Nicasa

Nicasa Profile and History

In 1966, Nicasa was founded by members of a local Alcoholics Anonymous group as a one-employee organization. Its original mission was to provide advocacy and a more humane approach to the issues of recovering alcoholics and their families. Since then, Nicasa has been a leader in the field of substance abuse treatment and prevention. Nicasa developed some of the State's first Latino services, DUI programs, community awareness and public education campaigns, and prevention programming. In 1988, because of Nicasa's integrity and expertise, the judges of the 19th Judicial Circuit of Lake County and McHenry Counties ruled Nicasa as the sole provider of alcohol/drug abuse evaluations for those arrested for alcohol-related offenses in Lake County. In 2010, Nicasa was able to expand its battery of services to include families that do not have a substance abuse problem with Family Advocacy Services. These services have been very successful and continue to help families achieve stability and self-sufficiency. In 2013, Nicasa began offering mental health services in response to a severe shortage of available mental health services in Lake County. Nicasa continues to develop and provide innovative services to meet the changing needs of the men, women, youth and families in our communities. Read more about Nicasa as an agency.