With the governor’s proposed budget set to impose devastating cuts on the Sertoma Center, Senator Michael E. Hastings (D-Tinley Park) visited the center to stress that maintaining funding for individuals with mental health and developmental disabilities needs to be a priority.

“When you make cuts to services on paper it is one thing, but when you step into the shoes of those men and women who suffer from mental health and developmental disabilities it shows that it is not about the money,” Hastings said. “Actual lives are at stake here and it is important to invest now before we have liabilities later.”

The Sertoma Centre offers a number of programs including autism services, developmental training, mental health services, behavioral health services and a number of residential services.

Hastings had the opportunity to speak with the staff and clients at the Sertoma Centre about what the governor’s proposed budget cuts would mean for the facility, the people they serve and the community.

On March 31, State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park) met with executive s and recipients from Illinois Mentor Community Services in Matteson. The organization provides residential and support services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as other specialized needs such as dual diagnosis (when a patient has mental illness along with a substance abuse problem),autism and those with medical, behavioral or physical challenges.

The budget proposed by Governor Rauner slashes funding for services to developmentally disabled individuals.

“Simply making a cut because it makes sense on paper is one thing,” Hastings said, “but once you step into the shoes of these individuals and see how these services impact their lives it shows that it is not about the money.”

Hastings met with executives Rochelle Johnson, Jennifer Humbert and Cherri Saindon to discuss their current budget planning and how the governor’s budget could impact operations going forward.

Illinois Mentor’s Host Home program allows individuals to live in a private family home provided by a mentor who is able to guide the individual to acquire skills and participate in the community life according to their own interests and abilities.

After speaking with the executives, Hastings visited a local host home in Matteson where two recipients, Ian and Larry, live with their gracious host, Eddie. Host homes are filled on a completely volunteer basis, and recipients are matched with a host whose lifestyle matches their own.

TINLEY PARK – Legislation proposed by State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park) to extend the statute of limitations for crimes committed in the course of committing a sexual offense passed the Illinois Senate with unanimous support on Thursday."This bill is a step in the right direction to ensure that those who commit sexual offenses are punished for all of their associated crimes," Hastings said. "With the bill having passed with unanimous bi-partisan support in the Senate, I am very confident it will draw similar support in the House."

Hastings' proposal gives prosecutors more time to charge an individual for committing armed robbery, home invasion, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping in the course of committing a sexual offense.

Under current law, an offender can only be prosecuted for one of those crimes within 3 years of the offense. Senator Hastings' bill increases the time period for prosecuting those crimes to 10 years.

Moreover, it provides that if the victim of the sexual offense is under 18 at the time of the offense the offender may be prosecuted at any time for additional crimes committed during the act.

The bill passed the Senate by a 51-0 vote and now goes to the House for consideration.

TINLEY PARK – State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park) is sponsoring legislation that focuses the attention on youth suicide awareness and prevention. The measure would require the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to develop a model suicide awareness and prevention policy, which would then be adopted by all the school districts in the state.

The measure is intended to raise universal awareness for youth suicide and to prevent these unfortunate events from happening again. Hastings brought this legislation as a result of a local event.

"Ann Marie Blaha was a shining light in our community. She was a nice, 11 year old girl with a great family involved in our community," Hastings said. "Unfortunately she committed suicide and as a result her great parents have made it their mission to prevent other parents from having to go through this."