This infusion of state resources is also critical at a time when overall resources for legal aid in Illinois have been stagnant, at best. Federal funding from the Legal Services Corporation was cut by 25 percent in 1996. The Lawyers Trust Fund's revenue from the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program has been stalled due to lower interest rates. Donations from lawyers and foundations have helped fill the gap, but an uncertain economy and a declining stock market do not offer bright prospects for the years ahead. Even a small investment by state standards offers a critical boost to the legal aid system.
The Foundation is also important for its future promise. Governor Ryan has included another $500,000 in the Department of Human Services budget for FY 2002, and the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation expects to announce its second round of grants in January 2002. In the years ahead, with the support of Illinois' lawyers, judges and others who are committed to the ideal of equal justice, this amount can be continued and increased.
The directors of the Foundation include its chairman, Pope, former ISBA president Timothy L. Bertschy of Peoria; former DuPage County Bar Association president Christine Ory of Wheaton; Chicagoan James Gidwitz, CEO of Continental Materials Corporation; R. Rennie Atterbury III, General Counsel of Peoria-based Caterpillar, Inc.; Roger H. Bickel of Freeborn & Peters in Chicago; Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey; former Chicago Bar Association president Don Hubert; Jeffrey W. Jackson of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Group in Bloomington; Michael Lawrence of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University; former Illinois Senate President Philip J. Rock; and Mary Jacobs Skinner of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.
Illinois Equal Justice Foundation FY 2001 grant recipients
Recipients of Equal Justice grants, along with the purpose of the grants, are listed below. As noted, some recipients received multiple grants.
* Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic/Southern Illinois University School of Law (Carbondale)--To help low-income families and children to resolve custody and visitation issues by providing mediation services in thirteen counties in southern Illinois ($10,000).
* Center for Conflict Resolution (Chicago)--To assist thousands of people throughout Cook County in resolving a wide array of disputes through mediation ($35,000).
* Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (Chicago)--To protect hundreds of children and young adults by serving as Guardian Ad Litem in Cook County guardianship cases ($25,000).
* Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (Chicago)--To help thousands of low-income and disadvantaged people in Cook County by providing general information on how to use the legal system, free legal advice and self-help materials, and referrals when necessary through a telephone hotline ($47,000).
* DuPage Legal Assistance Foundation (Wheaton)--To assist homeless people and victims of domestic violence by providing efficient and cost effective legal services in DuPage County ($20,000).
* Illinois Technology Center for Law & the Public Interest (Chicago)--To help people throughout the state of Illinois to understand their legal rights and responsibilities by providing basic legal information to the public through a statewide, Internet-based service ($20,000).
* Kankakee Center for Conflict Resolution/Victims Assistance Center (Kankakee)--To assist people throughout Kankakee County by providing mediation services on a broad range of issues ($10,000).
* Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation (Alton and Springfield)--To serve thousands of low-income people in sixty-five counties in southern and central Illinois by providing general information on how to use the legal system, free legal advice and self-help materials, and referrals when necessary through a telephone hotline ($47,000); to help elderly people in eight counties in and around Springfield by providing legal assistance for elder abuse and neglect, guardianship, health and long-term care, and consumer issues through senior centers, nursing homes and home visits ($15,674); and to assist low-income people with landlord/tenant issues by providing information and assistance in the Sangamon County courthouse ($8,391).
* Legal Aid Bureau of Metropolitan Family Services (Chicago)--To help low-income parents and children throughout Cook County to collect unpaid child support ($19,095).
* Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (Chicago)--To protect elderly people throughout Cook County against consumer fraud by providing information and assistance ($40,000) and to help victims of domestic violence in twenty-two western suburbs of Cook County by providing information, advice and assistance ($40,000).
* Prairie State Legal Services (Bloomington, Rock Island, Carol Stream & Waukegan)--To serve thousands of low-income people in twenty-nine counties in northern and central Illinois by providing general information on how to use the legal system, free legal advice and self-help materials, and referrals when necessary through a telephone hotline ($47,000); to serve senior citizens and victims of domestic violence in McLean, Livingston and Woodford counties by offering information, advice and assistance ($40,000); and to assist victims of domestic violence in the Illinois half of the Quad Cities and in Henry, Mercer, Rock Island and Whiteside counties ($25,000) .
* Self Help Legal Center/Southern Illinois University School of Law (Carbondale)--To serve people in sixteen counties in rural southern Illinois by providing access to legal information by mail, Internet, and in-person, including placing two Internet terminals at libraries and Circuit Clerk's offices for direct access to the Center's services ($10,500).
* Uptown Peoples Law Center (Chicago)--To assist people throughout the state of Illinois by distributing newsletters addressing legal issues of concern to families ($5,000).
* Will County Legal Assistance Program--(Joliet) To support victims of domestic violence in Will County by providing legal information publications, educational programs and community outreach ($12,000).
Two awards bestowed upon the Women Everywhere Service Project
By Sharon L. Eiseman, Hodges Loizzi Eisenhammer Rodick & Kohn, Arlington Heights
Two bar associations have presented awards to the Women Everywhere: Partners in Service Project. Although only two years old, the Women Everywhere project was honored by both the Illinois State Bar Association and the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations.
The Women Everywhere project was created through a partnership of several women's organizations--including the ISBA's Women and the Law Committee for the purpose of assisting community agencies that serve women in need. The project brings together hundreds of volunteer attorneys of both genders (as well as others in the legal profession) on a single day in May to work on specific projects for the agencies and the women they serve.
The Illinois State Bar Association presented the project with a Volunteer of the Year Award at the association's awards luncheon during the annual meeting in June. The project was praised for its scope, the number of volunteers enlisted to give their time, the impact on the women clients and the agencies that protect and enable them to escape domestic violence and achieve economic independence and the raising of awareness as to the importance of partnering with community groups to improve the lives of disadvantaged women.
Representatives of the partner organizations serving on the Project Planning Committee, including Kim Anderson and Sharon Eiseman of the Women and the Law Committee, accepted the award on behalf of everyone who worked so hard to achieve this success. Other partners in the project include the ISBA's Minority and Women Participation Committee, the Women's Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI), the Black Women Lawyers Association, the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women and Young Lawyers Section and the Hadassah Attorney's Council.
On August 3, the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations (NCWBA) bestowed one of its highly coveted Public Service Awards on the project. The award was officially presented to the WBAI as a member of the NCWBA, but represents the achievements of the many partners of the Project and the Planning Committee without whose cooperative attitudes, devotion to the project goals, sleepless nights and precipitous drop in billable hours the service day could not have been achieved. Members of the NCWBA, which includes women's state bar associations and committees throughout the country, were impressed not only with the quality of the project, but also with the "across-the-board commitment it elicited from the legal community and the degree to which it was able to help others." We were pleased to receive this honor and to be in the company of another group recognized for its public service initiative, the Lawyers Club of San Diego, which organized a Women's Resource Fair.
Clearly, the desire and capacity to help others is deep inside us--sometimes close to the surface, sometimes waiting to be tapped by an inspiration. The inspiration can come from another person or an event or idea. Our committee hopes that the success of the project in each of its first two years will indeed inspire others to join the effort in 2002 and will also encourage those who have been with the project so far to stay involved.
In 2002, the Women Everywhere service day will be May 17. Mark your calendars now. All of you are needed!
By Yolaine M. Dauphin, Evanston
In 1976, a group of Northwestern University students and their pastor started to work with homeless and low-income people in Chicago's "North of Howard" neighborhood in the hope of eliminating poverty and empowering participants to live joyful, productive, and stable lives. That effort has grown into a multi-faceted service program, known as Good News Partners, which serves more than 1,000 people a year with the help of hundreds of volunteers, including lawyers from the Women Everywhere project.
With assistance from area churches, the group started a homeless shelter, Jonquil Hotel, which functions as a low-cost, transitional home for homeless people and families. The group's work grew to include the renovation of five cooperative apartment buildings, where families affiliated with Good News Partners can earn home ownership while learning financial and neighborhood responsibility. Good News Partners also provides safe, emergency housing to women and children at New Life Shelter.
In addition to housing, Good News Partners provides help to participants in the areas of education and employment. Good News Partners operates a day-care center, a pre-school, an after-school tutoring program for students in grades K-8, and a reading clinic. Good News Partners also provides informal learning opportunities through field trips and sponsors several clubs in the goal of providing positive role models for children in the community. These clubs include the Girls' Club, Fearbusters Boys' Club, and the Ark wilderness camp.
For adults, Good News Partners offers classes in English as a second language, parenting, creative arts and practical arts. Adults can also obtain help in preparing for the GED exam. In the area of employment, Good News Partners building/rehabilitation crews conduct apprenticeship programs in construction trades. Jonquil Hotel residents can develop skills by staffing the front desk and doing housekeeping. Lastly, individuals can obtain loans and technical assistance to start small businesses.
Good News Partners by the numbers: 1000 people served each year; 100 kids in programs weekly; 60 families in transition housed nightly; 30 women and children sheltered nightly; 200 housing units rehabilitated, 50 new cooperative homeowners; and 500 volunteers each year.
Goods News Partners' needs include: financial contributions; donations of goods from the wish list on its web site (www.kuc.org/agency/newlife.htm); tutors for its reading clinic; mentors for boys' and girls' clubs; partners for families in need; labor and materials for building renovations; assistants for its day-care center; volunteers for staff positions; and prayer. Good News Partners' business office is located at 1600 West Jonquil Terrace, Chicago, Illinois 60626. The telephone numbers are 773/764-4999 (main number); 773/743-7678 (president's number); and 773/764-2261 (youth programs number). Good News Partners can also be reached at GNP-Chicago@juno.com.
%20Initial.GIF)