Free COVID-19 test site set up for Blue Island
Nonprofit’s event offers other help too
Residents of Blue Island hada chanceWednesday to get something for the first time: a free, local COVID-19 test.
Affordable Recovery Housing, a nonprofit that provides housing and other assistance for people in recovery, organized the event as a way to give back to the community.
“We asked the state to come out last month and they came out, but it was only for our guys,” founder and director John Dunleavy said.
The testing was to continue from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Affordable Recovery Home Campus, 13636 S. Western Ave., Blue Island.
Dunleavy said because there had not been a free public test site in Blue Island, he asked the state if they could open up a mobile walk-up and drivethrough facility. Dunleavy also arranged a clothing giveaway, with free masks, voting registration and two staffing agencies for people seeking a job.
The operation was held outdoors in the sprawling parking lot of the Libby McNeill and Libby building, a former canning factory that Dunleavey said was donated to Affordable RecoveryHousing.
His nonprofit not only houses and treats people with addictions, he helps find them jobs and provide transportation so they can pay rent to live on the nonprofit’s campus, a former Catholic school.
In 2003, when Dunleavey was working on his own addiction recovery, he realized a lack of a job and money is a stumbling block for many in traditional programs.
“People with addictions, they just need opportunities they don’t need a handout,” he said. “Give them a job and they’ll run with it.”
He sees his program as something of a one-stop shop for people.
“We house them, we get them IDs, we transport them to and from their work, we entertain them, we feed them and they pretty much pay their own way once they get a job,” he said.
He envisioned Wednesday’s event to be of a similar usefulness, but for the whole community.
Melaney Arnold, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Public Health said anyone or any organization can request a mobile test site.
“We will look at the positivity rate in the area, hot spot data, outbreak status, higher-risk populations, testing in the area and the availability of a mobile testing team,” said Arnold.
This testing site welcomes people regardless of whether they had COVID-19 symptoms. Scores of men and women stood in a snaking line on the quickly warming pavement, laughing, listening to music or chatting with each other.
Lionel Preston said he came because he likes to be tested regularly to be safe. The Centers for Disease Control reported people can carry the virus and feel fine before theyhave symp
toms or if they show no symptoms.
“Detection is very important,” said Preston.
Dunleavy agreed, and that’s why, he says, none of his residents have tested positive forCOVID-19.
“We’re 100% COVID free because we do regular COVID testing,” he said.
Mike Shroyer, an em
ployee with Affordable Recovery Housing who organized Wednesday’s event, said he expected about 200 people.
“It’s going to be big,” he said. “We want the community to know we care about them andwewant to provide services they need.”
Kathy Kuehner of Citi
zens in Action Serving All Blue Island had a table at the site to register people to vote.
“It’s horribly low,” she said of both voting turnout and registration. “We have a low turnout and as far as our population, we have lowregistration, too.”