December 2008

BUILD grant helps youths

BUILD Inc., a Chicago neighborhood provider of development programs to help at-risk youths realize educational and career potentials, has received a $5,000 grant from the Illinois Bar Foundation.

Located in its Wicker Park office for 38 years, the grant recipient was established by two street-gang outreach workers as an intervention program. Federal funding of their work with a YMCA had been terminated.

BUILD, an acronym for Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development, began by serving fewer than 200 teenagers with gang affiliations. Today, its staff and volunteers serve more than 2,500 youths in nine neighborhoods.

The Bar Foundation grant supports Project BUILD, a rehabilitation program at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center that has a goal of reducing recidivism.

During its 14 years, the project has been able to cut the rate of recidivism to as low as 3 to 10 percent among a core group that receives individualized attention from case managers and peers. The general rate in the Detention Center is 60 to 70 percent.

Clients consist of detained, pre-adjudicated youths of ages 10 to 16 who have been charged with crimes involving drugs, gang activity, theft and domestic violence. They are 91 percent male and 78 percent African American.