Brick by Brick: New Bremen Youth Services Building Almost Complete

A new home for the Bremen Youth Services Department has been a dream for years.

Operating from a converted brick house the last 40 years, the staff has made its current home work for the thousands of kids and families that have trickled in over the years.

"Eight gazillion kids have gone through here," joked Youth Services Director Don Sebek. "This place has meant a lot to a lot of people."

Work on a modern headquarters near the current location at 153rd and Oak Park Avenue in Oak Forest started in 2008 — after 15 years of fundraising — but stalled in the recession. Local businesses had offered to donate labor and services, but as the recession hit hard that was no longer possible.

Now, four years later, those who work on behalf of the kids are just a month away from their new home.

Built at a cost of $1.5 million, an $800,000 loan secured by Maggie Crotty was needed to finally bring the project to completion. the Bremen Township supervisor and state senator stepped in last year after the unfinished building sat stagnant for too long.

'Every time I talk about Bremen, I have a huge smile on my face. ... It was the light at the end of the tunnel.'

—Alicia Tracy, Bremen Youth Services counselee and supporter

"Have you seen the current building?" she said. Space is tight in the two-story house. The counselors work from what were once bedrooms now serving as offices. "There you have it."

Because the township owns the land on which the new building sits, Sebek could not secure a mortgage for the building, and neither could the township. Instead, the township assumed Youth Services' construction debt and lent the money needed to finish the building. The Youth Services Department will repay the township money with cash raised through future fundraising efforts.

"I've always felt it was such an important place," Crotty said. "We just felt very strongly that the building needed to continue."

Youth Services has 10 years to pay back the township.

The benefit of the building will exponentially outweigh the cost, Crotty said. And Bremen Township will move senior services, specifically the hot lunch program, to the new spot.

"It's going to be so much better for the staff, and all the people who come in," she said.

The two-story, bright and airy, 7,500-square-foot building will accommodate the department's free counseling and treatment programs, in addition to Bremen Township's senior citizen activities.

The location will afford them more common space and office space to work with hundreds of youth from Oak Forest and across Bremen Township, Orland Township and surrounding areas in a given year. The department sees kids and families from Markham, Bridgeview, Robbins and Oak Lawn, among others.

The department offers individual and family counseling, drug and substance abuse treatment services, and parenting help.

"If they can get to us, we take them," said intern Kelsey Conlin. "We don't turn anyone away."

'A Good Place to Be'

It wasn't the facility that mattered to Oak Forest resident and 2011  graduate Alicia Tracy—it was the people inside. Tracy sought refuge there when her father passed away in 2002. Counselors helped Tracy and her siblings Eli, Kara and Lucas each cope with their father's passing.

"We all handled his death differently, and each of us found someone we could connect with, that helped us get through it," Tracy said. "All the kids realize it's a good place to be. It's a safe haven for anyone."

Tracy grew up in the department, from her time as a summer camp attendee, to her service as a receptionist and later camp counselor. The staff talked Tracy through tough years, she said, and she looked up to her counselors and Sebek, especially.

"Because of Bremen, I'm studying social work and sociology in college," Tracy said. "Don is probably the biggest role model I've ever had, and I don't even think he knows it.

"I remember being young, looking up to them and thinking, 'I want to be just like them.'"

How You Can Help

As a fundraising effort, the youth services department is selling decorative, commemorative bricks that will be laid in a garden outside the new building. Read about the department's .

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