Illinois Bar Foundation grants of $5,000 each were presented recently to an organization that helps disadvantaged women stay out of trouble, and another that provides representation for elderly prison inmates at parole hearings.

Genesis House received funds for a court program that provides support for women who are involved with the criminal justice system but recovering from the lifestyles of prostitution that resulted in prosecution.

In addition to hospitality in an environment of free choice, Genesis House offers crisis intervention, case management, peer outreach, counseling, wellness and education programs, and residential rehabilitation.

The organization was founded 23 years ago by a former nun and a Jesuit priest to counsel prostitutes in a non-judgmental way, said IBF board member Debra B. Walker, who investigated the grant application.

According to executive director Patti Buffington, its staff and volunteers have come into contact with 14,000 such women during the past year.

“The average prostitute has five children,” Walker said. “She is working to support her children, or a drug problem, and is often homeless. Genesis House is well equipped to make a real difference for its clientele in the justice system.”

Walker also investigated a grant application from the Long-Term Prisoner Policy Project and found that it currently assists 320 prisoners who were sentenced in the 1970s to indeterminate terms, such as natural life.

“All of them are now elderly inmates who have served more time in prison than most people who were given determinate terms for the same offenses,” she said. There is no official attempt to determine whether any have turned their lives around.

The Bar Foundation grant to the Long-Term Prisoner Policy Project will cover travel expenses for pro bono attorneys to visit these individuals, to make copies of their parole packets, and to represent them in Springfield at Prisoner Review Board hearings.

Shaena Fazal, executive director of LTPPP since it started in March 2005, has a two-year Soros Justice Fellowship to develop the project, with organizational support from the John Howard Association for Prison Reform.

For more information about these Bar Foundation grantees, or to volunteer assistance, call:

• Patti Buffington, Genesis House, (773) 533-5600, ext. 24.

• Shaena Fazal, Long-Term Prisoner Policy Project, (312) 782-1901.

For information about making tax-deductible contributions to the Illinois Bar Foundation or applying for a grant, call (312) 726-6072.