DONALD J. DEW, president and CEO of Habilitative Systems, Inc., presented U.S. Representative Danny Davis (D-7th) with a plaque for securing congressional funding for the HSI renovations.
Businessman is proud of $1.25M facelift for health clinic
April 4, 1968, the year of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, will have a new meaning this Friday, April 4, for Donald J. Dew, president and CEO of Habilitative Systems, Inc. (HSI), when he joins Representative Danny Davis (D-7th), on a march commemorating the 57th anniversary of King’s assassination.
It will be a day honoring Dr. King’s sacrifice and civil rights efforts on the day of King’s death. The West Side of the city “went up in flames” following reports of King’s assassination.
Dew remembers that day when, around 6 p.m., news of King’s assassination while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis quickly spread on Chicago’s West Side. Just two years earlier, King had lived, marched, and protested for fair housing. He was struck in the head by a rock during the Marquette Park march.
With anger mounting on the West Side over King’s death, Dew said protesters destroyed a lot of property and that “ashes and ruble” of those destructive protests remain on the West Side today.
But this year, Dew will be marching with renewed pride because of the rehabilitation of HSI, which he says is new and needed, in an area still suffering the effects of those 1968 protests. HSI has arisen from those ashes and is expanding to serve more people on Chicago’s South and West sides.
Dew held a press conference on Friday, March 28, at his West Side headquarters, 415 S. Kilpatrick, hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony to highlight his $1.25 million facelift for the first floor of his headquarters. The rehabilitation project is something new after the 1968 riots and much-needed construction in the community since the riots.
In an interview with the Chicago Crusader, Dew, who has been at his headquarters for 40 years, said he went into social work because he spent most of his youth at the Mile Square Health Center, which his mother and now-Representative Davis co-founded.
Having completed several internships there, Dew said, “Social work and human services are just in my blood.”
At the Center, Dew provides services for people with disabilities, severe mental illness, substance addictions, and children exposed to crime and violence.
Besides heading Chicago’s largest independent behavioral health and human services agencies, Dew has also built 120 housing units for senior citizens, another 40 units for those with disabilities, supportive housing for people with severe mental illness, a halfway house, and a recovery home. His agencies also offer programs for youth, employment assistance, and crisis intervention.
Habilitative Systems, Inc. has expanded to 16 locations serving communities on Chicago’s South and West sides.
The $1.25 million first-floor facelift of HSI was made possible by Rep. Davis securing a $500,000 congressional earmark from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Illinois State Senator Lakesia Collins (D-5th) contributing state funds of $400,000, and Proven IT donating $100,000 for the establishment of a state-of-the-art Technology Lab that will offer students online training, app, and game coding.
The lab will also serve those seeking video instruction, and assistance with job searches and resumé development. The lab will also have large touch screens and speech to text.
“Growing up on the West Side, especially after the assassination of Dr. King, we saw our West Side go up in flames. Our people were feeling helpless and apathetic about our future,” recalled Dew. “We had burned up our community” over the assassination of Dr. King, he said.
There was a feeling that “We were not able to move where we were, and we had so many people dying in a decade, like Dr. King, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Medgar Evers….
“All these people who were about civil rights and lifting up people were all of a sudden assassinated in one decade.
“I never forgot that, and I want to be a product of the continued struggle for civil rights,” Dew said.
Davis received the “HSI Main Facility Renovation Award” for supporting the health center he co-founded in the 1960s.
Today, Dew services 8,000 people a year in 16 locations with more than 100 staff members. He also works with ministers on issues of mental health, trauma and violence prevention, early intervention, daycare and special education, and juvenile justice initiatives. He also works with the city on health concerns and provides resources for medical and behavioral health needs.
On Friday, April 4, Dew said, “I will be with Rep. Davis and Pastor Paul Jakes at Stone Temple Church, where we will talk about why we will be protesting the cuts to Medicaid because HSI will lose over $2 million in the initial wave of cuts being proposed by Trump.”
“We will be protesting and will continue to march and fight for civil rights,” he said. Regarding the “cost of institutional care, incarceration and emergency care,” he said there should be an investment in agencies like HSI where the needs are the greatest.
Dew and Davis were joined by Senator Lakesia Collins (D-5th), Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-8th), Rep. Jawaharial Omar Williams (D-10th), Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps (D-1st), Monique Scott (24th), City of Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), Alderman and Vice Mayor Walter Burnett (27th), Rev. Ed Bickham from Clair Christian United Methodist Church (where HSI was founded), and representatives from funders Proven IT, Republic Services, and Rebuilding Together.