2026 Grantee Spotlights

In Chicago’s most distressed neighborhoods — where violence, poverty, and loss are woven into daily life — children and families often carry emotional burdens that go unseen and untreated. The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute (CPI) has spent more than 85 years making sure they don’t have to carry them alone.

Founded on the belief that emotional health begins with understanding, CPI promotes well-being through quality therapy, compassionate treatment, and deep investment in training the next generation of mental health clinicians. Today, its work reaches children, youth, and adults coping with grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, and suicide risk — ensuring that cost, geography, and stigma are never barriers to care.

“This is the second year we have funded CPI as they were one of our original grantees. The changes they’ve made in their programs really stood out to us because their approach doesn’t stop at the therapy room door,” said Mary Jo Butz, co-founder of Megan Butz Legacy of Hope. “They’re training teachers, equipping parents, and supporting the entire community of adults surrounding each child because healing young people takes a village, and CPI is committed to building that village.”

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With the Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, CPI will expand Project RISE — Reach, Impact, Sustain, and Expand — a community-based initiative that embeds trained therapists directly inside schools in neighborhoods including Humboldt Park, Englewood, South Shore, Rogers Park, and Belmont Cragin. These are among Chicago’s most under-resourced communities, where children face chronic exposure to stress, grief, and violence, and where mental health support is often hardest to find.

Project RISE works because it removes the barriers that keep families from getting help. By bringing clinicians into schools — safe, familiar environments where children already spend their days — CPI eliminates obstacles like transportation, cost, and stigma. Students meet regularly with the same therapist throughout the year, building the kind of trust and continuity that makes real healing possible.

The program’s impact extends beyond individual therapy sessions. CPI clinicians work closely with teachers, social workers, and parents — helping the adults in each child’s life recognize signs of emotional distress and respond with confidence and care. This layered approach builds something lasting: not just healed individuals, but stronger, more resilient school communities.

At a time when the U.S. Surgeon General has declared youth mental health a national emergency, CPI’s model of embedding care where children live and learn offers something rare: stability, trust, and hope — delivered consistently, in the places that need it most.

Coming Soon

Meet Erika’s Lighthouse, a 2026 Meg’s Legacy of Hope Grantee

Erika’s Lighthouse (ELH) was born out of heartbreak and a determination to save young lives. Founded in 2004 by Virginia and Thomas Neuckranz after the loss of their daughter Erika to depression, ELH set out to bring depression education and suicide prevention directly into schools, safe and supportive places where students can learn about mental health and how to seek help.

Headquartered in Winnetka, Illinois, ELH has grown from a small, community-driven effort into a nationally recognized nonprofit serving more than one million students annually across 49 states and 26 countries. Its free, customizable resources remove barriers to mental health education and help ensure no young person feels alone in their depression. In the 2024-25 school year alone, ELH served more than 140,000 Illinois students. Nearly half identified as youth of color, and more than half qualified for free or reduced-price lunch.

“Erika’s Lighthouse makes sure a school’s budget is never the reason a student goes without mental health education. Every lesson, club, and training is free, and that means kids in every kind of community can learn that they’re not alone,” said Mary Jo Butz, co-founder of Meg’s Legacy of Hope. 

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With a $25,000 Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, ELH will expand its Four Pillars Mental Health Education Program Model, bringing free, evidence-based depression education and suicide prevention to Illinois schools that want this programming but lack the budget to make it happen. At $2 per student, the grant will reach 12,500 Illinois students. The program is built on four interconnected pillars:

• Educate students through the classroom. Adaptable, evidence-informed lessons feature authentic video vignettes from real students sharing their lived experiences, normalizing conversations and dismantling stigma. Last year, 89% of students said they knew the signs and symptoms of depression, and 96% said they would seek help if a friend talked about suicide or self-harm.
• Empower students to lead. Through Empowerment Clubs, students with the guidance of an adult advisor plan awareness campaigns, organize inclusive initiatives, and host schoolwide events that reduce stigma and connect peers to resources.
• Engage families at home. Bilingual resources, webinars, and conversation guides help caregivers recognize warning signs and talk with their children. ELH reached 452,000 families with these tools in 2024-25.
• Train the trusted adults in schools. Policy and staff training equips teachers and staff to respond compassionately when students share concerns. ELH trained 57,000 educators last year, widening the circle of adults who can support students.

The Impact in Illinois

Survey data from more than 6,000 Illinois students in 2024-25 showed:

• Ability to identify symptoms of depression rose from 68% to 85%.
• Comfort discussing mental health at school increased from 48% to 59%, and in community settings from 27% to 40%.
• 94.4% of students rated ELH programming as important and helpful.

Imagine being twelve years old, struggling with anxiety or thoughts of self-harm, and the only therapist available doesn’t speak your language, understand your culture, or accept your family’s insurance. For too many young people across Northern Illinois, that isn’t a hypothetical. It’s reality.

Josselyn was founded 74 years ago by pioneering child psychiatrist Dr. Irene Josselyn to make sure it doesn’t have to be. For seven decades, Josselyn has delivered affordable, coordinated, community-based mental health care to the region’s most vulnerable children and families, the kind of preventive care that transforms and even saves young lives.

Today, Josselyn serves nearly 8,000 clients across 300 communities in Northern Illinois, operating clinics in Grayslake, Highland Park, Northbrook, Northfield, and Waukegan. Approximately 88% of their clients are low-income. Their average wait time from a client’s first call to seeing a team member is less than seven days, compared to the national average of six weeks.

“What drew us to Josselyn was their unwavering commitment to making sure that cost, language, and circumstance are never barriers to mental health care,” said Mary Jo Butz, cofounder. “When a child can see a therapist who speaks their language, understands their culture, and accepts their insurance that’s when real healing becomes possible.”

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With their second Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, Josselyn will continue to expand its Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) — a 6 to 8 week program offered throughout the year that provides economically disadvantaged youth with equitable access to mental health care while keeping them out of the hospital and connected to their families, schools, and communities.

Josselyn receives more than 500 client inquiries every month. Visits to emergency departments for children with psychiatric issues have climbed at an alarming rate. 

Coming Soon

The Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute for Mental Health Education (NRCI) was born out of loss, purpose, and a commitment to change. It was established in 2000 in memory of Naomi Cohen, who lived with bipolar disorder and died by suicide. Her story galvanized a mission to confront stigma, elevate lived experience, and create spaces for healing and awareness — beginning with the Foundation’s first annual community mental health conference in 2002.

Housed at The Chicago School since 2008, NRCI has spent more than two decades partnering with schools, universities, businesses, and community organizations to reduce stigma around mental illness, improve mental health literacy, and build confidence among youth and adults alike. Its evidence-based trainings equip everyday people — teachers, parents, teens, healthcare workers — with the practical skills to recognize when someone is struggling and to step in with support.

“What drew us to the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute was their focus on training the whole community — not just the adults who work with young people, but teens themselves,” said Mary Jo Butz, co-founder of Meg’s Legacy of Hope. “When a 15-year-old knows how to spot the warning signs in a friend and connect them to a trusted adult, that knowledge can save a life.”

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With a $25,000 Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, NRCI will expand its Strengthening Communities Through Mental Health Education initiative, bringing low- and no-cost mental health and suicide prevention training to Chicagoland schools, non-profits, and community organizations that want this programming but lack the budget or personnel to make it happen. The program pursues five interconnected goals:

1. Build mental health first aid skills across generations. Through Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) courses for adults, Youth MHFA for adults who work with young people, and teen MHFA for students ages 14–18, participants learn to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges.
2. Teach a clear plan of action. Adult participants learn the ALGEE action plan — assess for risk, listen non-judgmentally, give reassurance, and encourage professional and self-help support — so they know exactly what to do in both crisis and non-crisis situations.
3. Empower teens to support their peers. Students learn to look for warning signs, ask how a friend is doing, listen up, and help them connect with an adult — all while maintaining the friendships that matter most at that age.
4. Train suicide prevention gatekeepers. Through Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) training, participants learn to recognize suicide crisis warning signs, ask directly about suicide, persuade someone to stay alive, and refer them to appropriate help.
5. Meet communities where they are. Tailored trainings on topics like anxiety, depression, trauma, and neurodiversity are customized for specific groups — from healthcare providers to students — and delivered in person or virtually to remove barriers to access.
   

Meet OMNI, a 2026 Meg’s Legacy of Hope grantee. Omni began in 1972 as a community hotline for teens “in trouble.” More than fifty years later, it has grown into a comprehensive behavioral health organization serving Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs — while keeping an unwavering focus on youth and young adults ages 11 to 25. OMNI’s mission is to provide access to quality behavioral health and educational support services that create pathways to successful, healthy behaviors throughout life.

At the heart of that mission is OMNI’s School-Based Counseling program, launched more than two decades ago on a simple insight: help works best when it’s available where young people already feel safe. By embedding licensed counselors directly in middle and high schools, 

“OMNI’s counselors are right there in the building, which means a struggling student doesn’t have to wait weeks for an appointment or find a ride across town,” said Mary Jo Butz, co-founder of Meg’s Legacy of Hope. “They can walk down the hall and talk to someone that same day. That kind of immediate access is exactly what prevention looks like.”

In 2024, OMNI provided counseling to more than 1,600 individuals — most of them children and adolescents — and engaged over 70,000 people through community presentations, prevention workshops, and public health education.

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With a $25,000 Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, OMNI will expand its School-Based Counseling program into additional Lake and Cook County schools where the need is greatest — bringing embedded, stigma-free mental health care to more students before struggles escalate into crises. The program pursues four interconnected goals:

1. Remove barriers to access. Cost, transportation, scheduling, and language barriers disproportionately affect families living in poverty, communities of color, and non-English-speaking households. With counselors on-site, students can meet during the school day in a trusted environment — no cost, no logistics, no waiting.
2. Connect educators and counselors in real time. OMNI counselors collaborate directly with teachers and school staff, sharing strategies to manage classroom challenges and support struggling students — making schools stronger, more compassionate places to learn.
3. Improve well-being and reduce suicide risk. Counselors teach coping skills, emotional regulation, and stress management to build resilience. When students present with suicidal ideation, counselors create personalized safety plans, coordinate with families, and connect youth to intensive care when needed — ensuring no student faces their struggles alone.
4. Fill the gaps in school mental health services. School social workers are often stretched thin by crisis response and administrative demands. OMNI counselors complement their work with ongoing, longer-term therapy that addresses the root causes of emotional distress and builds trust over the entire school year.
   

Coming Soon

When a child loses someone they love, grief can feel like an isolating, overwhelming weight — one that is difficult to name, harder to carry, and nearly impossible to navigate alone. Willow House exists to make sure no child in the greater Chicagoland area has to carry that weight without support.

Founded in 1998, Willow House is the only organization of its kind in the region to provide no-cost grief support to children and their families, eliminating financial barriers entirely so that every family, regardless of income or circumstance, has access to hope, healing, and a community of people who truly understand their loss.

Over 27 years, Willow House has grown from a single peer support group into a nationally recognized leader in children’s grief support, serving hundreds of children and family members directly each year, and thousands more through school and community-based programs. They have been called upon by the FBI to support families affected by the September 11 attacks, and have provided on-the-ground support following the 2022 Highland Park July 4th mass shooting and other tragic events across Chicagoland. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief recognizes Willow House as a national leader in the field.

 “Losing someone to suicide is a grief unlike any other, layered with questions, guilt, and a stigma that can make it even harder to ask for help,” said Mary Jo Butz, cofounder, Megan Butz Legacy of Hope. “Willow House’s Survivors of Suicide Support Group provides something rare and essential: a space where families affected by suicide loss can grieve openly, together, without judgment.”

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With the Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, Willow House will sustain and expand its Family Peer Support Program, including its Survivors of Suicide (SOS) Support Group — bringing together children and families navigating some of the most profound losses imaginable, including the death of a loved one by suicide.

Today, Willow House operates five locations across the region — Chicago, Arlington Heights, Libertyville, Bannockburn, and Round Lake — and continues to grow. In 2025, Willow House partnered with 2nd Chance New Opportunity, a bilingual mental health services provider in Lake County, to launch no-cost monthly support groups specifically for Spanish-speaking children ages 5 to 12 who are grieving the death of an immediate family member. Held the first Thursday of every month in Gurnee, these groups are led by trained facilitators working alongside Willow House’s clinical team — ensuring that language is never a barrier to healing.

The outcomes Willow House works toward are both measurable and deeply human: reduced loneliness and isolation, stronger coping skills, parents better equipped to support their grieving children, and children who know they are not alone. For children ages 8 and older, the program tracks post-traumatic growth — the remarkable capacity of young people, when given the right support, to not just survive loss but to grow through it.

“What struck us about Willow House was not just the depth of their programming, but the breadth of their reach — from the children in their peer support groups to the families they supported after the Highland Park shooting, to the Spanish-speaking communities they are now serving through their new bilingual program. They meet grief wherever it lives, and they do it entirely at no cost. That kind of commitment is extraordinary.”

Coming Soon

For more than 50 years, Youth Services has been the place families turn to for mental health care, after-school youth development, and crisis response for children and adolescents throughout Chicago’s northern suburbs. 

Serving under-resourced communities, LGBTQ+ youth, and young people facing behavioral and mental health challenges, the agency blends traditional talk therapy with art, music, play, and activity-based approaches — meeting kids where they are, especially those who don’t yet have the words for what they’re feeling. Most importantly, no family is ever turned away for inability to pay.

Since 2019, referrals to Youth Services have increased 45%, with many young people presenting with depression, anxiety, trauma, and suicidal ideation. In response, the agency expanded its building, hired seven new therapists, and doubled its clinical capacity. Last year, Youth Services served 509 children through group and individual counseling — a 33% increase over the prior year — with more than 70% of clients relying on the agency’s sliding scale to access care.

“What impressed us about Youth Services is that they don’t wait for young people in crisis to find them — they bring prevention, therapy, and crisis response directly into the schools,” said Mary Jo Butz, co-founder of Meg’s Legacy of Hope. “When a student is at risk, a licensed therapist is on-site within an hour. That kind of immediate, compassionate response saves lives.”

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With a $25,000 Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, Youth Services will expand its School-Based Mental Health Services, embedding prevention, intervention, and crisis response directly in local schools — removing the cost, transportation, language, and stigma barriers that too often keep young people from getting help. The program pursues five interconnected goals:

1. Normalize mental health conversations early. Through the classroom-based SHARE program, students learn that emotional well-being matters as much as physical health, that it’s okay to ask for help, and where to turn when they need it.
2. Bring therapy to where students are. Licensed therapists provide on-site counseling during lunch or free periods, reaching students — particularly those from low-income families or without reliable transportation — who might otherwise never engage in therapy.
3. Deliver evidence-based, engaging care. Therapists work with youth struggling with anxiety, depression, bullying, social isolation, and suicidal ideation using proven approaches, including CBT, DBT, and mindfulness, complemented by art, music, and play therapy that help young people open up.
4. Respond to crises within the hour. When a student exhibits suicidal ideation or other at-risk behaviors, therapists arrive on-site in one hour or less to conduct a safety assessment, coordinate compassionately with parents, and connect families to long-term care. After assessment, more than 80% of students are able to return safely to school without hospitalization.
5. Ensure equitable access for every child. Bilingual clinicians serve families in English and Spanish, and a sliding scale guarantees that no young person is denied care — last year, 85% of the agency’s 52 risk assessments supported under-resourced youth lacking adequate insurance.

At Megan Butz’s alma mater, Carmel Catholic High School in Lake County, students are known by name, valued for their gifts, and supported by a close-knit community of 1,100 students, 150 faculty and staff, and more than 16,000 alumni. That sense of belonging is central to everything Carmel does. Additionally, research shows it is also one of the most powerful factors against mental health struggles.

Carmel is taking that commitment a step further. Through a dedicated Wellness Program, it is building a school culture where mental health is understood, stigma is reduced, and asking for help is not just accepted; it is expected.

“There’s something profound about a school whose core values are belonging, believing, and becoming, and who then invests in ensuring that every student has the mental health support to actually live those values,” said Mary Jo Butz, cofounder of Meg’s Legacy of Hope. “Carmel’s commitment to the whole student, mind, body, and spirit, is deeply aligned with what we believe every young person deserves.”

How Your Donation Makes a Difference

With the 2026 Meg’s Legacy of Hope grant, Carmel will expand its Wellness Programming at CCHS initiative during the 2026–2027 academic year, reaching all 1,170 students ages 14 to 18. The program is led by a trained school counselor with six years of experience and a Master’s degree in School Counseling. She also serves as the school’s dedicated Student Wellness Specialist.

The program pursues four interconnected goals:

1. Build personal wellness literacy. Students explore what wellness and mental health mean for them individually, developing a deeper understanding of their own habits, choices, and emotional health.
2. Deliver evidence-based education. Through guest speakers and school-wide events, students engage with presentations on the components of mental health and well-being. 
3. Connect wellness to community. Rather than treating mental health as a private or clinical matter, the program weaves it into the fabric of Carmel identity.
4. Normalize help-seeking. The program works to create a school culture where seeing something, saying something, and reaching out to others in need is simply the norm. 

To achieve these goals, the program combines Mental Health First Aid training for staff and student leaders, equipping them to recognize warning signs and intervene early, with monthly wellness activities that teach practical coping skills and guest speakers who reinforce a core message: every student has worth, and no one has to struggle alone.