KidsMatter, a Naperville nonprofit, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In recognition of that — and it being the grand marshal of the Naperville Jaycees Last Fling Labor Day Parade — we spent some time with CEO/Executive Director Nina Menis, who told us more about the youth-centered organization.
What does your group do? “We do everything in partnerships. We help support and empower youth. One way we do that is through youth mental health programming. We do that through career exploration. We also work on leadership development.”
What else do you offer? “We also support parents and families. We do youth mental health training for adults. We have resources (on) our website for parents and families.
“We are a community connector. We have a volunteer fair. We help connect people to different volunteer opportunities. … We’ll have around 30 organizations there.”
Is youth mental health a growing problem? “There’s a lot of research and data around youth mental health. … We look at the data after COVID-19, we look at ways we can be more supportive.
“We don’t provide any counseling service, but people on the Collaborative Youth Team do. … If someone calls and their young person needs support, we can direct them to a site. We also partner with the DuPage County Health Department.
“We work with the Collaborative Youth Team, 36 organizations that support youth and families in the area. And we do collective projects together. It’s really fun. KidsMatter is an intermediary.”
What ages do you help? “We currently are birth to (age) 24.”
What’s another special thing you offer? “We are the coordinator of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for DuPage County. It’s wonderful. We help work with communities in DuPage County who have it or want to start it. … If you sign up (a child), from birth to 5, they’ll get a book in the mail every month. That’s a lot of books. The first book they get is Dolly Parton’s favorite book, ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ In English and Spanish.”
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Is KidsMatter busy? “We are. We have a great team.”
How many youths do you help? “We help more than 50,000 each year. We do offer training in schools. Through that training we help many young people. Since COVID-19, we’ve trained more than 2,500 people. We partner with Endeavor Health for that.
“There are a lot of factors that are causing more mental health issues today than before. … There’s discussion around a lot of isolating factors. Communication through the phone and maybe not with a person. You go to a grocery store and go to the self-checkout. To McDonald’s the kiosk. There maybe not that many opportunities to communicate in person.
“Young people today are amazing. They are very kind. The young people who work with are very curious, but I think the opportunities they have for interaction are not as many, particularly coming out of Covid-19. It’s getting better.”
What about leadership development? “Everybody has different gifts. Some are quiet leaders. Some are more vocal leaders. I see that in groups for youths. It’s interesting to watch. We help students who serve on boards and commissions for the city of Naperville. … It’s fun to watch the young people find their voice through our leadership academy. … We go over what meetings look like, how to ask questions, how to share their student voice or perspective.”
How many people work here? “Counting me, we have 11. This summer, we had nine college interns, 10 classes running and 175 young people in the SpringBoard Summer Series (which exposes them to career fields and trades).
“One girl wrote a note about the SpringBoard Series, (saying) she got in and ‘it was like an answered prayer.’ She was in healthcare. We also do pharmacy tech. The third one is trades and construction. They went on 12 different field experiences. … The whole concept is give an understanding (about different jobs). We partnered with Fermi Lab last year.
What does KidsMatter cost? “There’s no cost to the kids. We raise money all year (to pay for things). Anybody can sign up. We have a wide variety of young people who participate every year.”
Do you like your job? “I love my job so much. It’s fun to work with young people. It’s inspiring.”
What did you do before this? “I’ve been here five years. I used to work at College of DuPage in the advancement office.”
What’s your advice for anyone starting a nonprofit? “(Know) that you’re meeting an unmet need and do your research. That’s important. … It’s also important that you have a great team of people to help you. And that you have a plan you can be flexible with.”
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.