STEPUP Marks Five Years of Community Teamwork

It was five Septembers ago that Deanna Witzel had a vision for a new organization to bring the community together to address challenges and create positive outcomes; for solutions to important issues involving the wellness of everyone: such as substance abuse assistance, improved mental health, and general health care and assistance for all.  STEPUP was born.  And at Friday morning, September 16’s five year commemoration at Second Church of Christ in Danville, Witzel stated that the turnout and the work done thus far, has been wonderful to see.

AUDIO: It’s just been amazing.  You know I’ve just been so blessed and so pleasantly surprised by the level of participation from  the community.  And people just keep coming back month after month; year after year.  It’s just very heartwarming to see how many people that care about our community, and want to make a difference.

(Left) Deanna Witzel addresses the Friday morning STEPUP meeting audience.  (Right) State Rep Tom Bennett presents a certificate to Witzel marking five years of community service by STEPUP.

One of the greatest moments over the last five years was last December, when Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation announced their plans to build two FQHC’s, Federally Qualified Health Centers, in this area.  One at Danville High School to serve area school students, and one at the old St. Elizabeth Hospital site on Sager Street to serve the community.  As Witzel points out, a big issue right now is labor, and getting both locations staffed; including the temporary community FQHC planned for the OSF building on North Logan Avenue.

AUDIO: Right now they have a deal with OSF to have a temporary location.  They have closed the deal on the property, so they officially own the Sager property, which they’re going to build the long term location on.  And so it’s very exciting that that got done, and they officially own that property.  They’re having the same problem everybody else is with staffing.  And so trying to hire doctors and nurses is step one.  It’s very fluid right now.  It’s all about trying to hire people.

Witzel says no groundbreaking date for the project at the old St. Elizabeth Hospital site has been set as of yet.  FQHC’s are designed to provide accessible health care services to everyone.