The Illinois Bar Foundation board recently approved grants totaling $100,220 in support of 28 agencies that coordinate or provide legal services for low-income individuals and families throughout the state.

The largest grant of $10,000 will go to Illinois Legal Aid Online, which administers statewide legal services Web sites that benefit three distinct populations. They are:

www.IllinoisLegalAid.org for lower-income and vulnerable Illinois residents with legal problems.

www.IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org for program attorneys and staffs of legal service providers.

www.IllinoisProBono.org for private attorneys and law students who participate in volunteer programs.

The current Bar Foundation grant will support the staff position of legal content provider at Legal Aid Online. This individual develops and maintains legal information and training resources for attorneys and the public through all three Web sites.

“Given the breadth of information on the Web sites, this is not a small job,” said executive director Lisa Colpoys. “This position is essential to the ongoing success of the Web sites ... and is crucial if we hope to meet the need for legal services to the poor in Illinois.”

Colpoys said Illinois Legal Aid Online “is proud to be at the forefront of the Internet revolution in the delivery of legal services, and is excited about the future of the statewide legal services Web sites.”

The second largest Bar Foundation grant is $8,750 to the Illinois Judges Association for its eight-week summer internship project in which financially disadvantaged minority law students do legal writing with state court judges.

A cooperative initiative of the American Bar Association Judicial Intern Opportunity Program, the IJA project hopes to fund internships in every circuit that is not otherwise able to participate individually with the ABA.

The Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic in Chicago will receive $7,000 from the Bar Foundation in support of its program that provides opportunities for volunteer attorneys to represent many more impoverished residents with legal problems.

Grants totaling $10,350 will be distributed to five Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) organizations: McHenry County ($2,500), Jerseyville ($2,500), Will County ($1,850), Franklin County ($1,000), and Fulton County ($2,500).

Grants of $5,000 each go to the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, Latinos Pregresando, the Midwest Workers Association, and Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation.

Grants of $4,000 each go to First Defense Legal Aid, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Chicago Workers' Collaborative of St. Pius V Parish, and the Special Education Advocacy Center in Palatine.

Grants of $3,500 each go to Centro Romero and Between Friends, both of Chicago.

Grants of $3,000 each go to Youth Service Bureau of Rock Island County, Champaign-Urbana Area Project, Peer Court in Danville, and Knox County Teen Court.

Others are $2,500 to BUILD Inc. of Chicago; $2,000 to Catholic Legal Im-migration Network; $1,500 to Equip for Equality; $1,120 to Juvenile Court Advocates of Hancock County, and $1,000 each to YMCA of Evanston/North Shore and Administer Justice in East Dundee.

For information about making tax-deductible contributions to the Illinois Bar Foundation, becoming a member of the Fellows of the IBF, or applying for a future grant, send an e-mail to smlewers@isba.org.

The deadline for 2007 grant applications is Monday, Oct. 2.