Community Leaders Series

As We See It

Quarterly 75-minute events convening business, education, government, and community leaders.

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If you're a business owner, you're out in the community every day—and you notice patterns. Customers struggling to find childcare. Employees dealing with aging parents who need support. Challenges that others might miss.

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If you're a school administrator, certain issues keep surfacing in staff meetings. Families facing housing instability. Students needing mental health support you can't provide in-house. Gaps you wish you could fill.

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If you work in law enforcement, you respond to the same addresses repeatedly. You see the intersection of mental health, substance abuse, and community safety every shift. You know there must be better solutions.

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If you're a nonprofit leader, you understand your services inside and out—but what are schools facing? What patterns are police seeing? What do businesses need to understand about your work?

You're already part of the solution. You just need to connect with the right people.

Past Events

May 6, 2026 | NAMI DuPage, Wheaton

Mental health in the workplace is not a benefits question. It is a leadership question. Geri Kerger, CEO of NAMI DuPage, framed it clearly at our May 5 Community Leaders Series event: the workplace has significant influence on mental health, and the higher you go in an organization, the harder it becomes to talk about it. When a leader is willing to be vulnerable, the culture shifts.

Leaders from businesses, nonprofits, government, and behavioral health gathered at NAMI DuPage for the conversation. On the way out, more than once, someone said, "I didn't know many of the people in this room." That is exactly the point.

What is happening since the event is the real measure. A government leader reached out to a nonprofit after learning it serves their community. A clinic owner is offering a wellness seminar to staff at an agency she met that morning. A nonprofit and a business development partner are planning something together.

This is how communities get stronger. Leaders meet each other and earn trust and they start building things that would not exist otherwise.

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March 9, 2026 | Alive Center, Hanover Park

At our March "As We See It" event at the the Alive Center in Hanover Park, we overwhelmed the space in the best way possible. The core insight from our featured guide, Melinda Perez-Carter (Lake Park High School): "Behavior is communication." To understand what a student is trying to tell us, we start by building the relationship first.

What emerged from the small group discussions:
- Schools can't do this alone - they need community wraparound support.
- Effective collaboration requires knowing each other personally.
- Shifting from punitive to restorative approaches.
- Students move between many environments each day. The challenge isn't a lack of care - it's coordination.

Thanks to Bloomingdale Township Mental Health Board, Alex Anderson (Alive Center), Melinda Perez-Carter (Lake Park High School)), and Michael Murray (www.Advocatefor708.org) for partnering with Good Works Results LLC to convene this event.

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February 2025 | NEDFYS, Bloomingdale

The Bloomingdale Breakfast Club was buzzing this morning with business owners, mental health professionals, and community leaders learning about the DuPage County Health Department's new Crisis Recovery Center (CRC) and touring the Northeast DuPage Family & Youth Services counseling center facility.

The general response from attendees? "Wow, I didn't know all of this existed!" This facility will be instrumental in providing timely and appropriate care for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

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