The only blues I’m singing is the Chicago Blues.

Here’s a concept: Organize and train a group of summer interns made up of high school and college kids and send them into some of Chicago’s poorest, toughest neighborhoods to ask the residents if they’d like to vote to raise their taxes.

This sounds like a recipe for getting a door slammed in your face. But it worked again this Election Day, when two neighborhoods on the city’s South Side overwhelmingly approved a modest tax increase to fund free community mental health clinics in perpetuity. They are the 7th and 8th neighborhoods to approve the clinics. The goal is to have one clinic in each of Chicago’s 19 neighborhoods by 2030.

Chicago began dismantling mental health programs in the city in the 1990s, primarily to save money but also, I believe, because the stigma of mental health persists across this country. How often do we still hear real sickness dismissed as “psychosomatic?” How often are we told to “get over it?”

Ikeeta Jackson, a single mother of two daughters, would like to disagree. “I believe the topic of mental health is still thought of as taboo and must be perceived as just as important as physical health,” she wrote.

“Especially since the Pandemic, I have seen my [South Side] community face the ever-increasing presence of drug and alcohol addiction, gang activity, unemployment, and the challenges of food deserts. . . .I see the effects [of] car jackings and gun violence.” Trauma, fear, depression sit on every street corner and lurk behind every locked door. It is little wonder that every one of the eight neighborhoods approved its mental-health referendum by margins ranging from 74 to 92%.

The journey has been neither easy nor straight. It began in 1991 when Mayor Richard M. Daley unveiled a plan to close the city’s mental-health centers. Twenty years (!) later, two community organizations finally convinced the state legislature to pass a bill enabling the creation of mental health centers that are wholly initiated, funded and overseen by the community.

At a time when public faith in our political system is trending toward non-existent, this program is a reminder of the power of democracy. The money is raised through a local tax referendum approved by the community and spent entirely within the neighborhood. Services are available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. A committee of residents oversees the clinic, whose funding is ensured in perpetuity. Everything is fully transparent. This is not a government handout. Not one dime of the tax revenue goes downtown or downstate.

Although this program is unique to Chicago, I think it can be a model for communities across the country. It is a story of building hope from the grassroots up – over 30 years – one step at a time.

Check it out:

• Institute for Community Empowerment
• Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers

Disclosure: Bob Gannett, the executive director of ICE, is a friend of mine, and I serve on the project’s Leadership Council.