Nonprofit Focus: Cornerstone Counseling Center of Chicago

This is the first in a series of 12 posts, each highlighting a nonprofit organization that I care about and want to raise awareness of and money for. Enjoy!


We all get stressed, right? And when you do, hopefully you have a great friend or loved one who can sit down with you and talk it out...giving you encouragement, or some hard but necessary advice, or providing a different perspective that puts you in a whole new frame of mind. But what do you do when you don't have someone like that in your life? Or, what can you do if your problems are getting more complex and serious than a friend can help with?

The Cornerstone Counseling Center of Chicago (CCCoC) is a nonprofit organization that provides sliding fee scale counseling services to any and all who need them. They do individual, child, family and couples counseling, as well as all kinds of seminars on all sorts of topics. CCCoC has full time therapists, as well as masters and doctoral level interns, so they're also working on training the next generation of professionals.

I care about this non-profit for two main reasons - first, they're a ministry of LaSalle Street Church, where I've been attending since 1999 and a member since 2010. Second, I've got some very close people to me who have really benefited from counseling - mental illness can be debilitating, affecting your relationships with others and your whole orientation towards life. And therapy can be the start of healing, as you talk through the issues in your life with a caring, skilled guide. It's powerful stuff. I also love the work that they do in schools - as a teacher myself, I know that some kids really need the attention and focus of a loving adult on their development. The counselors help students work on their behavioral and emotional issues, which then allows the student to concentrate on their academics. I appreciate that as a faith-based organization, CCCoC attends to a person's spiritual state as part of their whole health.

So here's why you should give to this organization - while counseling services can be life-changing and are often covered by insurance, if you don't have insurance or can't afford the co-pay, then it can be financially impossible to find quality help. Your donation can provide services to a person, couple, or family in need.

If you're interested in learning more about CCCoC, check out their website at http://www.chicagocounseling.org/ and consider signing up to attend their annual benefit dinner on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - I'll be there and would love to see you! If you're interested in giving a financial donation to support the awesome work of this ministry, you can do so by clicking on the yellow "Make a Donation" button at this link: http://www.chicagocounseling.org/help/giving_opportunities.php. Please just let me know via email, so that I can include the amount in my grand total of fundraising!