Why I Love Thresholds: Kacey Martinez
This February, Thresholds supporters shared with us “Why I Love Thresholds”, brief stories that show why they support our mission to bring mental health services and many other resources to thousands of people across Illinois. Here’s another story from Kacey Martino on our Thresholds Junior Board. Kacey served as President of the Thresholds Junior Board from 2018-2020. She lives in Lincoln Park with her husband Dan and spends her weekdays at PepsiCo as a Brand Manager for Gatorade.
It goes without saying that mental health care, more specifically removing the stigma that tends to surround it, is a cause that my generation feels passionately about. After attending a few Thresholds events with my mother-in-law Roxanne, a long-time Thresholds board member herself, I was attracted to both the clinical services that Thresholds provides as well as the broader mission of who they’re trying to help.
My work with Thresholds for the last two and a half years has primarily been with the Thresholds Junior Board, giving me a unique perspective on how Thresholds gains and uses its support. The Junior Board is a group of young professionals working to bring awareness to Thresholds and its mission. While members of the board are required to personally contribute, their main responsibilities are to cultivate board prospects and organize events that help to bring new people into the Thresholds fold, filling the pipeline of future supporters, advocates, and donors necessary to sustain growth. When I was asked to help resurrect the Junior Board, knowing how much Thresholds depends on support from the private sector and individual donors, I realized the importance of this task and wanted to make sure that influx of support remained strong.
What is special about Thresholds is the staff – an overwhelming number of which are clinically trained and specialists in their field. You have people on the ground every day that are prepared and highly trained to change people’s lives very quickly. This is a unique quality when compared to many other nonprofit organizations that might raise an incredible amount of funding or awareness in short order but are not able to effect change in the short term. Thresholds offers real time, critical services that are affecting people’s lives right now.
The degree to which Thresholds can provide active, actionable care is really amazing to me, as well as the broad range of people it supports. Thresholds is not discerning when it comes to who it serves. Regardless of where you live in the city, your socioeconomic status, your gender, or a variety of other factors, if you are in search of Home, Health, or Hope, Thresholds has the ability to help you.
Join Kacey and the many other people working to help Thresholds succeed by making a gift or small monthly donation today!