Text Box: Director’s Message Text Box: As I planned to travel across the State of Illinois to an Illinois Council of Area Projects (ICAP) meeting, a friend called and said he wished he was making the trip with me, as he always enjoys the beauty of Illinois. On the way across the farms and fields outside of the big city and the smoke of factories; especially south of Kankakee, I thought of the vast differences in the structure of communities, rural, suburban, and urban, and the commonalities, as well as how the programs vary among the 28 different statewide area projects. But the underlying concept remains constant. The theme of the area project concept; that communities through grass root efforts to treat delinquency, crime, and community decay through root cause intervention are addressing the negative conditions contributing to community decay. It is this unique philosophy that makes the local committees the backbone of social change that produces positive results for youth and families as well as the community itself through the use of indigenous local volunteers by following a simple basic outline. A process of identifying community needs through an assessment, followed by the development of a program plan and implementing programs that give youth and community residents input and a chance to make positive choices and develop skills that effect their outcome. Our programs are more than just afterschool tutoring, arts and crafts, and sports; They are the communities coming together to provide resources through volunteerism that effect community change as well as provide safe supervised activities where adults provide guidance, friendship, and serve as role models. Give friendly support, and structure to community endeavors as well as youth and families where the outcome will be a self sufficient, caring, safe, nurturing community, where all residents will have an opportunity to move forward with a collective plan for the future that side steps the negative influences of drugs, gangs, and crime. Although Illinois is a state comprised of diverse populations, we are all connected not only by electric line, telephone wire, internet and computers, etc., etc., but by our values and our beliefs. In this world of high technology it is great to see youth playing soccer, and people doing something constructive at the local level where the community still exists and has not been diminished by “global thought.” I encourage you to get involved as a volunteer and make a difference in the life of a youngster. Text Box: Newsletter Fall/ Winter 2009 Mission Statement: “Establish and develop locally incorporated independent community committees; to carry out activities for the prevention and treatment of juvenile crime and delinquency, as well as to provide for the welfare, safety, and stability of the community at large; by a commitment to help improve the quality of life.”