Click here to visit www.time-to.org
Pike County youth gained a glimpse of what space travel would be like, as ICCS brought this inflatable Space Shuttle from NASA to several communities in this rural western Illinois county.
As this ICCS-supported community committee planted a community garden, this intergenerational activity planted seeds that will last a lifetime.
Community Services
The Illinois Coalition for Community Services (ICCS), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is the preeminent community development organization in downstate Illinois. Our uniqueness stems from our focus on grassroots organizing of community-based prevention efforts for youth.
Our 14 Community Development Specialists assist grassroots committees in organizing efforts such as out-of-school programs, leadership development and anti-violence projects, ICCS picks up where our public schools leave off. ICCS has positioned itself as one of the leading community and capacity building institutions in Illinois and we pride ourselves on our support of activities that increase young people’s ability to develop social skills and improve their performance in schools.
Through our capacity building of local residents, projects such as volunteer libraries, tutoring and mentoring programs, and service learning projects have resulted, filling in the gaps where our public schools simply cannot. Furthermore, unlike most of our public schools, ICCS’ doors are open year round. This allows our grassroots committees to fulfill crucial needs during the off months through such ventures as summer lunch programs and recreation programs. This component of the ICCS mission keeps some of our state’s most vulnerable youth well-fed and active during their time off from school, helping them prepare to get back to their studies in the fall.
ICCS has also been a leader in developing Back-to-School and Health Fairs, distributing back-to-school supplies, book bags, free immunizations and school physicals, as well as connecting families to available social services.
In addition, through such projects as the Illinois People’s Assembly, ICCS works to augment the public schools’ mission of creating an active and engaged citizen by developing programs that foster civic engagement and positive community involvement by the youth with whom we work.
As one volunteer at a summer lunch program remarked about the assistance his community received, “ICCS staff are not saviors, just helpers.”
To learn more about ICCS, visit www.time-to.org
Click here to visit http://www.time-to.org