Citizen Advocacy Center

Citizen Advocacy Center receives grant from DuPage Community Foundation for Youth Civic Education Project Elmhurst, October 20th, 2003

The Citizen Advocacy Center is one of 49 not-for -profit organizations in DuPage County to receive a grant this year from the general grant program of The DuPage Community Foundation based in Wheaton, Illinois. The grant, awarded at a special breakfast on Wednesday, October 15, will underwrite, in part, the Center's Youth Civic Education Project.

The Citizen Advocacy Center is a non-profit, non-partisan community legal organization located in Elmhurst and dedicated to building democracy in the 21st Century. The Youth Civic Education Project will teach students what "good citizenship" means in practice, and how individuals can make a difference in their community by using real-world examples of active, informed and effective lesson plans that meet Illinois Education State Standards for Social Studies and by providing community lawyer guest speakers to middle and high schools teachers. For further information regarding the Citizen Advocacy Center, please contact Executive Director, Ms. Terry Pastika at 630.833.4080.

Established in 1986 with the help of The Chicago Community Trust, The DuPage Community Foundation is a publicly supported 501(c)(3) organization to which contributions are tax deductible. The Foundation was created to benefit the people of DuPage County and receives contributions and bequests into a permanent endowment from individuals, corporations, organizations, and foundations wishing to make lasting contributions to the people of DuPage. The earnings on these funds are then used, in accordance with donor wishes, for the Foundation's grantmaking and community leadership activities. The DuPage Community Foundation's purpose is to raise the quality of life throughout DuPage County by developing and channeling philanthropy to meet the emerging, changing, and ongoing needs of the people of the County. Based on the American virtues of volunteerism and philanthropy, the Foundation fosters a legacy of support for the people of DuPage by making grants to not-for-profit organizations working in the arts, civic affairs, education, environmental affairs, health, and human services. For future information about the Foundation, or to arrange future media opportunities, please contact Michael Sitrick, Development Associate, at (630) 665-5556.

Local Community Activist Named to National Public Interest Rising Star Hall of Fame

Executive Director and community lawyer of the Citizen Advocacy Center, Ms. Terry Pastika, has been selected as one of three outstanding young activists to receive the new National Public Interest Rising Star Award from OMB Watch, a Washington D.C. based public interest organization. She will receive the award in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 9, during OMB Watch's 20th anniversary celebration.

Ms. Pastika is being honored for her work as a community organizer and community lawyer at the Citizen Advocacy Center, an Elmhurst based, local organization that has worked to strengthen democracy by building civic skills and citizen participation in the Chicagoland area for nearly a decade. Ms. Pastika's accomplishments include organizing the Center's basic civic skills program, the Citizen Training Corps, which has been dubbed as a "civics boot camp with clout" and has been adapted by area schools and civic organizations as a model for teaching civic education, and being part of the Center's team that in 1999 won a Chicagoland area award for "Most Innovative Advocacy." Board President Theresa Amato stated, "We are both honored and proud to have our executive director recognized nationally as a dedicated civic leader for her outstanding work at the Citizen Advocacy Center.

" The new National Public Interest Rising Star Award is designed to call attention to emerging leaders committed to the causes of social justice, government accountability, and citizen participation. "Through this award, we hope to recognize the extraordinary impact dedicated young people can make in even the first few years of their careers. The path Terry Pastika has chosen takes courage. We hope this award will inspire them to stay the course- and that the recognition they receive will inspire others," said Gary D. Bass, OMB Watch executive director. The honorees were chosen on the basis of unusual courage, creativity, commitment, or tenacity; a significant success or series of successes; or especially effective leadership. OMB Watch was founded in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees regulation, the federal budget, and information collection and dissemination. Over the years, the focus has shifted to a broader agenda of government accountability. The group is guided by the belief that improving access to governmental decision-makers and encouraging citizen participation will lead to a more just and equitable society.