August 15, 2001
Heath helps crisis center flourish
Gail Heath retires after 25 years with Third Level Crisis Center
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Not many crisis centers have stood the test of time.
Started in the early 1970s to cope with 'bad trips,' when a trip to the emergency room because of drugs could mean jail time, these centers began as youth helping youth. From an idealistic beginning, their mission was to help other youth struggling with drug or relationship problems, anonymously and voluntarily.
Locally, the Third Level Crisis Center had the same beginning.
"Third Level began after some problems with young people being arrested and getting into trouble because of the use of marijuana," said Gail Heath, retired director of the center. "The community was very aware of the issue and held a series of community forums to discuss it."
Heath recalled that the youth and community leaders came together at the Park Place Dome to discuss discrimination against young people. When the attendees became aware of undercover police officers taking down names of youth at the meeting, community leaders were galvanized.
"Basically, the community leaders saw what was happening and the center was first incorporated," she said, starting out as the Northwest Michigan Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse in 1971.
Over the years, as cultural values have changed, many crisis centers have folded. Some because of state or federal rules or lack of funding, others because their focus was too broad or they could not transform from an idealistic volunteer organization to a professional human services agency.
Heath believes that Third Level Crisis Center has survived because it always kept to its mission and also recognized early on that it had to be accountable, to clients, funders and the community.
"We consciously protected and nurtured our mission for all the years, which was to help people to help themselves, but it had to be voluntary and confidential," said Heath, who retired in late May as director after 25 years with Third Level, 16. "One of the strengths of the organization is that there is always a clear-cut mission and we were accountable."
Heath was recruited for the board in 1975 after the young people who started the center realized they knew nothing about taxes, accounting or financial records. A trained business manager, she was elected treasurer shortly thereafter and soon realized the scope of the problem.
"I stopped by one day to get a handle on their books and they gave me a checkbook," she recalled. "That was their books. I saw then what the challenge was going to be."
When the first federal CETA funds began coming in the early 1970s, the Third Level started a hot line staffed with volunteers. By 1976, with the community health movement taking off and more grants, Third Level expanded its hours, eventually going to 24-hour coverage, and began a program for runaways.
Being the first place people in trouble turned to for help, they have had their finger on the pulse of the community for the past three decades. This knowledge has spawned a number of programs, including providing counseling services in schools, a youth and family program, legal aid, conflict resolution and Windfire, a support group for gay and lesbian youth. Third level was also involved in developing the community resource centers now located at Blair, Kingsley and Interlochen elementary schools.
"We've been very good at seeing a need and making a program to meet that need," said Heath, who in her time saw the budget go from fewer than $30,000 and mostly volunteers to $800,000 with 20 paid professional staff. "Over the years, the issues being presented are much more involved, much more serious. It's an extremely different picture now than it was in the early days."