A partnership between organizations is worth what it moves for the people they serve. Ten nonprofit leaders spent a year building the trust that makes that possible.
In the final session of the 2025-2026 cohort, mid-level leaders from agencies funded by the Hanover Township Mental Health Board named what it produced.
Partners named the order in which it happened: connection and trust first. Then, by hearing each other's needs, they better understood what could be shared. Because it is natural to be protective of clients, a referral needs to be warm. "It's ok to talk to other agencies," as one partner put it, and the stigma went with it.
For the partners in the cohort, the work was no longer something they carried alone. One described the change as going from knowing the names of other nonprofits to knowing people inside them. Another named what the room gave: "We need validation and this group provides it. Not alone."
For their agencies, the connections outlived the meetings. One partner's agency now brings another in to present at its all-staff meeting, so the whole team knows the network and not just the person who sat in the forum. Another offered on the spot to train a partner's staff on a rise in domestic violence cases.
And for the residents they serve, which is the point of all of it, it looks like a case manager who picks up, a screening that happens, a warm handoff instead of a phone number.
Thank you to Centro de Información (https://centrodeinformacion.org) for hosting at your Elgin location, a building with a community garden, a food pantry, and space set aside for the team of staff and volunteers who keep it running.
This forum, in partnership with Good Works Results LLC (https://www.goodworksresults.com), reinforces the vital role of peer support and resource sharing in building stronger nonprofit leadership. Learn more at www.goodworksresults.com/nonprofitforum (https://www.goodworksresults.com/nonprofitforum).
Proud to collaborate with these dedicated organizations: Ascension Center for Mental Health (https://healthcare.ascension.org/locations/illinois/ilchi/arlington-heights-ascension-illinois-center-for-mental-health), Association for Individual Development (https://aidcares.org), Centro de Información (https://centrodeinformacion.org), Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) of North and Northwest Cook County (https://www.cachelps.org), The Gretchen S. Vapnar Community Crisis Center (https://www.communitycrisiscenter.org), Easterseals DuPage & Fox Valley (https://www.easterseals.com/dfv), Ecker Center for Behavioral Health (https://www.eckercenter.org), Family Service Association of Greater Elgin (https://www.fsaelgin.org), Hanover Township Youth & Family Services (https://www.hanover-township.org/youth-family-services), and Maryville Academy (https://www.maryvilleacademy.org).
Thank you to the Hanover Township Mental Health Board (https://www.hanover-township.org/departments/mental-health-board) for supporting this initiative.