With an additional $75,000 grant approved by the Peoria City Council, Central Illinois Friends is on the way to building a new clinic and community center for Peoria's LGBTQ+ community.
The nonprofit public health service currently offers sexual health care, HIV-testing and gender affirming care from a downtown Peoria location, but Director of Clinical Services Becca Mathis says things can get cramped there.
“Though we’ve outfitted that space to be what it is that we need, there’s some limitations with that space,” she said. “So being able to expand this clinic to offer, really a more welcoming and, honestly, more functional clinic space to match that level of sexual health services that we’re providing is awesome.”
During a tour, Mathis points out the future clinic space as she walks by contractors hard at work on the distinctive stone building just off War Memorial Drive. The clinic space will be roughly three times the size of the total space Central Illinois Friends has downtown now.
That includes a waiting area, multiple exam rooms and a restroom with a pass-through compartment to a lab.
“What we will also be able to do more tangibly in this clinic is our gender-affirming hormone therapy,” Mathis said. “So, though we can do that at several of our satellite locations, this space, again, will offer just a little bit more comfort and functionality for what our providers need to do in those spaces.”
The nonprofit's medical staff include nurse practitioners, phlebotomists, certified medical assistants and prevention specialists. Long term, Mathis says Central Illinois Friends will be able to host providers from partners the nonprofit has in the Greater Peoria area.
“For example, we have relationships with University of Illinois College of Medicine. We have a psychiatrist that comes to our Glen Oak clinic and offers counseling services, referrals to folks. As well as his realm, which is kind of psychiatrist care,” she said. “So being able to host that space here, wonderful.”
But, the clinic is just half of the picture. The other part of the building is set to become the first LGBTQ+ community center in the area. The community center will include a LGBTQ+ library, meeting spaces and multipurpose rooms the community can rent for free and office space for other area advocacy groups.
“Peoria Proud, Peoria Transgender Society, a lot of these groups are volunteer based and they don’t have their own brick and mortar to operate out of, so we will have a designated office and working space for those friends within our community,” Mathis said. “To meet with families, to meet with individuals, to be able to run their own programs, or even just have a place to sit down and do emails that isn’t like their kitchen counter.”
Mathis says the journey to finalizing plans for the building took years. While the space expands the services the organization can provide and how they can provide them, it will also functionally be a "headquarters" for the nonprofit to operate from.
When you enter the building, above the clinic space on the left and community space on the right, an open atrium provides a clear view up to the nonprofit's second floor offices.
“This has been over four years, I would say, in the making,” Mathis said. “Of really identifying, from the LGBTQ+ community perspective, what needs to be here. What services should be offered? What should the building be like? What should be the general look and feel?”
But Mathis says finding the building was a moment of certainty. Not just for its distinctive look, but also for its location and accessibility to a broader segment of the community.
“It’s not just in the middle of the city, but it’s kind of, you have to intentionally come here,” Mathis said. “There’s also a sense of openness to this building that was really pinpointed by our folks.”
Expanding their reach is important for the nonprofit. When completed, Mathis hopes the center fills in the gaps for people.
“If they’re struggling to access care for whatever reason, with another group or in their region, that we are able to offer not only the physical space, but also the staff and the team capacity to help network, through resources, how to eliminate some of those barriers,” she said. “That’s long been a huge component of Central Illinois Friends is trying to eliminate the barriers so we truly link you into care, not just tell you something exists.”
Mathis says the $75,000 in American Rescue Plan Funding awarded last week is a "significant push" as the new center gets closer to the finish line.
“It’s sometimes difficult to come across capital funds,” she said. “When it comes to grants that we typically are using for program implementation and direct service to our community.”
With this grant's focus on construction, Mathis says it will be easier to make the clinic everything it needs to be to serve Peoria.
The community center and clinic at 2112 East War Memorial Drive are both expected to open later this summer.
