One immediate result of the Massey Commission’s year-plus spent investigating the county’s response to mental health emergencies is a Springfield-area resource guide that lists more than 100 services available to residents who may need help with anything from mental health crises to accessing transportation and more.
The guide, developed by Brian Wojcicki of Illinois Capitol Group, is sourced from other resource pages, including the Sangamon County Recovery Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC), Sangamon County Probation and Court Services and state agency guides.
“As co-chair of the (commission’s) mental health group, a similar question came up,” Wojcicki said. “Do we even know who all is involved with providing mental health and crisis-related services?
“We dedicated some time over the course of three months in our meetings to what would it look like to map or organize or get that information together,” he said. “We vetted them as best we could, in terms of are they still active or not.”
Wojcicki praised the Sangamon County ROSC, saying the organization “already had a great list of resources that they started to put together through a grant they had gotten through the state. … We started pulling from them, the county and some of the state portals with the focus being on mental health and crisis care at first.”
The resource guide maps out various organization addresses and websites. It is also broken into five subsections: mental health and substance use resources, residential services, life development services, community organizations and neighborhood associations.
Wojcicki said broad support will be needed to institute changes within the Massey Commission’s final report, which published last month. He said that’s why he supports the creation of an annual summit for local health entities and nonprofits to better coordinate services year to year – all outlined in Call to Action #8 from the final commission report.
“A lot of different entities with different interests are going to have to be organized for the system to work better. The county certainly can take the leadership role but many others are going to have to step up, too,” he said. “There was a pretty common theme about a lack of coordination and understanding of resources in our community – and that’s certainly what Call to Action #8 goes to, and I think it’s what a 708 board could help with.”
In its early days, the commission also issued a resolution calling for Sangamon County to establish a dedicated mental health board, also known in Illinois as a 708 board.
Through a March 2026 referendum, primary voters will decide whether such a board, which would disburse tax dollars to local service providers, should be created via a 0.5% sales tax levy. The tax would not be included on grocery or medication purchases but, if approved, would generate more than $14 million annually for a mental health board, according to county estimates.
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Mike Murphy, president and CEO of The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, chaired the county’s commission that looked at the feasibility of a Sangamon County 708 board and told County Board members on Nov. 10 that there’s a lack of funding for some of the very same services that Wojcicki outlined in the Springfield area resource guide.
“We do have some programs that I described as ‘an inch deep and a foot wide’ that need to be a lot better,” Murphy said. “This mental health board will not provide services. They provide funding for people who do provide services. The other thing I hope they can do is help coordinate and educate the people on our services that we have here, because that came across loud and clear – we have a lot of services that people don’t know about.”
This article appears in January 08-14, 2026.
