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Four Familiar Faces

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Four Familiar Faces

Four familiar faces. Almost 120 years of combined service to Aunt Martha’s. They’ve seen the changes. They’ve heard the stories. This week, they describe their experience in their own words.

Franca Liburdi (36 years)

Gary Bevills (36* years)

Iris Williams (28 years)

Mia Collins (18 years)

Oh, and there’s at least one story – which may or may not involve a Billboard Top 10 song from 1979 – that we can’t share just yet.

*ish

Franca Liburdi

Senior Vice President of Health Operations

Franca Liburdi is Aunt Martha’s Senior Vice President of Health Operations. She joined the agency in 1986.

Still a Place to Go

Aunt Martha’s is a place where people can come to and get help for what they need. But also, it’s an organization that – if we can’t do it – we’re going to help you find a place that can get you the help you need.

Absolutely Amazing

It’s absolutely amazing to be involved in an organization that can help people receive health care, receive counseling services, receive or even help finding a job or finding other resources to be able to help an individual regardless of  where they come from, what they are, who they are, that we are able to connect them to other services.

Gary Bevills

Senior Vice President of Operations

Gary Bevills came to Aunt Martha’s in 1986 as a 14-year old volunteer. Today, as a Senior Vice President of Operations, he is responsible for multiple segments of Aunt Martha’s health care services, including dental and psychiatry.

“Aunt Martha’s has a Soul”

I started as a 14 year old volunteer with a commitment to wanting to do something. And Aunt Martha’s was the space that made that possibility happen.

Aunt Martha’s has a soul. So even though the the landscape has changed, that soul of patient centered meeting people where they are has not been lost. [There’s] still that passion and that commitment. It just looks a little different now. We’re we’re impacting the lives of communities deeper now than we ever would, or could have 20 years ago, ten years ago.

A Place to Grow and Develop

I look at my personal experience, and Aunt Martha’s was a family, it was a connection. It was a place to grow and develop as a young person and then as a professional.

A story I like to tell is about a medical assistant [at an Aunt Martha’s clinic] 15 years ago. She’s now a licensed clinical social worker. She left the organization after a few years, got her graduate degree and then came back as a provider. You see that over and over again [at Aunt Martha’s].

It’s the soul of making a difference that makes people come back.

Iris Williamas

Vice President, Child Welfare Services of Cook County

Iris Williams is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Vice President of Aunt Martha’s Child Welfare Services in Cook County. She joined the agency in 1995 – 28 years ago.

Coming to Aunt Martha’s Right out of College

It’s like it’s my work family. I basically grew up as a young adult. I came to Aunt Martha’s right out of college, and I have been there ever since.

I’ve seen a lot of changes for the better. And I just love what I do.

Williams oversees Child Welfare Services program, which visits the homes of families at risk of DCFS involvement to understand and help meet their needs, from basic necessities like food and shelter, to social supports, to health care and more. 

“The best thing you can do”

Being able to help people gives me joy. I am a social worker, a licensed social worker. And this is my life. This is what I’m made of. And so helping people is just it’s just exciting. It’s just exciting when you can see that someone has an issue where you go in and you provide assistance and it leaves their family in a better place. I mean, that’s the best thing you can do being a social worker.

Mia Collins

Vice President, DCFS Child Wellness Services

Mia Collins is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and is Aunt Martha’s Vice President of DCFS Child Welfare Services. She has been with Aunt Martha’s for close to 19 years. 

“It’s a Passion”

It’s very rewarding. It’s a passion. Social services is your life’s work. It is not something that you go on to as a job. It’s really an extension of yourself. I’m a licensed clinical social worker. I believe in helping communities. They help individuals and families. And so it’s been ingrained in me since childhood to help others. And this is just an extension of who I am.

It’s a big deal to be connected to an organization that has a reach to communities throughout the state of Illinois. That’s very impactful. There’s a lot of organizations that haven’t made it past five years. We’ve been here 50 years and Our trajectory has only grown.

Breaking the Cycle of Abuse and Neglect

I have a few young people who we served [at Aunt Martha’s] who still reach out to me. They’re in their 30s now, and they reach out to tell me how how they’re doing, how they’re working, how they’re in school, and how the conversations we had in the past still resonate with them.

It feels good to know that I helped plant the seed and it has grown and branched off. And now they have children of their own. They weren’t victims of their circumstances (from their family of origin), but they are actually resilient, know their strength and they broke the cycle. And that’s important.

Community Health Quality Recognition badge, Health center quality leader, gold status, 2022 awardee

As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Aunt Martha’s receives programmatic and funding support from our primary funder, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Each year, HRSA compiles data from every FQHC across the country and releases an extensive report detailing, among other things, each FQHC’s performance on core quality metrics and its cost of care per patient.

With every new HRSA report, Aunt Martha’s gains a greater understanding of our position in the community health center space and, more importantly, the value that we bring to our patients, communities, funders, and ultimately the taxpayers. As many of you are already aware, Aunt Martha’s considers value to be at the core of everything we do. It is the lens through which we assess our services. It is what drives our decision making. And it is the promise me make – and keep – for the benefit of those we serve. That is why we are honored to announce that, based on the HRSA report released earlier this week,

Aunt Martha’s ranks #3 in quality as compared to all FQHCs in Illinois.*

Our quality outcomes indicate that HRSA will also likely announce in the coming weeks that Aunt Martha’s is a National Quality Leader for the 7th straight year. While Aunt Martha’s is extremely proud of the quality outcomes we have been able to achieve for some of the most vulnerable, underserved patients in our communities, we understand that quality is only part of the equation. At Aunt Martha’s, we believe that in order to determine the true value of the care we provide, the cost of that care must also be considered.

That is why Aunt Martha’s is also honored to announce we were able to provide those high quality outcomes at the lowest cost of care in Illinois. Aunt Martha’s cost of care per patient is a mere $572 while the average cost in Illinois is almost double at $977. In fact, Aunt Martha’s cost of care has remained lower than the average cost of care in Illinois for the past six years in a row. While the cost of care has increased by 47% nationally and 53% in Illinois over the past 7 years, Aunt Martha’s has decreased our cost of care by 18%. We contribute this success not only our fully integrated approach to care, but also to our comprehensive in-house care coordination services, which allow us to tailor our efforts to the needs of our patients.

When you combine both quality and cost data, they tell a powerful story. From a healthcare perspective, Value = Outcomes/Cost. Therefore, the question becomes, “Are our patients getting healthier and are we lowering the cost of care?” This latest HRSA report unequivocally answers this all-important question. Simply put,

Aunt Martha’s provides the best value of any FQHC in Illinois.

Over the past 50 years, Aunt Martha’s has remained devoted to our mission. We have proudly served our communities with a strong commitment to quality. That is the fabric of who Aunt Martha’s is and will always be. In many ways, the data shows the benefits of our investments in technology, our embrace of both business and healthcare science, and our endless pursuit of innovation. From our adoption of an integrated approach to care 19 years ago to our status as the first FQHC in Illinois to pilot tele-psychiatry 15 years ago, Aunt Martha’s prides itself on leading the way.

To our dedicated staff, I want to thank you for your passion for the work and your commitment to our patients. These outcomes demonstrate that we are on the right path – a path that we will continue to forge as we remain steadfast in enhancing and evolving our model to meet the needs of our patients. To our friends and stakeholders, thank you for joining Aunt Martha’s on this exciting journey – for the past 50 years and for years to come. We know that with days like today, the best is yet to come.

*Based on the compilation of quartile rankings for all quality metrics for each FQHC.

They say it’s your birthday!

Last week we took a slide show time machine to Aunt Martha’s in the 1970s.

Those pictures captured the enthusiasm of the agency’s early years, even if the context (and sometimes the photo itself) is less than clear.

Today we’re stepping forward into a new decade, but only a few years have gone by.

It’s 1982. And you’re invited to Aunt Martha’s 10th Birthday Party!

Aunt Martha’s at 10

The Setup

Aunt Martha’s welcomed staff, volunteers and community members to celebrate the agency’s 10 birthday. At least one of our guests rode their motorcycle. Does anyone know who?

The Cake

Somebody baked this cake, which looks timelessly and unhealthily sugary.
That’s 1982.

The Balloon Toss

The Fun and Games

And of course, a few of our friends.

…and The Chicken Guy

Slides from the 70s

Do you remember how hard it used to be to take a really great picture? Red eyes, people looking in three different directions. But how about SHARING your pictures? At Aunt Martha’s, we took the whole show on the road. The whole kit and caboodle — organizing slides and feeding them into the projector.

Those slides still tell a very interesting story.

Celebrating our Employees

We’re kicking off our month-long celebration of Aunt Martha’s employees by diving into the agency’s photographic archives. These pictures have been scanned from slides dated between 1975-1980.

Slides from the 70s

Because you always need a good presentation.

An Old Friend

Ron Stuyvesant came to Aunt Martha’s in 1999, wooed from a community-based organization in Central Illinois by Gary Leofanti. The agency – which that year became the first child welfare provider in Illinois to receive Federally Qualified Health Center status – was, despite its stellar reputation, a revelation to the veteran administrator. The next 16 years would be one revelation after another.

We were very glad to sit down with our old friend earlier this year, and we are happy to share a portion of that conversation with you today.

Aunt Martha’s like it’s 1999

When I actually got to the agency, I was surprised. Look, Aunt Martha’s does healthcare! Medical care. There was no agency that I’d ever worked at that did something like this. It was always referring to other organizations and often that would simply be, unfortunately, sending a referral slip. And whether they got the care or not, it was hard to find out.

So I was amazed that Aunt Martha’s did that, did family planning, did substance abuse services, things that most social service agencies were never involved in.

Growing Health Care Services

I was lucky to be there when there was tremendous growth in health care services. Initially, the focus was, “Let’s just add some more services at the health centers we had.” And so we got some grants for that.

Then [the focus became], “We should add some services that are needed,” which has always been Aunt Martha’s forte, and behavioral health services were added. And a lot of community health centers did not want to touch that – a very difficult component to do as part of a community health center.

Aunt Martha’s began to see that there were other communities either that we were involved in, or maybe some that we didn’t have any presence, that really needed community health care. And [the agency] also began to think, “We don’t have to just build health centers. We can partner with hospitals and other community agencies and put health centers where they’re really needed.”

It just continued to grow.

Consistent Commitment to Quality

You need to be able to demonstrate the capacity and the quality of services. And Aunt Martha’s really did that. So we had the documentation needed to show our commitment, our capability to go into new communities and — if not overnight, it seemed like that — get up and running and hire competent people to do the work.

Always Willing to Respond

Even though Aunt Martha’s now is even much bigger than when I was here, they’re still doing the same thing. They’re still offering coordinated, comprehensive services. And if there’s a need out there that isn’t being met, I’m sure Aunt Martha’s is saying, “Why not us? We can do that.” It makes it a very unique, special organization.

A Legacy of Good Will

I went into the bank one day and I think I had an Aunt Martha’s shirt on or something. I went up to the teller, she asked if I worked for Aunt Martha’s.

And when I said yes, she said years ago she went to Aunt Martha’s for family planning services and it meant a lot to her. And that was really a special day for me.

Park Forest

A Community with a Plan

Park Forest began in 1946 as a dream held by Carroll F. Sweet, Sr., to build a “G.I. Town” for returning veterans. Due to the lack of building during the Depression and World War II, the returning veterans and their young families faced a severe housing shortage.

The result was the first post-World War II planned community to include a shopping center and all of the amenities of modern life built in to the original plan. Construction of “For Sale” homes began in 1950.

By the decade’s end,, Park Forest had been incorporated as a village. More than 3,000 rental units – including one that would become Aunt Martha’s drop-in center someday – had already been built.

A colorized photo ca. 1954 shows Park Forest’s Aqua Center from above, looking from west to east. Park Forest’s downtown shops are busy in the background at the top right.

The Goodrich Family

One young family to make its way to Park Forest were John and Therese Goodrich, who moved from the Pacific Northwest. Both would become deeply involved in local organizations and the Village government. They – and their nine children – have been part of Aunt Martha’s story since before the beginning.

Mr. Goodrich passed away in 2014. Fortunately, he and Mrs. Goodrich were gracious enough to sit with Aunt Martha’s historian Bernadette Maune in August 2005. We share a portion of that interview below, as well as some of the conversation we were so happy to have when we caught up with Mrs. Goodrich earlier this year.

From the Youth Commission to Foster Homes

We both knew Gary Leofanti even when he was hired. Here was this young kid, you know, with all these ideas. We were 100 percent behind what he was doing, and the Village Youth Commission and everything. And then we found out that they (Aunt Martha’s) were starting a foster parent program.

It was real interesting because the caseworker came over to interview us…and I think he was a little overwhelmed. We’d told all the (6) kids, you know, you’ve got to be part of the interview. Steve saw all the kids and said, “I don’t think you have to go through the training. You could probably do the training.” So we were a little hesitant.

Rather than diving into fostering headlong, the family opted to join Aunt Martha’s as an emergency foster home.

Part of Our Family

We were emergency foster parents for about three years and by about that time, when the kids had gone off to college. Steve [Aunt Martha’s caseworker, Steve McCabe] said, “We’ve got somebody that needs long term.”

I said we’ll have to have a family meeting. And so we talked about it and I said this is going to be somebody that’s a high school age and going to high school. And we had our three youngest girls who were in high school. I said they probably will know who it is and they will be going to school with him. So we talked about and we said okay so we’ll we’ll try it.

And so Steve brought Rudy over. And the girls went crazy! I don’t think he’d ever been hugged so much in all his life as when he found all these sisters.

And Rudy just became another one of the kids. He went to high school with the kids and all. And to this day Rudy is part of our family.

File Under ‘O’

When we talk to people about their memories of Aunt Martha’s, some stories can only be cataloged as “Other.”

This week, we follow board members (and Others, of course!) from the board room to the back nine, with a stop or two along the way.

We’ll hear about an unexpected visit from the Sisters of the Salvation Army. And we’ll imagine what might have been by lifting the lid on a story that’s no waste of your time.

The Cigars

What really stands out, back when I was President [of the Board], working with Gary, we had golf outings. Gary and I used to sit out on a golf cart at one of the holes, and the greatest thing was all of the cigars Gary used to bring.

Gary brought a bag full of cigars and every golfer came to our hole because they knew he had those cigars.

That’s what stands out. Sitting there in that golf cart with about 250 cigars. And enjoying some of them ourselves.

John Annis

Those Big Trucks Keep Rolling

All of the sudden, [Gary] brought this great plan to the Board – to invest in the waste management company.

I said, “What the h*** do you mean, ‘waste management’? We’re not cleaning up garbage cans, we’re raising babies!”

I fought him tooth and nail on it because I thought it was such a terrible thing to bring into a social service organization.

Every time I see one of those big trucks passing down the street, I see all the money we could have made on that investment.

But that’s where my head was. And like I said, those big trucks keep rolling.

Gwendolyn Bowen

‘The Kind of Stuff that Makes it Work’

I was working with a client [at the drop-in center] and it was a was a nice summer evening. So we went out, across the street and sat down in the parking lot next to the church.

We’re down there, laying on the asphalt, chatting. And Gary shows up with a carload of ladies!

I later learned that they were ladies from the Salvation Army who were looking at [Aunt Martha’s] to decide about funding.

Later I said to Gary, “Why didn’t you tell me that they were coming?”

He said, “They saw what you were doing and thought it was wonderful. They said, ‘That’s the kind of stuff that makes it work.’”

Lindy Willis

Aunt Martha’s Board: In the Beginning

Excerpted from The Park Forest Star, Sunday, December 3, 1972

ON WEDNESDAY, “Aunt Martha’s” will begin operations.

The new center is located at 206 Birch street, in the offices of Co-operative Area B. Hours will be from 7 to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

A visitor who drops in to the center may discuss anything and everything on his mind with one of several volunteer workers on duty. They range in age from 14 years well up into their 50s, but have one thing in common — all have been thoroughly trained in how to listen and respond to problems.

Supervising the training program, a continuing effort, is Gary Leofanti, youth worker for the village of Park Forest. Under his direction, two Governors State University graduate students in the college of human learning and development will coordinate the work of Aunt Martha’s. They are Brian Urban and Gregg Cary, both Homewood residents, who will be on duty themselves four nights a week, and will give daytime hours to following up the evening work of the center.

RESPONSIBILITY for the program rests with a board of directors made up of a selection of volunteer workers representing both sexes and the entire age span. There are 13 positions on the board, and 10 of the are currently filled.

Phil Allen (below) is serving as the first Aunt Martha’s board president, assisted by Gary Reed (also below), vice president; Nanette Joelson, treasurer, and Norma Tedder, secretary.

Phil Allen

Other board members are Paul Ries, Sherry Brandt, Terri Clapp, Jan Friedman, Chris Norlin and Allison Marcotte. The last four are in the under-21 age bracket.

A primary service in which the center expects to deal is aid for runaways — in fact, it was through the concern of the youth commission’s ad hoc runaway committee that the idea for Aunt Martha’s was born and took shape. Planning began in committee last February and has been in process ever since; with the emergence of Aunt Martha’s as a not-for-profit corporation on its own during the summer, many youth commission members have offered their services as volunteer workers.

In 2007, with grant funding provided by the Illinois Department of Human Services – Division of Mental Health, Aunt Martha’s launched the first private secure network in Illinois to provide telepsychiatry services. The technology system we created was the first of its kind in the state. The goal was two-fold:

Create access to care

  • Illinois, like many states with rural areas, has a shortage of child psychiatrists. Our telepsychiatry program child psychiatrists available to those communities. It also became a model for future expansion.

Lower the cost of care

  • In the short-term, telepsychiatry would lower the cost of care for families by eliminating travel, child care expenses and time away from home or work.

Technology Challenges and Medicaid Billing Barriers

Our first telepsychiatry network consisted of six Community Mental Health Centers in central and southern Illinois. The centers were able to refer children and adolescents, ages 0-17 with behavioral and emotional problems, who worked with Aunt Martha’s psychiatrists by video-conferencing for evaluations and medication management. Despite the technological breakthrough, there were still barriers to making it all work.

  • At the time, access to a high-speed internet connection capable of supporting a high-quality, clinical interaction was spotty at best, particularly in the areas targeted by the telepsych program. This required special telecom lines to be installed at each partner site.
  • By the way, Aunt Martha’s could not bill Medicaid for the visits provided over its telepsych network. Incredibly, it would be nearly a decade before telepsychiatry services could be billed just like an office visit!

The video below shows how much our early telepsychiatry services meant to one family in central Illinois.

Learn more about the telehealth services Aunt Martha’s offers today!

There are, today, incentives within the healthcare environment to encourage greater collaboration between hospitals and community health centers (a.k.a. FQHCs). Becker’s wouldn’t write about it if it wasn’t cutting-edge, right?

Even before those incentives were encoded in our national health policy, Aunt Martha’s understood the need and the opportunity that existed in the unnecessary overuse of local emergency departments (2008, 2021).

Celebrating our Hospital Partners

In 2021, our hospital-based clinics provided nearly 47,000 visits to more than 21,500 patients.

Advocate South Suburban Hospital

Our first hospital-based clinic opened in 2007 at Advocate South Suburban Hospital (Hazel Crest), and quickly outgrew its original space. Additional partnerships would follow, expanding Aunt Martha’s footprint and the impact of our integrated model of care to new communities and new regions. The picture below was taken in March 2007 at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new health center.

Visit us in Hazel Crest
Left to right: 38th District Representative Al Riley, Ron Shopshire of Great Lakes Bank, 30th District Representative William Davis, Advocate South Suburban Hospital President Dr. Ann Errichetti, Aunt Martha’s Healthcare Network Medical Director of Clinic Operations Dr. Jennifer Byrd, Aunt Martha’s Healthcare Network’s Director of Sub-Specialty Services Dr. Alice Sartore, Hazel Crest Mayor Robert Donaldson, Village of Hazel Crest Trustee Dr. Jane Brown, Aunt Martha’s Healthcare Network’s Medical Director Dr. Lee Washington, Aunt Martha’s Healthcare Network General Manager Raul Garza.

Northwestern Medicine Woodstock Hospital

Congresswoman Lauren Underwood visited our health center in Woodstock on June 6, 2022. She is backing Aunt Martha’s proposal to design a value-based approach to meeting the physical and mental health needs of teens and young adults in the 14th Congressional District.
Visit us in Woodstock

Ascension Saint Joseph Medical Center

“This partnership speaks to the very heart of our mission as Presence Health to provide compassionate, holistic care with a spirit of healing and hope to so many in need in our Joliet community.” — Beth Hughes, President and CEO of Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center.

Visit us in Joliet

OSF Saint Francis Medical Center

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Find a location or call 877-692-8686.