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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are pleased to congratulate Ginny Dewar on the
4 occasion of her retirement as Executive Director of The Crisis
5 Nursery of Champaign County; and
 
6     WHEREAS, Incorporated in 1983, the Crisis Nursery of
7 Champaign County is the product of a dedicated group of
8 concerned citizens, pediatric nurses, and social workers from
9 Burnham Hospital, McKinley Health Center, the University of
10 Illinois School of Social Work, and the Champaign-Urbana
11 League; the Nursery was established as a not-for-profit, tax
12 deductible organization which provides 24 hours a day, 7 days a
13 week service and other crisis/emergency care to assist
14 struggling families and to take prevention a step further; the
15 program also offers an "Island of Safety" to children whose
16 families are in crisis due to parental stress, illness,
17 accidents, homelessness, and substance abuse and who have no
18 other resources; and
 
19     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar received her bachelor's degree and
20 master's degree in social work from University of Illinois in
21 Champaign; she is a Licensed Clinical Worker in the State of
22 Illinois; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar was employed by CHASI from 1976 until
2 1992; she originally worked as a social worker and later
3 supervised various programs, including child abuse treatment,
4 adoption services, and treatment foster care, among others; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar served on the original board of L.W.
6 Place, a substance abuse agency, for three years; as a board
7 member, she assisted L.W. Place in achieving their 503.c.1
8 status, in locating suitable housing, and in building a board
9 of directors; and
 
10     WHEREAS, After 16 years of social work experience, Ginny
11 Dewar began working with the Crisis Nursery of Champaign County
12 on September 21, 1992; in her 16 years of service, she has
13 proven invaluable to the efforts of the Crisis Nursery; and
 
14     WHEREAS, As executive director, Ginny Dewar has been
15 instrumental in the growth and efficacy of the Crisis Nursery
16 of Champaign County; she was instrumental in increasing the
17 Nursery's budget from $90,000 to its current FY08 budget of
18 $647,000; she oversaw the Nursery's capital campaign, which
19 began in December of 1998, and the building of a new facility,
20 which was completed in February of 2001; she was responsible
21 for integrating specific children's programming and training
22 and moving the program care to a 24/7 format; she was
23 responsible for growing the family support programming for

 

 

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1 families who have repeat crisis care needs and for heading up a
2 Statewide voluntary coalition of crisis nurseries, which now
3 totals 6 in the State; she was instrumental in initiating the
4 Island of Safety endowment; she created the new job positions
5 of Program Director, Accounting Manager, Development Director,
6 and Family Outreach Worker, and hired additional bilingual
7 staff members to assist the increasing number of Latino
8 clients; and
 
9     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar has served as lead coordinator of the
10 Illinois Crisis Nursery Coalition and has consulted in the
11 start up of two others; she has taken an active role in working
12 toward national collaboration of crisis nurseries still in its
13 infancy and advocating for the recognition and funding nursery
14 services at the State level; she has supervised the creation
15 and implementation of a data collection system for the
16 Coalition nurseries to report their statistics reflecting
17 client and program demographics along with 3 performance goals,
18 all of which have percent ratings of over 90%; such reports
19 have reduced maltreatment and stress in client families and
20 have helped to increase parenting knowledge and skills; she
21 also established a Results Plus donation tracking data base in
22 the fall of 1998; and
 
23     WHEREAS, Under Ginny Dewar's leadership, the Family
24 Program of the Crisis Nursery of Champaign County has grown to

 

 

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1 include parent child interaction groups, home visits, respite
2 care, parent support and education groups at the Champaign and
3 Rantoul sites, resource and referrals services, holiday giving
4 coordination, and a new program in perinatal depression
5 available to clients; and
 
6     WHEREAS, Under the guidance of Ginny Dewar, the Crisis
7 Nursery's admissions are now more than 3,000 annually, more
8 than four times the admissions totaled 16 years ago; and
 
9     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar, along with Jeanette McCollum of the U
10 of I Department of Special Ed and other peers, has co-presented
11 research on Crisis Nurseries at various conferences; and
 
12     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar has been the recipient of many awards
13 in recognition of her work, including the Congressional Points
14 of Light Award, the Governor's Hometown Award, the U of I
15 Extension Master Gardeners Team Work Award, the March of Dimes
16 Franklin D. Roosevelt Health Leadership Award, and the U of I
17 School of Social Work June Henderson Memorial Award for work in
18 child welfare; she was also named one of the 4th Annual Working
19 Women's Expo 20 Outstanding Women; and
 
20     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar is the mother of one daughter, who is
21 employed as a high school chemistry teacher; she and her
22 husband, a local farmer, have three children; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, Ginny Dewar serves as a model of hard work,
2 integrity, and dedication for the people of the State of
3 Illinois; therefore, be it
 
4     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
5 NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
6 congratulate Ginny Dewar on the occasion of her retirement and
7 wish her continued success and happiness in the future; and be
8 it further
 
9     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
10 presented to Ginny Dewar as a symbol of our esteem and respect.