Vanessa Matheny, Oak Park’s former grants manager, has been tapped to oversee the village’s Community Services Division and manage phase one of the alternative response to calls for service initiative.
The Community Services Division replaces the Grants Division of the Neighborhood Services Department, village officials said. Matheny’s new title will be community services administrator.
Phase one of the village’s alternative response to calls for service initiative, now under Matheny’s direction, was unanimously approved by the village board in June.
This phase will focus on providing unarmed responses to “low risk” calls for police service that may be unrelated to mental or behavioral health crises. This phase also includes hiring staff for the community care navigation model, which will connect residents with follow up care, education or other community partners.
“We’re really excited for this opportunity,” she said. “It’s really focused on community advocacy and reimagining public safety and how we can make sure that mental health is really at the forefront of these emergency calls and making sure that everyone gets the service that they need.”
In this division, Matheny will manage the new staff, a program manager and two care coordinators, as well as continuing some grant-related work. She also has a master’s degree in social work from Aurora University.
Matheny said she and other village staffers have been developing the job descriptions for these new roles to make sure applicants are appropriately suited for the role. She said she hopes to post the positions in the next few weeks, focusing on hiring a program manager first. She also said she anticipates having the three positions hired in 2024, depending on interview timelines, with training and implementation following.
“I’m hopeful that between my network, and my colleagues’ networks that I can lean on, that we’ll be able to help tap on to some really involved and experienced professionals,” she said. “That way we can get a good team.”
If phase two of the alternative response to calls for service initiative is approved to be implemented through the village and not through a third party, Matheny said work on that phase would likely also fall under her direction.
The village’s originally proposed full pilot program was met with some concerns from local mental health professionals and community members about a divided response between village-employed mental health professionals and Thrive Counseling Center.
Phase two is expected to come back to the village board for consideration in the fall. Trustees have allocated $1.1 million for the pilot program, and village officials estimated the start-up costs for phase one of the alternative response pilot program will not exceed $275,000.
The Community Services Division will still be responsible for some grant work, Matheny said, such as community development block grants. But a lot of grants and community services go hand in hand, she said, so this combination will be helpful.
“When I’m working with my grants hat on, I am in touch with all the resources that are available in this community whether that is around hunger, or services for our foster care system, or our unhoused,” she said. “[This change] really just positioned me to be a little bit more engaged and connected to the Oak Park community.”