WestCare Illinois' Recovery Support Specialists facilitate three Recovery Groups for participants that focus on job readiness. Specifically, the programs work on individual job referrals, resume building, mock interviewing, mentoring, and support. The program is also a resource group that connects participants to resources within their communities for food, housing, medicinal needs, documentation, jobs, and positive recreational activities.

Recovery Group is a safe space for additional support to encourage and empower participants to take ownership of their recovery and to support one another.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare Illinois (WCIL) provides mentoring services for youth in 8th-12th grades at Olive-Harvey Middle College School who are: academically off-track, have low school attendance, one to three in-school disciplinary infractions, limited police involvement, and heightened exposure to violence.

WCIL recruits youth at Olive-Harvey, as well as receiving referrals from school personnel. Mentoring services occur on the school campus during, and after hours, throughout the school year. WCIL staff provides group and individual mentoring services that utilize the evidence-based model, The Seven Challenges, addressing drug and alcohol problems as well as violations of school policies.

Mentees are provided with mindfulness activities and opportunities to participate in gatherings like sporting events, bike riding, yoga, and weekend art endeavors that support the mentor/mentoree therapeutic relationship as well as promote the youth's socio-economic needs.

Additionally, mentees are provided with incentives (in the form of gift cards) on an as-needed basis for educational or employment opportunities (e.g: payment for work uniform, state identification card, CTA card,etc.)

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare recently received a license from the Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (DASA) to provide community-based substance use disorder services. Upon Medicaid certification, WestCare will provide Level I (outpatient) and Level II (intensive outpatient) substance use disorder services for adults and adolescents at our Community Involvement Center in Pilsen. Building on over a decade of work with the people we serve in the Illinois criminal justice system, WestCare's new community-based services will target incarcerated adults re-entering Chicago’s South and West Side communities as well as adolescents in the justice system.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare Illinois (WCIL) operates its model Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Therapeutic Community Treatment Program at the Decatur Correctional Center. The program provides SUD treatment services with great success to women.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare Illinois operates a new program in Division 11 of the Cook County Jail, in which re-entry is taught to clients in the jail. Their progress is monitored for 180 days (3 months) upon release.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare Illinois operates a new program in Division 11 of the Cook County Jail, in which the 24/7DADS Curriculum is used. This program teaches men new ways to view fatherhood and how they impact their children's and families lives. Clients are in this program for 180 days (3 months).

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare's Therapeutic Community at Sheridan Correctional Center is recognized nationally for its exceptional quality of services. A medium-security prison housing close to 2,000 adult men, Sheridan Correctional Center is committed to addressing the needs of participants with extensive criminal histories and substance use disorders, using a multi-phase modified Therapeutic Community. WestCare's program provides long-term intensive treatment services (9 to 36 months), depending on the need of each person we serve. WestCare's model incorporates best practices in the field including cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing. Additional support services include family reunification, young men's aggression management, fatherhood, and recreational therapy.

[ Back to Top ]

The Du Quoin Impact Incarceration Program (IIP) is a boot camp that provides discipline and structure for men. The IIP consists of a structured daily schedule, which includes work assignments (on and off site), physical training, and additional programming based on the needs of each person who participates. Additional services include substance use disorder education, cognitive behavioral therapy, anger management, parenting groups, monthly individual counseling, and reentry planning.

[ Back to Top ]

At the Bootcamp in the Dixon Springs Correctional Center, WestCare Illinois (WCIL) operates a Substance Use Disorder Treatment program that serves both men and women, but in separate sections. This program operates under the behavioral modification philosophy. It is a pre-sentencing program through which successful clients have their sentencing reduced to time served. The overall program length is 120 days during which WCIL acts as adjunct by providing cognitive behavioral therapy and specialty groups.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare's Women of Dignity Program at Logan Correctional Center provides 130 women with the opportunity to change and enhance their lives by providing access to quality substance use disorder services. At its inception in October 2015, the program began offering Seeking Safety, the trauma-focused curriculum by Lisa M. Najavits. Seeking Safety is an evidence-based, present-focused counseling model that directly addresses both trauma and addiction. Grounded in best practices, trained and credentialed staff provide services that are of the highest quality and ensure that participant satisfaction is high.

WestCare Illinois (WCIL) added a 26-bed Dual-Diagnosis Treatment Program to its well-managed Modified Therapeutic Community (MTC) program at the Logan Correctional Center. Dual diagnosis (also referred to as co-occurring disorders) is a term for when someone experiences a mental illness and a substance use disorder simultaneously. Either disorder—substance use or mental illness—can develop first.

[ Back to Top ]

In January 2017, WestCare began providing substance use disorder services for men at Lincoln Correctional Center. This modified Therapeutic Community program has 50 beds and provides cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma intervention, case management, and reentry services.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare Illinois (WCIL) operates its model Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Treatment Program at the Illinois Juvenile Justice, Illinois Youth Center at Harrisburg. The program provides SUD treatment services with great success to youth and WCIL builds on that foundation at this program for male youth with an average age at 17 years.

[ Back to Top ]

WestCare Illinois utilizes an off-site exception to provide Level 1 licensed substance use disorder treatment services to justice-involved Veterans at Cook County Jail.

[ Back to Top ]