ave. Suite B, Centralia IL
https://saintclarefoundation.org/
The Centralia Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting Wednesday at the St. Clare Foundation during the organization’s open house event.
The ceremony was attended by members of the chamber, as well as members of the St. Clare Foundation and its co-sponsor organizations, Felician Sisters of North America [FSI] and SSM Health.
Executive Director of the St. Clare Foundation, Clare Kessler, MPH, spoke on the foundation’s mission to collaborate with community partners to improve access to resources and holistically respond to unmet youth and adolescents’ behavioral health needs in the area.
Kessler said the new organization will act as a funder, convener and catalyst for systemic change by way of grants, and through organizing connections and conversations amongst community partners about how to best utilize those resources.
“As a foundation, our primary interaction with the community will be through our grant funding,” Kessler said, later adding. “We really want to use this funding to get to the real cause of what is going on in our community and help prevent people going into crisis, rather than treating people when those crises come up.”
Kessler advised the foundation’s first grant application cycle will be held from Jan. 2 until Jan. 26 of next year, noting that the application is already live on the foundation’s website for interested community collaborators to look over and begin filling out.
Sr. Clarette Stryzewski, CSSF, Chairperson of the St. Clare Foundation, said the new non-profit is a continuation of the commitment the Felician Sisters made to serve Centralia.
“In 1939, the Felician Sisters made a commitment to come and care for the people of Centralia, Illinois,” Sr. Clarette said. “We are here today to honor that same commitment, but in a new way…we felt that it is so important to address two very significant needs here in southern Illinois: Drug abuse and mental health.”
“The purpose [of the St. Clare Foundation], with your help as community members, is to change the trajectory of these two very difficult situations that families an individuals are dealing with on an ongoing basis,” Sr. Clarette continued. “Part of our responsibility is to deal with the issues before they become so acute that we end up with individuals in the medical setting.”
Before the ceremony ended, Damon Harbison, President and CEO of St. Mary’s Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital, thanked the Felician Sisters for continuing their mission to address the needs of the community.
“On behalf of the entire community, thank you to the St. Clare Foundation, to the FSI, and to Sr. Clarette. Thank you so much,” said Harbison. “We have to work together. We’re going to do more when we’re working together. As [the St. Clare Foundation] alluded to, there are plenty of opportunities across the nation, but especially right here. So, thank you for the legacy of continuing on.”
The St. Clare Foundation was created in 2023 and covers Marion and Jefferson counties, and their surrounding communities.
