Jill Johnson-Young in her office at Central Counseling Services, where the bookshelves behind her reflect a career spent helping others navigate grief, loss, and life's hardest passages. (Brenda Flowers)
Jill Johnson-Young knows grief the way only someone who has lived it can. A licensed clinical social worker, a widow twice over before the age of 50, she has spent her career walking alongside people in the hardest seasons of their lives — through dementia, terminal illness, and loss. That experience isn't incidental to her work. It's the foundation of it.
A Riverside native and North High graduate who later earned her degree from UCR, Jill co-owns Central Counseling Services, a group mental health practice with locations in Riverside and Murrieta, alongside its nonprofit arm, CCS Education and Wellness. Both grew out of long careers in child welfare and adoptions, but Jill's path took a decisive turn through hospice care, where she spent 15 years as both a social worker and clinical director. It was in hospice work that she saw, again and again, families blindsided by a reality most people don't know: dementia is a terminal illness. That recognition drove her to start a dementia support group 17 years ago — one that continues today as a monthly online gathering and has grown into a training ground for CCS students and a resource for therapists across the region.
Grief is the other pillar of her practice. Every Friday, she hosts the Friday Grief Chat on Facebook alongside a colleague in Illinois — a wide-ranging conversation about all things grief, including interviews with practitioners, researchers, and advocates from around the country. The two recently returned from presenting together at the International Death, Grief and Bereavement Conference. Jill also speaks nationally and locally on end-of-life topics, dementia, and grief support. ("A big room," she says, "is like recess for me.")
Her community roots run deep. She is the daughter of a UCR founding chemistry faculty member who became Graduate Dean and a mother who was a force in local volunteer life — involved in adult day care that became Care Connexxus, in helping women escape domestic violence, and in the establishment of Highland Park. Those roots show in how Jill lives. She is active at First Congregational Church of Riverside downtown, engaged in local wildlands and wildfire preparedness advocacy, and connected to a network of Riverside organizations serving vulnerable neighbors. CCS Education and Wellness students are currently working alongside Project Food, the Riverside Free Clinic, and Family Promise. She dreams, still, of a hospice facility where terminally ill unhoused people could receive care alongside their pets — without having to leave at 7 a.m.
At home on the hillside near Box Springs, she and her family keep watch over their city, tend a garden, and make a habit of rescuing senior dogs who have been overlooked.
What does Riverside mean to you? Riverside is truly home. I did leave for a decade, and then we came home, where we belonged. I now live in the home next door to my childhood home, and the next-doors who lived there when I was a child still come to visit. It's where my church is. It's where my two late wives are interred in Evergreen, along with my grandparents. It's where we raised our kids. It meant a childhood riding bikes by the library at UCR, where my dad was on the beginning faculty of O Chem, and climbing Big Sugarloaf. It's where I still have people walk up and ask if I am Margaret's daughter, and where I watched my nieces and daughters graduate from North, just like we did, and where we have an amazing alumni association that supports decades of grads. And it's where you know you are home when you see the wooly mammoth on the hill, or Big C. We are still a small town, even though we have grown much bigger.
What is your Mt. Rubidoux summit count (estimated)? Oh my gosh. I'm a lifer here. 75? More?
What is your favorite restaurant outside of Downtown or Magnolia Center? Templo Del Sol on University.
What is the most beautiful building in Riverside? First Congregational Church (I may have a bias on that one!).
What is your favorite Riverside small business? Mrs. Tiggy Winkles — magic! And they carry my books without me asking.
What is your favorite Riverside non-profit organization? In addition to CCS E&W, the free shower program and Family Promise. And the Riverside Free Clinic. And Project Food. Can you tell I'm a social worker?
The Festival of Lights: Every year on opening night or maybe on a Tuesday? Wednesday after Project Food.
What is your go-to sandwich in town? Butch's Grinders for the turkey on brown bread. (Except I can't eat it, only my family.) Can we have a celiac restaurant in town soonish?
What is your idea of a perfect weekend day in Riverside? Time in my garden. Time at Parkview Nursery. Wandering in the Botanic Gardens or a drive through Fairmont Park. I may have to add the swan boats now. Time in the backyard with friends and neighbors and the Oodles.
What is your favorite spot for a date night? Pizza in the backyard. (It's a celiac thing.)
Do you call it the Galleria or Tyler Mall? Tyler Mall. Always.
What is one place in Riverside you would bring back if you could? The Plum Tree at the mall; Coco's on Central.
If you could put one message on a billboard on the 91, what would it be? Welcome to Riverside — no matter how big, we are still a small town.
Finally, tell us what you're working on right now and how our readers can support your efforts — whether it's a project, passion, or cause close to your heart! My passions are connecting people — dementia support and making Riverside safer for those facing dementia in their families. Grief support — helping folks see it is not only okay, it is absolutely okay to ask for help. Connecting more folks to the Friday Grief Chat on Facebook: www.facebook.com/fridaygriefchat. Services for our unhoused neighbors — letting the community know that CCS Education and Wellness offers low-cost to no-cost mental health services, increasing food donations for both our little food pantry and Project Food, including pet food. That includes my pipe dream of a hospice facility where terminally ill unhoused people can stay, with their pets, have the equipment they need, and not have to leave at 7 a.m. Increasing adoptions of senior pets who are overlooked and instead die in a loud and scary shelter. It's all connected — it's all about connecting those who are facing tough things to support, and a friendly voice without fear of costs, especially in the current economy.
Neighbor of the Week is our way of celebrating the hidden heroes of Riverside—those who go above and beyond to make our community stronger, kinder, and more vibrant. We believe every remarkable Riversider deserves their story told. Know someone who’s making a difference? Nominate a Neighbor of the Week
The free morning clinic that shaped a generation of Inland Empire athletes will shut its doors June 15, ending a nearly half-century run that transformed sports medicine across the region.
