Birth to Five Illinois Makes Presentation to Iroquois County Board

August 12, 2025

Original coverage in the Iroquois County’s Times-Republic by Carla Waters.

The Iroquois County Board heard about Birth to Five Illinois at the Aug. 12 meeting.

Liz Gibson, regional council manager for Region 32 of Birth to Five Illinois, spoke to the board members about the agency.

“We are here to take a couple of minutes to continue to bring awareness of the work that Birth to Five Illinois is doing, particularly in Iroquois County.

“For those of you who might not be aware of our work, we have been working for the last three years in the community to bring awareness to our mission and our vision. Our mission here at Birth to Five Illinois is to create a statewide regional infrastructure that will amplify input from communities in the developmental policies and funding priorities. We support the mobilization of communities to build and sustain equitable access to inclusive, high quality, early childhood services for all children in the state of Illinois. But for our region we really focus on the local needs of Iroquois County.

“Our vision is to reimagine a more equitable early childhood education and care system that respects family voice and community voice and works hard to ensure that it is centered and prioritized in all that we are doing.”

She and her team distributed information to the board with a timeline of what has been done in the last three years, and also information to audience members.

“We want to pay particular attention to our current recommendations,” she said.

She asked that people go to the website, where more information is available,

“Through our data and research we worked hard with our community members to find out what the needs are because we are working to put local solutions in place through the supportive community stakeholders such as yourself.

“Currently we are working on three different areas. Two are centered on early childhood and one is focused on the behavior and mental wellness of our communities. Our first goal was to establish a centralized community network for early childhood information, referrals and resources and we’ve done a great job of putting local supports in place to make that a success.

“Our second goal was to provide mental health wrap around supports and services for children for workforce and professionals in Iroquois and Kankakee counties. We’ve been working hard to ensure trainings and workshops in that area. And more recently, we’ve been working to provide mental and wellness solutions for parents of children ages 8 and younger, as well as the professionals, because we know this field is a very difficult field and we know the needs of our children are more difficult.

“Then as of last week, our office, which is actually one of 39 offices all across the state, has been tasked to add a fourth recommendation, again focusing on the mental and behavioral health wellness of our communities and how we can increase awareness.

“That’s why we are here today, because we need your help,” Gibson said. “”We need to know what’s available in Iroquois County. We need to work to make sure we are getting that information out to our families and to our workforce because the children, they are our future.

‘“Whether you work with children directly or don’t work with children, we are all impacted by children. If you have staff that you employ, they have children and their children have childcare and daycare needs. If you work in the community, the children that are in the school system right now will be your future employers or being the ones taking care of you as your health journey continues in the future.”

Gibson said, “There are so many things that are happening and we just want to make sure you are aware of what we are doing, can be invested in our work and be a supporting community partner.”

She said those who want more information and invited board members to visit them or contact them. “We have a lot of work ahead of us and we can’t do it without your support and your health.”

More information can be found at www.birthtofiveil.com/region32.