On Trans Day of Visibility (March 31) Cook County’s primary LGBTQ+ mental health nonprofit Chicago Therapy Collective (CTC) announced mental health services expansion at a press conference at the Kimball Arts Center, 1757 N. Kimball Ave.
CALOR’s Emily Jade Aguilar, CTC’s Iggy Ladden, Life is Work’s Jae Rice and CTC’s Stephanie Skora. Photo by Carrie Maxwell
CTC absorbed the staff of an LGBTQ+ therapy practice which closed its doors, making their organization the largest nonprofit provider of LGBTQ+ mental health care services Illinois. The expansion includes a new Northwest Side (Kimball Arts Center) location, new LGBTQ+ community partnerships with CALOR, Life Is Work and TaskForce Prevention and Community Services and more capacity to serve clients across Chicago and Cook County writ-large. CTC also has their headquarters office above Women and Children First Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark St., in the Andersonville neighborhood.
This expansion will hopefully include the entire state of Illinois in the next three years, said CTC Director of Development and Strategic Priorities Stephanie Skora. She added that CTC has been a “force for community education, advocacy and mental health services” since the organization’s founding in 2018. Skora said there will also be micro-site services at their community partner locations. She said that last year CTC was able to provide 1,800 sessions of therapy and they hope to expand that to 20,000 sessions this year and their clinical team grew from 3 to 18 people.
“We are so thrilled to be expanding our services, deepening our relationships and providing more therapy and more ways to more people across the city, county and state,” said Skora.
CTC Founder and Executive Director Iggy Ladden recognized Trans Day of Visibility and stressed the “importance of care since LGBTQ+ people face disproportionate rates of anxiety, depression and suicide. Not enough has been done to expand resources for community members across the city to have access to in-person and virtual therapy services.”
Ladden they hope the expansion will “chip away” at the inequities that still exist in terms of mental health care access. They said the ultimate goal is to provide “more care to more people.” Ladden said this will be a blend of a private practice and social service agency ongoing model of care where clients can keep going to therapy for as long as they need it. They also spoke about the grant- and donation-based structure of the funding that enables them to provide these free mental health services and said they will also be accepting Medicaid patients.
Life is Work Director of Communications Jae Rice and CALOR Transgender and Gender Diverse Programming Lead Navigator Emily Jade Aguilar both expressed excitement about the partnership.
Rice said his trans- and Black-led organization’s services provide clients with “dignity and a sense of self.” He added that this partnership with CTC “aligns and reiterates our commitments to our community.” Rice said the stigma around therapy within the Black community is strong and he hopes with this partnership that will be less of a case going forward since the barriers to entry will be easier to navigate.
Aguilar said that, when she was approached about this partnership, the first things she thought about was what “innovation could look like” and how that could be a catalyst for positive restorative justice outcomes. She also stressed the importance of uplifting the most marginalized members of the already marginalized LGBTQ+ community to close those gaps and especially undocumented trans and gender diverse people who are often left out of both physical and mental health care. Aguilar also spoke about the importance of announcing this new endeavor on Trans Day of Visibility.
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