Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory EMS Chief Chris Fancil speaks at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety’s meeting on Friday, Oct. 21, at Warsaw City Hall. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — For those seeking help with food assistance, mental health help or more in the Warsaw area, there hopefully should soon be a comprehensive list of resources for them to access to find help.

At its meeting on Friday, Oct. 21, the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved a request from Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory EMS Chief Chris Fancil to apply for an under $20,000 Kosciusko County Community Foundation grant to compile the list.

Fancil helps run the city’s C.A.R.E.S. program, which focuses on mental health assistance.

“One of the things that the C.A.R.E.S. program has figured out is that there are a lot of lists of resources out there. None of them are good lists; they’re all incomplete,” he said. “We have multiple groups kind of reinventing the wheel every time they try to put together a list of resources.”

“One of the big things we’ve done with the C.A.R.E.S. program is we go out, visit with these people who are having mental issues or safety issues and we put them in touch with resources so we’re already gathering all that information anyway,” he continued. “What we want to do is put together a complete list of resources that’s accessible through a scannable QR code and that would have its own website as well.”

“As far as keep it up to date, we want to work with one of the local companies that’s already worked with Fellowship Missions to put together somewhat of a list, but we want to clean it up, make it a lot better, make it a lot more universally accessible,” he added. “We want to put it on the website so people can go right there and look things up, put it out to first responders, so they have access to emergency housing, emergency food, emergency mental health assistance, whatever it may be. We want to put it all in one place and then make that shareable with the schools and whoever might need it.”

“So this is a really critical piece of the C.A.R.E.S. program,” said Board Member and Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer. “You all understand that the C.A.R.E.S. program is designed to handle emergent mental health crises and our role is to be that first responder type if you will for that type of incident.”

“But that list of resources is critical for us to try and help these individuals with counseling, with care, with … community resources that will hopefully … assist that these don’t reoccur, but our role is to kind of be the ones that are going to take all these resources and make them available,” he said. “I think this project brings it all together under one click or QR code if you will to make it so that everyone in the community can benefit from it.”

Plans are to put the list in both English and Spanish.

In other business, the board:

• Approved having a warranty deed signed related to the former Arnolt Corp. building lot, where a 60-unit affordable family housing development will be.
• Approved a memorandum of understanding with the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams at Grace College for a water study. Warsaw is to pay the Lilly Center $31,750 for equipment and the work it will do for a year at Deeds Creek above Pike Lake, with more years of study to hopefully follow.
• Approved allowing the Warsaw Police Department to apply for several grants for equipment for its dive team.
• Approved allowing a fence to encroach on the public right-of-way at 109 E. Winona Ave. That’s at the request of an autism center, which hopes to put a facility there.
• Approved allowing the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department to apply for two grants for the 2023 summer concert series and family carnival.

The board’s next meeting is 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at Warsaw City Hall.