DePaul's mental health center does not take the "community" portion of its name lightly. The center's staff provided crisis counseling to teachers and students at Jenner Elementary School following the Dantrell Davis shooting; parents who live in public housing work on staff to help reach isolated families in their communities; and it runs a violence prevention program in two Cabrini-Green elementary schools.

     For 25 years, the DePaul University Community Mental Health Center (DCMHC) has served communities in need in Chicago. It will mark its sterling anniversary May 7 with an awards dinner in Cortelyou Commons, 2324 N. Fremont St., from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Deloris Jordan, honorary chairperson of the James R. Jordan Boys & Girls Club and Family Life Center, will receive an award for her work with inner-city children.

     The Rev. Liala Beukema, minister of the Church of the Good News, will receive an award for the work she has done to bring jobs, safety, decent housing and education to residents of Chicago's Lathrop Homes public housing complex. Bob Greene, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, is also being cited for his reporting on child abuse and neglect.

     Peter Nierman, a psychiatrist who directs the Illinois Office of Mental Health's Chicago programs, will deliver the keynote speech. He will address the need for non-traditional, community-based mental health services to reach inner-city families.

     The DCMHC opened satellite offices in the Cabrini Green and Lathrop Homes public housing complexes a little more than a year ago to provide mental health outreach services to needy families. The program is one of six satellite sites funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services. Urban Systems of Care, as the program is called, has been documented in a videotape commissioned by the state that will be shown at the dinner celebration.

     "To best serve inner-city families who are very distrustful of the system and who are often isolated, mental health professionals must bring services to the communities where people live," said Sheila Ribordy, director of the DCMHC and a DePaul psychology professor. "The documentary has been made to show other providers what we've done, and how they too can offer community-based services."

     DePaul's Community Mental Health Center opened its doors in 1974 to serve children 17 years and younger and their families. The center, located on DePaul's Lincoln Park Campus in Byrne Hall, 2219 N. Kenmore Ave., is jointly funded by the university and the Illinois Department of Human Services to provide a range of mental health services to area children and their families. The center's staff is comprised of clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, counselors, case managers, parent outreach workers and a part-time psychiatrist. It is also a major training clinic for the university's students in the doctoral program in clinical psychology.

     The DePaul Mental Health Center targets a population that is at high risk for disturbances in school, family and interpersonal functioning. The center provides low-cost services, which include on-site psychotherapy, evaluation and referral services, community-based interventions, and consultation and education services for local schools, daycare facilities and social service groups.