Although staff still have to unpack a few boxes, a much-needed move by Wilmette’s venerable Family Service Center to new Lake Avenue quarters has been completed successfully, allowing the center to serve area families in more usable space.
Family Service Center’s new location, at 3545 Lake Ave., is not only more accessible to people with disabilities than was its former office at 1167 Wilmette Ave., the new site has provided staff with additional therapy rooms, and more space for community and education programs, organization officials say.
“The move went as well as a move can go,” center executive assistant Sybil Appell said Tuesday. “We had a week where we didn’t see any clients, but yesterday we had a staff meeting, and today we’re back to serving the people we help.”
The center, also known as FSC, was formed in 1913. It may have operated in its previous downtown Wilmette space since the 1940s, she said, “although we’d been there so long we couldn’t find records of when we moved in.”
Center officials began talking about finding more spacious and accessible premises at least five years ago, Appell said. Three years ago they started a capital campaign to raise money for a move, then found the Lake Avenue space and negotiated a lease in the last six to eight months.
In addition to its new office, which lies just west of the Edens Expressway near the Wilmette-Glenview border, it continues to operate a Northbrook site at 1830 Techny Court.
The organization is a nonprofit mental health provider, offering therapy services to more than 600 families and individuals who live or work in Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glenview and Northbrook. It also provides educational courses, and offers employee-assistance programs for local organizations.
