[Washington, DC] - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $4,000,000 for projects in the state of Illinois in the Commerce, Justice and Science spending bill.

The Fiscal Year 2011 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill includes funding for the following projects in Illinois:

Department of Justice

• Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), Chicago: $450,000 in funding to provide a youth-focused violence prevention and job development program in the North Lawndale and Austin communities of Chicago.  AUSL and Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN) collaborate to reach and work with youth who have grown up surrounded by violence in communities, homes and schools.
  
   
• Casa Central, Chicago: $350,000 in funding for the expansion of after school programs for at-risk youth in Chicago Lawn, West Lawn, Gage Park, West Elsdon and other areas lacking bicultural and bilingual programming for the growing Hispanic populations.  These programs address youth violence, youth gangs and gang violence.
  
   
• Ceasefire at the University of Illinois, Chicago:  $500,000 in funding for the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention to expand Ceasefire, an accelerated community-based prevention, intervention, treatment and advocacy initiative.
  
   
• Christian Activity Center, East St. Louis:  $250,000 in funding to allow the Christian Activity Center to expand after school programs for at-risk youth, including tutoring and recreation programming, which provide an alternative to the violence, drugs, and gang activity in the surrounding community.
  
   
• City of Peoria:  $100,000 in funding to allow the City to continue the Drug Market Intervention program, which combats drug-related crime in neighborhoods by targeting hardened criminals for prosecution but offers lesser offenders an opportunity to reform through a combination of community service and employment and education assistance.
  
   
• City of Waukegan:  $450,000 in funding to allow the Waukegan Police to continue gang suppression activities, with the goal of reducing the number of illegal firearms, shooting investigations and drug activity.  The Police Department partners with public schools and non-profit organizations to create a comprehensive approach to gang suppression.
  
   
• DuPage County:  $150,000 in funding to allow the DuPage County Probation Office to offer employment counseling and job placement services to adult offenders on probation.  In collaboration with a non-profit, this program will help ease the reentry process by working with individuals on probation to find local employment.
  
   
• Lawrence Hall Youth Services, Chicago:  $450,000 in funding to support the Youth Violence Prevention Program, which aims to change behaviors of high-risk youth, particularly African-American males living in violent or economically disadvantaged communities who have a history of violence, gang involvement and other issues that require special education and behavior modification services.
  
   
• McLean County:  $250,000 in funding to create a Mental Health Court to appropriately address the needs of mentally ill individuals in the judicial system.  The establishment of such a court will allow the judicial system to adjudicate individuals with mental health issues who need prosecution and direct those needing service to the community’s mental health service providers.
  
   
• Our Children’s Homestead, Rockford: $200,000 in funding to provide tutoring and assistance for at-risk youth within the foster system to pursue postsecondary education and methods to find employment.  This program includes necessary crisis intervention and therapy groups to address anger management and domestic violence issues.
  
   
• Sheriff’s Office, Cook County:  $350,000 in funding to allow the Sheriff’s Office to expand their Reentry to Green Jobs Initiative at the Cook County Jail.  Designed as a recidivism program, this initiative combines an inmate-run greenhouse and a virtual high school to help inmates gain job training while earning a high school diploma.
  
   
• Southern Illinois University:  $250,000 in funding to support the Veterans Legal Assistance Program (VLAP) at the Southern Illinois University School of Law.  The purpose of VLAP is to provide pro-bono legal assistance to Illinois veterans in the disability claims process, provide opportunities to law students interested in pro-bono or public service work and train and provide assistance to local attorneys seeking pro-bono opportunities within the community.
  
   
• Will County: $250,000 in funding for the procurement and installation of 65 in-car cameras in patrol cruisers, which will increase the safety and effectiveness of the members of the Will County Sheriff’s Department.  This will result in a fully equipped fleet that will make the streets and residents of the County safer.