Spectrum Services Brochure - Schaumburg Township

Spectrum Logo
One Illinois Boulevard Suite LL-107 · Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 · (847) 884-6212

Our mission is to help young people and their parents lead more meaningful, gratifying and socially viable lives through a growing awareness of oneself and one’s relationship to others.

Spectrum Youth and Family Services is the youth services department of the Township of Schaumburg. It is a counseling and social service agency for young people, ages 10 to 21, and their families. Services are offered to residents of the Township, which includes most of the villages of Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates; parts of Hanover Park, Streamwood, Elk Grove, Roselle, and Rolling Meadows; and some unincorporated areas.

Spectrum operates under the guidance of Schaumburg Township’s Committee on Youth. The agency’s services are described in this brochure.

Spectrum’s staff of professional counselors specialize in helping young people talk over and cope with personal, emotional, and family problems, as well as problems with peers, school, behavior, drugs and alcohol, relationships, sexuality, and other concerns.

Parents and families are eligible for service at Spectrum if their presenting concerns substantially involve the well-being of a youth between 10 and 21 years of age.

Parents may come in for counseling services alone, with a spouse or other adult, with younger members of the household, or with the entire family. Professional staff members help parents resolve concerns that keep them from being more effective as parents. Through the counseling process, family members also can learn better ways of communicating with each other and of coping with their individual and common needs.

Spectrum offers a variety of general and specialized counseling and support groups for parents, pre-teens, teenagers and young adults. Groups help participants find mutual support, share experiences, gain insight about problems, and enhance their personal development.

On the main floor in the Township Hall, Spectrum operates a drop-in center for teenagers.

Both facilities are equipped with amusements and recreational outlets for adolescents – like pool tables, foosball, video games, board games, cards, stereos, TVs, magazines, and casual seating. The teen center at Spectrum also features open basketball or volleyball in an adjacent activity room during the school year. Open to junior high and high school-age youth, both centers are supervised by professional counselors, assisted by trained volunteers.

These centers help prevent juvenile problems by offering teens alternatives to just loitering, unwelcome and unsupervised, at shopping centers or other self-styled “hangouts”. By developing relationships with youths who visit these centers, staff members provide the extra adult support and informal counseling that many adolescents need. At both centers, teens with specific problems on their minds also have ready access to professional counselors.

Periodically, Spectrum outreach workers visit schools, shopping centers, arcades, bowling alleys, restaurants, parks and other places where youths typically congregate. In these settings, young people approach the outreach workers for information, referrals and informal counseling, as well as for social conversation. Thus, like the teen centers, outreach offers an informal way for teenagers to get to know staff members and receive services without first having to make the formal commitment of an office visit or appointment.

Youth development programs help adolescents build self-awareness, self-esteem, self-reliance, self-confidence, social skills, and a sense of responsibility. Wilderness camping, overnight “lock-ins”, outings and field trips; personal-development and life-skills groups; inter-agency sports; peer-helper training; and educational or restitutional community service work are just some of the youth development programs offered by Spectrum - usually in connection with the two teen centers described above. In certain cases, the agency is also able to provide one-to-one mentoring for youths who need intensive contact with adult role-models to support the development of social skills.

A job readiness program is offered to youth, ages 12 - 20, who seek employment. The program - which is usually conducted in a group modality, but can be offered one-on-one - coaches young people about searching for a job and about the social skills needed to maintain employment in as diverse settings as babysitting and commercial jobs.

Spectrum’s Youth DRIVE program is a community-based correctional alternative for juveniles whose behavior has led – or may lead – to problem-related contact with police and/or the courts. It follows the principles of “Balanced and Restorative Justice”, including accountability, competency-development. community safety and restitution/restoration. The acronym DRIVE stand for Developing Respect, Integrity, Values and Empathy.

Youth are eligible for the program if they are between the ages of 12 and 17 and live or go to school in the Village of Schaumburg or the Township of Schaumburg. They must also have allegedly broken the law, committed a “status offense” or behaved in a manner that either led to police involvement or put them at risk of such involvement.
The program is intended to reduce recidivism and the repetition of

problematic behavior by holding youth accountable for their actions, building their social skills and other competencies, helping them avoid illegal activities, and helping their parents improve their behavior-management and communication skills. Included are psycho-educational group sessions that specifically enhance the youth’s ability to appropriately manage anger and improve pro-social behavior, problem-solving skills and moral reasoning; consultations with parents to help them more effectively influence their children’s behavior, focusing on communication, interaction and discipline; community-service opportunities to help offenders meet their obligations to restore losses to victims and the community at-large; and other services.

Spectrum specializes in the problems of runaways and similarly troubled youth and families. Young people may phone or walk in to the agency or to one of our teen centers during their open hours, for help in obtaining crisis intervention services and temporary shelter when needed. Led by the Bridge Youth and Family Services, Inc., Spectrum is also part of a network of agencies that respond to crisis situations that begin with the limited custody of runaways by police.

Aside from offering its own services, Spectrum helps young people and parents find other appropriate resources for personal, family, health, legal, financial and other problems. An extensive resource-file aids in handling many referrals by telephone, although people may also walk in for assistance during office hours, listed below.

With client-consent, Spectrum consults with professionals at other agencies, schools, court probation services, etc., who are involved with its clients. When appropriate, staff members also act as intermediaries to help residents obtain needed services elsewhere. More broadly, both Spectrum and the Committee on Youth work with individuals and groups to improve the community’s response to the needs of youth and families.

is comprised of professionally trained social workers and mental health

counselors, assisted by student interns and trained volunteers. The professional staff also consults regularly with supervising psychiatrists who specialize in the problems of young people and families.

Counseling Center/Main Office: Monday - Thursday, 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.;

Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Spectrum Teen Center: Monday & Wednesday 6:30–9:30 p.m.

is maintained in agency services in accord with the highest ethical and legal

standards.

for most formal counseling services that involve ongoing, regular sessions, but

these fees are adjusted to each client’s or family’s financial circumstances. Modest fees are sometimes charged for groups, youth activities and parent education programs. But there are no charges for counseling intake sessions; walkin or crisis counseling prior to arrangements for regular sessions; information and referral services; job readiness counseling; or use of the teen centers. Also, most services in the Youth DRIVE program are free-of-charge. Please phone for more information on fees.

Spectrum Youth and Family Services
Counseling Offices and Teen Center
Township Hall
1 Illinois Blvd.
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-3399

Confidential · Phone: (847) 884-6212

Office: (847) 884-6213
Fax: (847) 884-6687
TTY: (847) 884-1560

Email: spectrum@schaumburgtownship.org

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