HR0181 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0181 LRB101 11549 ALS 57458 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate the staff and Board of Directors of the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst on the occasion of its 25th anniversary; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center opened to the public in 1994 and is an award-winning, non-profit, non-partisan free community legal organization that has been recognized at the local, state, and national levels; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center was founded by Theresa Amato, who served as the Center's first executive director for eight years and has been a member of the organization's dedicated Board of Directors for 25 years; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center dedicates itself to building democracy for the 21st century by strengthening the citizenry's capacities, resources, and institutions for self-governance; to advance its mission, the Center developed a pioneering community lawyer model that protects the public's assets, increases democratic protocols at every level of government, and develops the voice of the citizenry through a multi-faceted approach that includes community lawyering, organizing, policy analysis, legal advocacy, civic education, coalition building, and litigation; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center advances reforms through efforts that start at the local level and become State-wide initiatives, where undemocratic barriers rooted in State law prevent or deter meaningful participation in the democratic process; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center is open to the public and offers a wide spectrum of services to further the citizenry's skills, confidence, and understanding of civic tools, to promote individual and community efforts to resolve issues of public concern, and to stimulate the citizenry's awareness of and action on issues of public significance; services include a library of free resource materials, legal and advocacy advice on matters of public concern from community lawyers, frequent discussion forums on local to statewide issues and the impact on community members, and civic and legal trainings for the public; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center is committed to making government more accountable, accessible, and transparent through improving access to areas such as government-held information and government institutions, the airwaves, the ballot, and the courts, to monitoring local government entities to insure accountability and to deter officials from acting contrary to the general interest of the community, to providing journalism training on government issues, and to litigating on behalf of select causes to sustain access to justice; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center's pursuit of building democracy includes many public initiatives, such as the Civic Empowerment Zone with a library of resources, teacher and student trainings, and a hands-on internship program that has mentored hundreds of high school, college, and law students and includes the Public Access Counselor Rulings database, which makes more than 200 decisions immediately available to the public, various government audits that assess compliance with state laws or practices in areas such as election administration, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Open Meetings Act, and journalism education on policy issues and much more; and

WHEREAS, The Citizen Advocacy Center has contributed to advancing statewide reforms, including civic education, the Freedom of Information Act, the Open Meetings Act, access to the ballot, protecting the First Amendment Rights of the citizenry, tax increment financing, ethics, and campaign finance; and

WHEREAS, The Board of Directors and staff of the Citizen Advocacy Center serve as a model of hard work, integrity, and dedication for the people of the State of Illinois; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate the administration and staff of the Citizen Advocacy Center on the occasion of its 25th anniversary and wish them continued success in the future; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Citizen Advocacy Center as a symbol of our esteem and respect.