Beyond treating a child's physical and psychological injuries, VIP believes in helping each client rebuild their lives.

From meeting their basic human needs for food, shelter, and safety to exploring their dreams for education, employment, community, and creativity, we want to offer children and their caretakers the resources they need to be self-reliant and to ensure their self-confidence.

The goal is to break the cycle of violence and poverty and help children become more than the sum of their trauma and tragic history.

That is why in addition to medical and mental health services, clients at the VIP Community Mental Health Center have access to comprehensive case management services.

The objective is to connect each child to medical, educational, social, pre-vocational, rehabilitative, or other community resources necessary to help them achieve and maintain those basic needs as well as their dreams.

The case manager is responsible for a variety of functions including coordinating with DCFS, exploring public assistance programs, serving as a liaison to a child's school, assisting law enforcement for the benefit of the child, working with public health nurses and on-site medical and mental health professionals, and coordinating community services related to the needs of the child.

Case managers help children and their caretakers wade through the bureacracy to access resources available to them. They advocate for the needs of the child, and help caretakers prioritize their time and the use of their resources to the best interests of the family. They conduct specialized education classes with caretakers on topics like budgeting, nutrition, employment opportunities, education, and more.

When there are no other resources to assist a child in an emergency they can turn to VIP's auxiliary support group HEART for assistance.