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ALTON - Sacred Spaces of CARE will host a trivia fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, to raise money for the organization’s programs to support mental health in the community.
Megan Tyler, the executive director, explained that the organization just celebrated its first anniversary and has stayed busy connecting people with resources and working with the Alton Police Department to promote officer wellness and crisis intervention. The trivia night, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Alton-Wood River Sportsmen’s Club, will fund these initiatives for another year.
“I think this next year is going to be phenomenal. Everybody’s passionate, everybody’s eager to just dive in,” Tyler said. “Now we have that traction and we see fruit and we see the change, the difference it’s making, and so I think it just fires everybody up and we want to really go through ’24 with a lot of great projects, great plans moving forward.”
The organization uses grants and donations to work with the police department. Sacred Spaces of CARE is often on the scene when there is a mental health crisis, and they make a point to follow up with community members and help them connect to resources in the aftermath. Tyler has also worked closely with Alton Police Chief Jarrett Ford to create initiatives focused on officer wellness, from healthy eating and sleep hygiene to dealing with trauma exposure.
The organization also works one-on-one with community members to connect them to mental health and substance use resources. Sacred Spaces of CARE has a partnership with Chestnut Health Systems to promote substance use disorder recovery, and they offer community trainings to keep people informed about mental health, substance use and homelessness.
While Tyler is proud of the work they have done, she noted that it can be difficult to reconcile the organization’s success with the pain she sees on a daily basis. The organization is successful because there is a great need in the Riverbend community.
“It’s so many different emotions,” Tyler explained. “I’m so honored to be in this space…. There’s a lot of tragedy and a lot of hurt going on in our community, which again just reinforces the mission and why it is so needed, but unfortunately also means there are people hurting and we need to be mindful of that and remember that.”
The trivia night will address this, as there will be a few testimonies and personal stories shared in between rounds. But Tyler said the night is going to be “a blast,” with a silent auction, cash bar and lots of trivia to keep people guessing. It costs $100 to reserve a table and there are eight people at a table. You can reserve your spot here or go to the official Sacred Spaces of CARE Facebook page for more information.
All of the proceeds will go back to the organization. Tyler anticipates a great year ahead with more resources and bigger events in the future.
“We have some projects coming up over the course of this year that are non-grant-funded projects. We’re putting together different resources for the unhoused in the community. Some of our community training events we want to try to start offering at a larger scale and some more specified things that have some costs,” she added. “A lot of the funding coming out of this is going to be those community-based needs that we can fund that don’t come through grant funding.”
For more information about Sacred Spaces of CARE, check out this article on RiverBender.com or visit their official website at SacredSpacesOfCARE.org
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