Waiting room for kids opens in McLean County
By Stephen Anderson
Sitting around the Abbey pool while taking a break from ISBA Annual Meeting events a few years ago, Teresa Kelly started talking about children’s courthouse waiting rooms with her husband, Bloomington attorney Timothy W. Kelly.
Then an ISBA Assembly member, he referred her to Angela Imbierowicz, who was sitting nearby, knowing that she had spearheaded a Child Friendly Courts Foundation that established such a room in DuPage County.
Before long, future ISBA president Irene F. Bahr and 18th Circuit Associate Judge Elizabeth W. Sexton became involved, and a project for McLean County started to gel.
Teresa Kelly was invited to visit the children’s room in the Wheaton judicial center, as well as those in Kane and Lake Counties. Bahr subsequently had her appointed to an ISBA committee that developed plans for creating rooms around the state.
Under the purview of a Children’s Foundation affiliated with the Children’s Home and Aid Society of Chicago, an application was made to the Illinois Bar Foundation.
A grant of $6,000 toward building a secure, comfortable waiting room in the McLean County Law and Justice Center, for children of ages 6 months to 12 years, was included in the Bar Foundation’s 2004-05 budget.
After three years of getting support from community leaders, negotiating for space and raising more funds, Teresa Kelly saw the facility open Feb. 28 in the 11th Circuit Justice Center.
Some of the money that helped purchase furnishings for the room represented proceeds from golf outings held by Tim Kelly, who is vice chair of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council and a member of the Committee on Bar Services and Activities.
“The room is fantastic,” he said last month, “and it would not have happened without the state bar association and bar foundation.”
That chance conversation at a swimming pool has provided a choice for parents involved in court proceedings. They can walk the halls with toddlers and pre-teens, or drop them off at a supervised waiting room full of attractive diversions.
Teresa Kelly, who is director of family service for the Children’s Foundation, emphasizes that it’s not a day-care center. “Parents must be in the building at all times,” she said, and they must provide diapers and formula, etc., for their kids.
The parents go to court with restaurant-style pagers that light up when they are needed back in the waiting room. They and their children get identification bracelets.
Staff members are licensed child-care workers and volunteers who pass background checks. They can also provide information about community services, such as domestic violence counseling.
Ongoing financial support is derived partly from the $4 fee on civil cases filed in the county, but community contributions of useful items and money are necessary to cover staff and materials.
Tara Brinkoetter, the project coordinator, has a wish list. Call her at (309) 834-5224.
‘Colleagues in Crisis’ program set April 15
The McLean County Bar Association will hear Mary Robinson, former ARDC administrator, speak on “Colleagues in Crisis” during a luncheon meeting Tuesday, April 15, at Central Station in downtown Bloomington.
Bar members heard a mentoring talk March 18 from ARDC counsel Peter L. Rotskoff, a member of the ISBA Committee on Mentoring and Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence.