CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — U.S. Senator Dick Durbin came to the Lawndale Christian Legal Center Monday and announced the West Side organization is getting $200,000 in federal funds to continue helping young people get out of the cycle of violence.
“It’s Monday morning, and it’s bad news in Chicago,” Durbin said. “You heard it already, didn’t you? Three year old, killed in a road rage incident.”
The Lawndale Christian Legal Center may be the answer, Durbin thinks. As he stood in the westside center’s gym, he pointed to the 89% of their clients — in violence prevention and other programs in 2020 — who were not rearrested.
Legal Services Director Mark Lewis said they’re trying to address issues of poverty, abuse and addiction often waiting for clients at home.
“They’re coming back to the same environment in which they left,” Lewis said. “That same environment that provided that pain, that trauma. Those influences that we see have been so detrimental to their growth.”
The nonprofit plans to use the federal funding to work with a partner and expand its services into Englewood.
Lawndale Christian Legal Center Executive Director Cliff Nellis said for over 13 years, they’ve helped more than 1,000 young people in court and with free services to get their GED, job training, and mental health assessments.
“And we believe the model that we’ve created is the model that is best for our city and can lead us today and into the future,” Nellis said.
Robin Moore, Director of Holistic Social Services for the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, said she believes this work can help lead to safer streets for all Chicagoans.
“They have a right to have the opportunity to change and make better — and new — decisions, and to be treated with dignity and respect,” Moore said. “We believe all of this wholeheartedly because it’s really the pathway to public safety.”
At the ceremony, Durbin applauded the legal center’s work to help turn around the lives of young people charged with crimes.
“The kids that are involved and young people who are involved in the shootings, have lived a life which none of us would accept or really look forward to,” Durbin said. “They have been exposed to things in their lives, which many of us will never face, and it molds their character unless something intervenes.”
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