Grants totaling $3.3 million are being made this year by the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation to 26 not-for-profit agencies that provide legal assistance and information to low-income residents.

The grants support projects that include helping families that are victimized by mortgage rescue fraud, assisting elderly people who are abused, and developing a statewide, online legal self-help center.

Administered by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the IEJF funding is appropriated by the Illinois General Assembly. The 2007 appropriation of $3.5 million, announced Jan. 15, is a substantial increase from the previous $2 million.

The largest awards go to Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation (five grants totaling $749,000) and Prairie State Legal Services (three grants totaling $648,300).

Others include the Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for Legal Services ($330,000), Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago ($275,000), Illinois Legal Aid Online ($200,000), Center for Conflict Resolution ($142,500), and Equip for Equality ($135,000).

Grants also are allocated for Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic, Casa Aztlan, Catholic Charities, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Chicago Legal Clinic, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, DePaul College of Law Asylum and Immigration Clinic, Immigration Project of Granite City, Kankakee Center for Conflict Resolution of the Victim Assistance Center;

Lawyers for Better Housing, Legal Aid Bureau of Metropolitan Family Services, Life Span Center for Legal Services, Midwest Center for Law and the Deaf, National Immigrant Justice Center, Pro Bono Center for Disability and Elder Law, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Southern Illinois University School of Law Foundation, and Will County Legal Assistance Program.

The federal Legal Services Corp. on Jan. 3 released the list of 138 nationwide programs that will receive a total of $303,788,135 this year for civil legal aid initiatives.

Three Illinois agencies will share grants totaling $10,852,105 – about 3.6 percent of the entire appropriation.

They are Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago ($6,066,657), Prairie State Legal Services ($2,484.863), and Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation ($2,300,585).