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Local program gets grant from Illinois Bar Association

BY LAURA CHAPMAN, The Southern

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 6:03 PM CDT

CARBONDALE — Sister Barbara Lux is pleased with her program’s progress.

Awakenings, up and running since October 2006, is a 14-week program offered through Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois. Sister Lux created it to teach inmates and ex-offenders to examine their attitudes and behaviors in real world situations.

In its run, it has already had success stories, she said.

One of the more than 50 program graduates came back to tell her about how the program worked for him. Previously jailed, the man had a history of violence.

The police were called for an unknown reason to deal with the man who was out on parole, Sister Lux said. Armed with gloves and Mace, the police expected to deal with a violent man.

But after going through the class, the former student decided to use the lessons he‘d learned in class to calm down and work with the police — even if it meant going back to jail.

“The police didn’t know what to do,” she said.

The man left quietly with the police to talk back at the station, she said. The police released him instead of sending him back to prison.

“Because he didn’t act the way he normally did, he was back out,” she said.

Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois was rewarded for its work on Tuesday when the Illinois Bar Foundation gave it an $8,000 grant to continue funding the program.

Mark Hassakis, the third vice president of the Illinois Bar Association and past president of the Illinois Bar Foundation — the association’s charitable branch — presented the check to program directors.

“We’re just trying to do what we can to help our community,” Hassakis said.

Many organizations applied to receive grant money, he said, but the program was one of few that met all of the criteria the foundation set.

Because the program is new, it is not yet known what long-term effect it will have on its participants or the community, said Judge Charles Grace, who has worked with the program.

There are anecdotal stories, like the one Sister Lux referred to, that indicate the program is already making positive changes, he said.

“The whole idea is to keep them from re-offending,” Grace said.

In addition to the adult participants — most ordered to seek counseling as part of probation — the program was extended in April 2007 to include boys from the Illinois Youth Center in Harrisburg.

Melva Clarida, educational facility administrator at the center, said the program is having a positive influence on the participants from the center. Word is spreading throughout the center so much that more boys want to participate in the program.

“It’s getting to be a privilege to be in it,” she said.