In 1949, a group of citizens on the Social Services Council in Black Hawk County began discussing the need for a mental health center in our community. These discussions began as a result of the growing recognition that the mental health needs of this community were not being adequately met. These meetings facilitated by Opal Fore, a visiting social worker from the Iowa Mental Health Authority and Glenda Mabrey, a teacher with the Waterloo Public Schools, and Blair Wood, the Black Hawk County Attorney, resulted in the election of the first Board of Directors in December 1949. In the following months, a great deal of planning and activity took place to prepare for the opening of the Center. According to Glenda Mabrey, “it was a cross section of the whole community, everybody was interested…we really did this on faith and a prayer.”

On March 21, 1950, the Center opened for business with three offices located at 420 Commercial Street, a site that is currently occupied by Community National Bank. The Iowa Mental Health Authority donated some used furniture for these offices and volunteers from the Waterloo School System Industrial Arts Department donated time to paint and wallpaper the offices. According to the first annual report, the Center saw 278 new patients while providing 63 lectures in the county, 52 films for organizations, distributing 300 pamphlets and loaning 38 books. In five short years, the Center had outgrown the space on Commercial Street and a move was made to the corner of West 11th and Washington Streets in Waterloo. Again, the demand for service exceeded the staff resources available and a waiting list for mental health services was established. Sometimes, it took as long as six to ten months for people to be seen.

The Center’s first Executive Director, Jack Joelson, was hired in November 1955 and shortly thereafter, in 1957, the Center again moved into the newly completed Community Services Building located at 2530 University Avenue. When Dr. Harold Korner was hired as the first Medical Director in 1961, the waiting list of services had reached six months for evaluation and over a year for treatment. Under his direction, the waiting list was abolished with additional staff and a focus on treatment through a team approach. In 1964, the Center began providing services to residents of Grundy County by sending a staff member to Grundy Center each Monday. In 1965, plans were made to construct a new building at our present location at 3251 West Ninth Street and, in the fall of 1966, the new building was completed.

Throughout the history of the Center, the Board of Directors has always been our linkage to the community. As a result these community connections, the Center has developed a number of services and programs in response to identified community needs including our 24 hour emergency service in the early 1970’s, the inpatient program at St. Francis Hospital in 1976, the first Compeer Program in the State of Iowa in 1981, the opening of a satellite office at 907 Independence Avenue in 1988 to serve those with a serious and persistent mental illness and the provision of school based mental health services in the early 1990’s.

In the last 50 years, the Center has served more than 38,000 residents of Black Hawk and Grundy County through our various programs. We have an experienced clinical staff who offer a wide range of mental health services to our community. These services and programs are outlined in the following pages.

While the future holds many challenges for our organization, we remain committed to the provision of innovative, high quality mental health services to those we serve.