New Community Healing Center in Rockford aims to curb violence through mental health support

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A new Community Healing Resource Center designed to prevent violence with trauma-informed therapy, group counseling and other mental health support has opened at Brooke Road United Methodist Church.

But don’t expect it to stay put.

The center is intended to be constantly on-the-go in order to connect with people who may need support, but are afraid to reach out and ask for it. Once trauma outreach specialists make those connections, they help people find whatever resource they may need.

“We’re not a go-to program, we come to them,” said the Rev. Wayne Fricks, who is the site coordinator for the new center. “We’re going to be doing community peace pop-ups. You may see us in Orton Keyes, you may see us in Blackhawk, you may see us in a neighborhood that’s been heavily impacted by gun violence and a community that’s been traumatized.”

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Faith leaders, neighborhood residents and community advocates gathered Friday afternoon at the church, 1404 Brooke Road, to celebrate the opening of the new center. It’s one of a dozen operated around the state by Live Free Illinois, a nonprofit social justice organization dedicated to curtailing gun violence and mass incarceration.

Fricks said they’ve already seen that they can reach people who are hurting through visits to local neighborhoods that have faced gun-violence and other crime.

“It’s amazing because when we go out to them it’s like they’ve been waiting for a real person to come and knock on their door and just care,” Fricks said.

The centers are funded through grants from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. In Rockford, it will be staffed by Fricks, Brian “Moosa” Harrington and Damischa Wilson.

Fricks, a former CeaseFire director who has also run faith-based ministries, lost his son to gun violence in nearly 14 years ago. Wayne Fricks Jr. was fatally shot on Sept. 13, 2010, while at a birthday party on North Day Avenue.

“I know trauma first-hand of losing a child, and that’s something that really never gets easy,” Fricks said. “I’m not just doing this to be doing this. I’m doing it because I believe in the work that needs to be done.”

Harrington, who is a trauma outreach specialist for the center, is also a hip hop artist who focuses on using writing and self-expression as a form of therapy. His first initiative with the center will be to run a creative writing class that allows people to pour their emotions onto paper. The first class will be 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15 at the church.

“That’s going to help people to vent and write out their pain, write out their struggles,” Fricks said.

Wilson is dedicated to providing trauma-informed care to individuals who have been in prison, affected by violence or other traumatic experiences. Organizers said she lived the effects of trauma after her parents were incarcerated. But her experience working in the corrections system provided her with insight into the relationship between trauma and involvement in the criminal justice system.

The group as a whole will work to connect people with the resources they need to deal with trauma. Some of those things will happen in-house at Brooke Road UMC. In other situations, it will be a “warm hand-off” to usher people into the programs that will help them, Fricks said.

“We’ll have a strong referral system to be able to give people the resources they need,” Fricks said. “We’re going to do some things, but we’re not going to be doing everything.”

The program will also work hand-in-hand with new mental health resources being provided at Brooke Road through a three-year grant from the Winnebago County Mental Health Board. The program will provide counseling for eight people per week as well as two large group sessions per month.

“Anybody can come here, it’s first-come, first-serve. You don’t have to have insurance,” said Kristin Cottrell, manager of the Brooke Road Community Center. “We can serve eight people a week no matter what.”

How to connect | Community Healing Center in Rockford

Where: Brook Road United Methodist Church, 1404 Brooke Road, Rockford

Phone: 608-466-6027

Email: Pastor Wayne Fricks, wayne@brookerd.org; Brian “Moosa” Harrington, moosa@brookerd.org; Damischa Wilson, damischa@brookerd.org

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas