WellSpring Resources is proud to announce its 2013 Heroes. This year’s Heroes are former Alton Chief of Police David Hayes and Edwardsville Police Officer Andy Feller. Each of these men has gone to great lengths to help reduce the stigma that surrounds mental health conditions in our community.
Chief Hayes provided support and insight to a major federal grant to the Alton School District. The grant focused on violence prevention by providing behavioral health services and pro-social activities in the Alton schools for youth and families.
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During his tenure as chief, Hayes responded quickly to increasing deaths from heroin addiction and other dangerous drugs in the community. He held Town Hall meetings that provided education and awareness to the entire community, advocated for the use of drug courts, and provided prescription drug take-back to remove unnecessary drugs from homes and streets.
Hayes is also a strong advocate for providing at-risk youth an opportunity to change the course of their lives through education, support and service to their community. He describes the process of learning about “restorative justice”, a process where a youth makes amends for actions that hurt other youth or property, as “eye opening.”
Officer Andy Feller is a ten-year veteran with the Edwardsville Police Department. Feller completed Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) training in 2004 and soon after began teaching others the tools and techniques of the CIT model. Feller has fostered the use of experienced and certified CIT officers as evaluators in the training program as well as worked to build and train a troop of improvisational actors that are used for accurate role play in a peer-to-peer setting. His dedication to this model led to CIT certification moving from a written format to a role play-based evaluation which has grown to include dispatchers, county corrections officers, civilian police employees, probation officers, and law enforcement command personnel. Feller runs the role-play evaluation process for CIT in Illinois.
Feller currently teaches at SWIC Police Academy for new law enforcement recruits, and presents at numerous civic organizations and universities throughout the year. He teaches advocacy for those with mental health conditions while minimizing the threat to law enforcement. He often uses his own free and vacation time to support activities in support of the CIT program.
Hayes and Feller will receive their awards at WellSpring Resources’ annual Springtime Splash Event. The event will take place on May 16 at the Holiday Inn in Alton from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person and $60 per couple. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Alexandra Cope, Development Coordinator, at (618) 462-2331, ext. 2219.
Founded in 1959, WellSpring Resources is a total mental wellness resource serving Madison, Greene, Jersey, and Calhoun counties. With offices in Alton and Jerseyville WellSpring’s compassionate professionals work with children, adults and families to inspire hope and personal growth. Last year, 4,600 people sought to change their lives for the better through WellSpring’s mental health and substance abuse services. Visit www.wellspringresources.co for more information.
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