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Family's Philanthropic
Gift Catalyst
for Mental
Health Clinic |
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| Throughout Wisconsin and in the Fox Valley, the need for mental health services far exceeds the capacity of existing providers.
In response to this need, in 2006 the J. J. Keller family pledged a $625,000 challenge grant toward a $2.5 million goal to establish a pediatric mental health clinic in the Fox Valley.
The Keller family took the reigns as one of the lead partners in the community by helping launch a community fundraising campaign. The campaign has encouraged individuals as well as public and private sector organizations in the community to raise the funds necessary for the clinic.
Experts estimate that 10 percent of the youth in the Fox Valley meet the criteria for a mental health disorder and nearly 80 percent of these patients do not receive treatment.
The availability of services to children and families suffering from mental illness in the Fox Cities area was a dream of Ethel Keller.
"My own family has struggled with these issues, and we are absolutely at a point of crisis here in the Fox Valley when it comes to mental health care," said Marne Keller-Krikava, Ethel's granddaughter and co-chair of the community campaign.
Collaboration continues to be the hallmark of this project's success. Three competing health systems - ThedaCare, Affinity Health System and Children's Hospital-Fox Valley - are partnering on the project to serve the thousands of patients ages 2-19 facing mental health problems in the Fox Valley area.
"This collaboration is especially important because it engages our entire community in assuring that our children will have access to comprehensive behavioral health care in a way that none of us . . . could have accomplished independently," said John Toussaint, former President and CEO of ThedaCare.
The Keller family's powerful message to the community has stimulated donations large and small. To date $2.2 million has been raised including $500,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in addition to numerous local donations.
Marne Keller-Krikava is looking forward to the opening of the clinic in June 2008 and proud that her grandmother's vision of supporting mental health needs will soon become a reality. |
| "Mental health problems cross all boundaries. They affect wealthy and poor, all ethnic groups and people of all educational levels, genders and ages," said Marne Keller-Krikava, a board member of the J. J. Keller Foundation. |
