LifeLinks Your Connection to Mental Health and Wellness

Our Wish List for 2013

As 2013 arrices, LifeLinks would like to ask the community for some help in making our “2013 Wish List” come true! (Click on images to see a larger version). Download a PDF version of our Wish List to share!

wish 1 Our first wish for 2013 is a gift of landscaping for our Serenity Garden.  Last year students from Eastern Illinois University began a project to build a private outdoor space where our staff can meet with consumers or where consumers can go for some quiet “me time.”  The area is fenced, but still needs landscaping to make it welcoming and complete.
wish 2 Our second wish for 2013 is a gift of heavy duty outdoor tables and benches for our Serenity Garden and Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program meeting areas.  We would love it to match the benches we were able to purchase a couple of years ago thanks to the generosity of members of the community.  We would use this furniture for outdoor picnics and group meetings.  It would also provide our consumers with a place to sit and talk with other consumers who are struggling with the challenges of living with a mental health issue. 
wish 3 Our third wish for 2013 is for durable, washable paint and professional painters to donate their time and talents to help us update our children’s waiting area, common areas and hallways in the main and psychosocial rehabilitation buildings and meeting rooms. Many consumers have been served in our building over the past five years and some of our walls could use attention.
wish 5 Our fourth wish for 2013 is updating of our two main entrances with automatic doors and openers.  This would allow our consumers who use assistive devices (like walkers and wheelchairs) to enter and exit our building more easily.  Moms with strollers and little ones who insist on walking in on their own would certainly welcome this update. 
wish 6 Our fifth wish for 2013 is to obtain specialized evidence based materials to work with girls, adolescents and women who have suffered a trauma which is impacting their lives. We know that unresolved trauma leads to long-term effects including post-traumatic stress disorder, and a variety of mental and physical illnesses. It would be great to have the newest curriculum to help our staff help these girls and women. There’s no immediate “fix” that helps people learn to deal with trauma. But, this gift would keep on giving as it would be used over and over and over for many years to come. 
wish 7 Our seventh wish for 2013 is to have more therapeutic toys and games to use in our work with children. Last year, LifeLinks saw more than 700 children, some as young as 3!  Since kids can’t always talk about what is troubling them, play and toys allow them to express themselves.
wish 8 Our eighth wish for 2013 is for depression workbooks and curriculum to use in our work with adults with depression. It is estimated that 1 in 10 adults in the United States struggle with some form of depression. Yet, we know it is so treatable! People can feel better!  These materials could help consumers learn to cope with depression and return to full and active lives in our community.
wish 9 Our ninth wish for 2013 is for gas cards for our consumers many of whom struggle with trying to pay for a place to live or buy food for their family. When a child is hospitalized out of town for a severe emotional problem (because there are no psychiatric inpatient beds in Coles County for children), parents often lack funds to put gas into the car to go see their son or daughter. 

For more information on how to donate any of the items listed above, or to give a monetary donation to LifeLinks, please call our Executive Director, Lynette Ashmore, or our Director of Communications and Development, Debby Cook, at (217) 238-5700.

LifeLinks Mental Health
750 Broadway Avenue East
Mattoon, Illinois 61938
(217) 238-5700