Serving the Community Since 2000

Family First Center of Lake County (FFC) was established in 2000 by Evelyn Chenier, Ph.D, L.P.C, NBCC, in response to repeated acts of violence and unrest in the Lake County community. During her early years as a counselor, Dr. Chenier worked with many clients affected by major challenges such as drugs, crime, and violence. One particular set of clients moved Dr. Chenier: two young girls that lived at home with parents who struggled with substance use. The two girls wouldn’t be able to go to school because their parents would sell their shoes or their food stamps for drugs. These types of factors—a lack of food or clothes—were huge stressors in the lives of, not just these two girls, but a lot of Dr. Chenier’s young clients. 

Dr. Chenier realized that because of the mandates, there was not much she could do for her clients aside from providing counseling. Although counseling is a great step toward personal wellness and life improvement, she knew counseling alone was not enough to support these families. She wanted the opportunity to do more, and from that, the idea for the FFC was born: an organization that provides wraparound services for the whole family. Dr. Chenier wanted to address these challenges by providing counseling along with additional resources and services to help empower families living through tough situations. 

One act of violence in particular moved former Congressman Mark Kirk to help find solutions for these major issues. It was the murder of two young athletes from North Chicago who were killed execution style and left in the trunk of a car. Dr. Chenier knew these young men personally from her time as a student teacher, so this act of violence shook her along with the Lake County community. The community needed healing in that moment more than ever. Former Congressman Kirk spoke with the two young men’s families for a resolution, one that led to him giving the FFC a startup grant of $200,000 to address those types of issues and prevent them from happening again. 

Moved by this tragedy, Dr. Chenier also worked on a dissertation on gang violence and how to keep kids in our community out of gangs—a dissertation that shaped the FFC's start as an organization. FFC started its work with a needs assessment evaluating the issues most impacting the Lake County area. According to the needs assessment, the area of Lake County had been facing a lot of major challenges at the time, including poverty, drugs, crime, and a lack of education, but one of the biggest focuses at the time was gang violence. These became the main focus areas of the FFC and have shaped the way the organization has grown and changed to this day.