EVANSTON, IL – January 23, 2020 – The Moran Center for Youth Advocacy is pleased to announce that it has received a $25,000 grant from Access to Justice, a statewide program that seeks to mitigate the devastating consequences of incarceration and family separation. The funds will go to support and enhance our Expungement & Sealing Help Desk at the Skokie Courthouse.
For 10 years, the Moran Center has provided free, self-help legal assistance to individuals desiring criminal record remediation through our Help Desk. This grant will help expand our services including hosting a Record Relief Summit.
“The Moran Center works innovatively to dismantle the destructive pipelines to dysfunctional institutions that impact people of color and families in poverty,” Patrick Keenan-Devlin, executive director of the Moran Center said. “With this grant, we will ensure more people have access to clear their criminal backgrounds, unlocking the door to a better and more productive future.”
The Moran Center was one of 60 non-profit organizations selected as a recipient of the Access to Justice Grant Program.
With recent legislation expanding the range of offenses eligible for sealing, the Moran Center has seen a 15 percent increase in requests for assistance at the Help Desk. The Help Desk is open two mornings a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to Noon at the Skokie Courthouse.
ABOUT THE MORAN CENTER
The Moran Center for Youth Advocacy (“Moran Center”) has been a zealous advocate for thousands of disinvested youth and their families for 39 years. Providing integrated legal and social work services, the Moran Center works to ensure justice in the courtroom, access to the classroom, and support in the community. Through legal representation, advocacy, trauma-informed social work services, and restorative community work, we aim to dismantle the destructive school-to-prison, poverty-to-prison pipelines, which disproportionately drive low-income children, families, youth of color, and children with special needs out of our community and into broken institutions. Learn more about our work at www.moran-center.org.