About WICC

History

Donations

Funding

Our Board

Walk-In Counseling Center was created by a workgroup of Psychologists for Social Action following a meeting held at the University of Minnesota in the winter of 1969. When it opened in May of 1969 it operated out of the Teenage Medical Service (TAMS) so that most operating costs were already covered. Coordination was done by volunteers – there were no paid staff. Mailing was done mostly through the Psychology Dept. at the University Hospitals.

After TAMS moved next door WICC needed money for phone and rent. The rent was inexpensive, only $150/month, because the house was owned by a major hospital as were many houses on the block. (Several hospitals were considering expansion into that block.) Phone and other expenses were paid for by small donations and through grants from The Enablers which was a unique organization which funneled money from company foundations and philanthropists to non-traditional youth-serving organizations.

The First Grant

By late 1970 it became clear that the need for WICC’s services was growing and that paid staff would be needed to coordinate the work of the volunteers. It was also clear that operating expenses needed to be funded and couldn’t be handled through the "hand-to-mouth" approach. So, together with TAMS, WICC sought funding from the Governor’s Crime Commission which dispensed Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) federal funds – one of the great contributions of the Nixon administration.

The joint grant was funded and money flowed starting July 1, 1971. The fiscal administrator was Children’s Health Center which had offices across the street and was the parent of TAMS. (The Health Center itself was not yet built.) A second year of funding was later attained, from July 1, 1972 – June 30, 1973.

Transition to ongoing funding

Starting in 1972 WICC began seeking more permanent funding. The United Way, at the time, was not funding "alternative agencies," and indicated that it would probably take at least two years of process to get into the budget. WICC could not wait that long, and at that point in history it was not clear that WICC would have received funding. (A few years later this had changed dramatically and "alternative agencies" did get United Way funding.)

Hennepin County’s mental health planners had been talking to WICC about the fact that the county was trying to get a more community-based service system and that it was looking at the possibility of contracting with existing services to provide for some of its programatic needs. After considerable discussion, the county invited WICC to submit a funding application, and also asked WICC to seek matching funds. At that time the foundation community was not generally interested in providing matching funds for county programs and basically WICC was turned down. The county decided to go ahead anyway, and provided a half year grant to cover WICC for the second half of 1973. The money did not actually come through for several months but WICC was able to "hang on" until it did.

Hennepin County's Mental Health Division

Starting with 1974 WICC had county funding from the county’s Mental Health Division, the name of which changed a number of times over the years. WICC was funded to provide outpatient counseling as well as consultation, education, & training services. Although the definition of these services has changed somewhat over the years and support for consultation and training declined, in general WICC is still funded by Hennepin county, under a Purchase of Services Agreement, to provide such services. WICC works with the county’s Mental Health Division (which is part of the Dept. of Human Services) as well as the Purchase of Service office. This was an excellent collaborative relationship for nearly a quarter of a century.

Changes in Community Mental Health Funding

Community mental health began in the 1960's and was heavily federally funded for a number of years.   However, by the 1980's there had been a decline in federal support for community mental health, which was seen as a state issue.  However, during the 1980's even the state role declined, with a resultant increase in pressure on county property tax dollars.

Within twenty years, community mental health had gone from a largely federal cost to a largely local cost. By the mid-1980'’s the county was no longer able to guarantee cost-of-living increases, and program expansion was generally out of the question for most programs. (Not that innovation stopped – the county did managed to create and fund some key new programs.)

WICC and other programs sought additional funds from non-county sources. This presented new problems since with a small staff, selling of services such as consultation and training created the possibility of a decrease in other services. WICC expanded its fundraising through its "Friends of WICC" drive as well as using some new approaches to increase client donations. The sale of consulting and training services was augmented by the sale of publications – a book and a manual.

In 1996, for the first time, WICC suffered a cut in funds from Hennepin County, and the same was true in 1997. The amount involved -- $51,000 – was about 20% of the county portion of WICC’s budget. This forced WICC to gradually cut the position of Director of Consultation & Training from full time to half-time (at which point the job title was changed to Consultation & Training Coordinator). WICC was also pressured, and eventually gave in to the pressure, to cease paying interns. The budget was balanced through cost savings.

New Challenges and Program Innovation

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul have been a place to which many refugees have come over the years.   As such it should be no surprise that the largest center to assist torture survivors, the Center for Victims of Torture, developed here.  As it so often does, when the Center could not assist all of those who came for help, WICC became involved and began doing backup work. Eventually it became clear that there were individuals who needed help but did not meet the Center's limits (e.g. if you were not tortured by a "government" but rather a crime cartel or some non-governmental group of thugs).  WICC began to see more and more such refugees who often had Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

WICC received a special grant from Hennepin County to do outreach to refugees and immigrants, and undertook that through the hiring of a staff member, Allison Beckman, on a part time basis.  Ms. Beckman spoke fluent French which made her, and WICC, invaluble resources for French-speaking Africans.  WICC then sought and obtained a grant from the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation to continue and expand this work, and then in 2002 WICC received a special grant from the same foundation for the dissemination of what had been learned.  This enabled WICC to produce a videotape, Torture and War Trauma Survivors: Initial Assessment and Treatment Issues for Counselors and Therapists which was completed in 2003.

WICC produced guides to resources for refugees and also sponsored a program entitled Conversations With New Neighbors featuring talks and discussions by persons from Eithiopia, Somalia, and Nigeria.  The session was attended by more than 120 helping professionals and was highly rated.

This work is continuing, although unfunded, and is an important part of WICC's work in the community.  These clients have few other resources.

Minnesota State Budget Crisis

During the 2003 session of the Minnesota Legislature it became clear that Minnesota was about to have, per capita, one of the largest budget deficits in the United States. The State legislature made heavy cuts in every area of government support and funding, and local units of government began to reel under the impact.  The cuts were in all areas of government -- not just mental health.

The Minnesota State budget year runs from July 1 to June 30, and it is a biennial budget.  The county budgets follow the calendar year.  So, the cuts voted during the 2003 session would be factored in during the last half of 2003 and first half of 2004.

Some counties abruptly cancelled key services.  Hennepin County had sufficient reserves that it could do things more gradually.  However, by July 2003 possible cuts were announced which would go into effect on Sept. 1, 2003.  Millions were cut out of human service budgets and the county cut anything that it was not legally mandated to fund.  Its mental health system focused on what is typically called "tertiary prevention" -- the prevention of re-hospitalization for the serious and persistently mentally ill.

Early intervention and prevention, so much a part of everyone's thinking, simply had no place.  Service access meant little if there were not services.

During the Hennepin County debate on the cuts various county commissioners, from both sides of the political aisle, questioned the strategy.  One commissioner, reflecting on WICC as an example of services being cut, asked "do we really want to cut an organization like this with the leveraging of all that volunteer service?"

But the financial realities made the cuts a necessity, regardless of their impact.  The county also, for the first time in decades, actually cut many of its own positions. So county operated programs lost about as much funding as contracted programs.

The Community Response 

The Minneapolis Star/Tribune covered the budget hearings and commented about the consequences of not funding a program like WICC.  In its lead editorial on 22 July 2003, under the heading of Hennepin County -- A mental-health crisis close to home, the newspaper stated in part:

      For more than 30 years, Hennepin County residents facing mental-health crises have had one dependable option: The Walk-In Counseling Center (WICC), operating from an old house on 24th and Chicago.  Yet if the County Board votes as is feared at its meeting today, the emergency center and many other local mental-health providers stand to lose a boatload of county support -- money they need to serve clients.

      This defunding of mental - health programs -- of which the county already has too few -- would be a shame.  The first real inkling of such cuts came last month, when WICC and many other programs were told their county support would be retroactively cut come September.   For WICC, which gets 60 percent of its cash from the county, the sudden cut could be back-breaking.

      The cuts represent an attempt to accomodate losses passed on from the state. .....

     But the county shouldn't balance its strapped budget at the expense of the sick.  At the beginning of this year Boad Chair Mike Opat called mental health a top county priority in his state of he county address.  What was true in January shold remain the case today.   Hacking away at mental-health care is one of the most costly and counterproductive budget moves the county can make. 

There was a mood of panic at first, and WICC strove to reassure people and agencies that we hoped to survive into the future.

WICC played a role in working with the Hennepin County Commissioners to develop a fund for transitional support to programs losing their funding.  This was done by having the county board and upper administration take the same level of funding cut that the rest of the county was experiencing, which created a fund of $ 443,000.  WICC applied for slightly more than $ 77,000 and in January learned that this had been approved.

Starting in 2004 Hennepin County re-initiated a contract for up to $ 25,000 in purchased crisis services.  While this covers only a small portion of WICC's services, it is helpful and the county has indicated that this will continue through 2006 and hopefully beyond.  Unfortunately, the reality of the state and county budgets are such that the restoration of past funding levels is extremely unlikely.

Moving forward

WICC undertook an early Friends of WICC fundraising drive in the Fall of 2003 and due to the generosity of 445 people, raised a total of more than $ 85,000 in gifts.  Salaries were frozen and expenses were scrutinized, although realistically WICC was always conservatively budgeted.

WICC sought partners and together with the Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC) and the Somali Community of Minnesota was able to submit a proposal to the Minnesota Dept. of Health.  This proposal was chosen and funded, with the formal work beginning March 1, 2004.  WICC has been actively working with these partners to address the prevention of suicide in the Somali community.   This is a three year grant.

WICC continues in a number of other partnerships.  WICC Executive Director Gary Schoener chairs and coordinates the Council of Mental Health Programs which attempts to foster coordination and cooperation between operated and contracted mental health programs in Hennepin County. 

WICC works collaboratively with a number of other community programs and agencies.

Some of these arrangements involve consultation or training services which provide income, such as regular consultation to CREATE Inc., a chemical health service provider.  WICC is also currently providing psychological testing, therapy, and consultation to Eden Progams Inc., an organization which treats substance abuse addictions.

WICC is the designated agency to handle any sexual abuse complaints involving the Order of St. Benedict at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN.

WICC does periodic workshops locally sponsored by groups such as the National Assn. of Social Workers (Minn. Chapter) and the Kenwood Therapy Center

as well as others done each year for the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  WICC is hoping for additional contracts and more training opportunities to provide income.

WICC continues to teach a required course in the Clinical Psychology Training program at the U. of Minnesota on Community Psychology and Short Term Therapy.

WICC staff evaluate impaired professionals from the United States and Canada, and also provide remedial boundaries coaching on referral from regulatory boards or employers.  WICC is continuing to expand this work.

Budget and Finances

Income:

The audit of WICC's books for the year ended on Dec. 31, 2003, conducted by Callahan, Johnston, & Associates, LLC, valued donated counseling and consultation services provided by volunteers at $546,162. An additional $40,800 in consultation and training services was donated, along with $ 5,056 in administrative services and website development.  Goods valued at $ 714 were donated..

Hennepin County provided $137,517 in program dollars – reflecting a purchase of service contracted cancelled by the county as of Sept. 1, 2003.

Honoraria and consulting fees totaled $ 69,023, personal donations $22,424, and foundation gifts totaled $3,000. The "Friends of WICC" fundraising drive raised $66,444, greatly exceeding past years and expectations.

Expenditures:

Only $7,326 (including value of staff time) -- 3.3% of total expenditures, related to fundraising.  Almost all expenditures were for administering and operating the  WICC programs.

Salaries account for about 77% of WICC expenses, amounting to $169,440 in 2003. The remainder are operating costs. Since WICC owns the center and most of its equipment operating costs are kept low.

To give the flavor of the operating costs, the larger items were: insurance costs $6,296, office & general supplies $5,522, phone & other communications $ 4,618, maintenance $2,537, postage $2,713, audit & accounting $3,758.

Building and other assets

WICC purchased the house from which it operates in 1977 and has done considerable renovation work due to generous donations. Other donations have helped fund projects as well as the purchase of equipment. See section on Donations for more information.  WICC self-funded more than $ 100,000 in rennovations and improvements in the center just a few years ago.  The house from which the center operates has been appraised at $ 234,000 and is completely owned by WICC.

The Future

WICC's staff and Board of Directors have been hard at work on both funding through the transition process and long - term strategies for being able to continue providing these vital services.  There are many elements to this effort, and a few illustrations of the initiatives are:

      (1)   Expanding fundraising from constitutencies such as mental health professionals;

      (2)  Expanding grass-roots fundraising;

       (3)  Foundations (for the transition period only);

       (4)  Considerable expansion in earned income through expanding consultation work for which WICC is widely - known but which has not been marketed in the past;

       (5)  Considerable expansion in earned income through marketing of training nationally.  Again, WICC has not marketed this before.

       (6)  Developing more strategic partnerships with the potential to help with operating costs or expanding income.  Looking for more opportunities to submit joint service or research proposals.

      (7)  Exploring merger with another non-profit to become part of a larger system.