Western Illinois Regional Council is opening a branch office in downtown Galesburg this summer to serve Knox County residents.
“We think the location will be fantastic,” said WIRC Executive Director Roger Pavey. “And we’re excited to get involved in the community in a deeper way.”
Macomb-based WIRC is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The non-profit organization manages social service programs and community development projects in several west central Illinois counties, including Knox.
Pavey said WIRC has operated small one-person offices in other communities but Galesburg will be the first full-fledged branch to open outside of Macomb.
WIRC is opening the branch to take over administration of the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
The Knox County Health Department had been running LIHEAP for several years but wanted to hand it off, since it’s not core to their central mission.
“So because it is core to our mission and it’s one of our core programs in other counties, we applied to become the LIHEAP recipient and we were chosen,” Pavey said. “That program is a substantially larger program and requires us to have staff on the ground up there.”
Last year, the health department processed around 2,500 LIHEAP applications in Knox County, so now WIRC will have staff in Galesburg to do that.
But there will also be staff to administer WIRC’s other programs such as home weatherization, community planning, and community services block grant initiatives.
“We have a new program that’s going to help adults who don’t have a car, they could use a bicycle to get back and forth to work, for example,” Pavey said.
Nearly all services offered at WIRC’s main location in Macomb will now be offered in Galesburg.
One exception is domestic violence services which WIRC provides in Macomb but are already provided by Safe Harbor in Galesburg.
“But we do already provide sexual assault, medical and legal advocacy services in Galesburg and this will allow us to have a bigger presence for those services,” Pavey said.
The Galesburg WIRC branch will be in the Bondi Building at 313 E. Main St. and is expected to open later this summer.
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