Mis­sion

We part­ner with com­mu­ni­ties to sup­port peo­ple of all ages to nav­i­gate life’s chal­lenges through per­son­al­ized pre­ven­tion, inter­ven­tion, treat­ment, and recovery.

Vision

Togeth­er We Thrive.

Our Work

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter is a 501(c)(3) not-for-prof­it fos­ter­ing health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties through:

• Coun­sel­ing for adults, chil­dren, families
• Assess­ment, sta­bi­liza­tion, link­age for adults/children in psy­chi­atric crisis
• Treat­ment, sup­port, and recov­ery ser­vices for those with seri­ous men­tal illness
• Ser­vice coor­di­na­tion and in-home ser­vices for old­er adults
• Sub­stance use pre­ven­tion and recovery
• Alco­hol, drug, and preg­nan­cy pre­ven­tion pro­grams for youth
• LGBTQ+ Cen­ter for youth and young adults
• Vol­un­teer opportunities

We are accred­it­ed by the Joint Com­mis­sion, a nation­al­ly respect­ed body with strin­gent stan­dards of excel­lence in healthcare.

Board of Directors

• Elizabeth Demaret, President, Carrier Services, Sedgwick
• Eileen Gillespie, Principal, Huron Consulting
• Jack Mauro, Sr. Director, Accounts Receivable, Credit and Accounts Payable, Packaging Corporation of America
• Mudita Rastogi, PhD, LMFT, CEO and Founder, Aspire Consulting and Therapy, PLLC
• Scott Saxe, President, Saxe Enterprises, LLC
• Elizabeth J Stigler, PhD, Director of Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging, American College of Chest Physicians

KYC is proud to be accept­ing appli­ca­tions for our Board of Direc­tors. To learn more, please click here.

Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Team

• Maurice D. Ware, Chief Executive Officer
• Steven Gaydos, Chief Financial Officer
• Amanda Gallegos, Vice President of Programs
• Yashica Weeks, Director of Development & Communications

Annu­al Reports

Our annu­al report out­lines the high­lights of our fis­cal year: July 1 to June 30.

2023 Annu­al Report

Press Releas­es

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter issues press releas­es to local media out­lets to help announce events and oth­er orga­ni­za­tion­al information.

1 12 26 Announce­ment Part­ner with Endeav­or Health Com­mu­ni­ty Invest­ment Fund

2 16 26 Announce­ment KYC 5 K Press Release

If you are a mem­ber of the media and would like to be added to the media dis­tri­b­u­tion list, please con­tact, Yashica Weeks, Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at yashicaw@kennethyoung.org.

Who Was Ken­neth Young?

Ken­neth Wayne Young played many roles in his life: hus­band, father, pas­tor, mil­i­tary man, schol­ar, advi­sor, friend. He was many things to many peo­ple. He loved to preach and give speech­es, and when he spoke, every­one lis­tened. He had a way of mak­ing each lis­ten­er feel as if he was speak­ing just to them. He had a spir­it that cap­ti­vat­ed oth­ers and inspired great­ness. He knew when to lead and when to let oth­ers shine as lead­ers. Over thir­ty years after his death, those who knew him talk about him with warmth, rev­er­ence, and always a smile.

But one of Ken’s great­est titles had to be “com­mu­ni­ty activist”. Dur­ing deseg­re­ga­tion, he fought to inte­grate his com­mu­ni­ty in Cicero, Illi­nois. He worked tire­less­ly for the Fam­i­ly Ser­vice Cen­ter there to give equal rights to peo­ple of all col­ors, believ­ing to his core that every human being had the right to be cared for and respected.

When his fam­i­ly moved to Hoff­man Estates, he worked as Pas­tor of Our Sav­iour’s Unit­ed Methodist Church and quick­ly got involved with the Elk Grove-Schaum­burg Town­ship Men­tal Health Cen­ter, which would lat­er be renamed in his mem­o­ry as Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. An ide­al­ist and rev­o­lu­tion­ary at heart, he vol­un­teered for the cen­ter as a mem­ber of the board, becom­ing a trust­ed advi­sor to the CEO and lead­er­ship team. At that time, the cen­ter focused exclu­sive­ly on men­tal health ser­vices, advo­cat­ing for the most vul­ner­a­ble in the com­mu­ni­ty to have access to qual­i­ty and com­pas­sion­ate men­tal health care. Despite years of his own health prob­lems, Ken’s tena­cious spir­it nev­er fal­tered. He tried to nev­er miss a Sun­day at the pul­pit and helped at the cen­ter when­ev­er pos­si­ble. At 60 years old, Ken passed away from can­cer in Octo­ber, 1986. Just months lat­er, the cen­ter where he spent so much of his time got a new name: Ken­neth Young Center.

The rest, KYC friends, is history.