Patricia Avery
CUAP Director
Patricia Avery has served as the Executive Director of the Champaign-Urbana Area Project (CUAP) since 2004. CUAPʹs mission is to reduce juvenile delinquency by providing direct services, advocating on behalf of youth and families, and working with community committees. She has also worked with the UC2B project and CCAP, whose work is to improve community and police relationships within the African American community, and Project ACCESS, whose aim is to create a system of care for youth with SEDs and those involved with the juvenile justice system. She helped organize CUAP from 1997 to 2003. She also founded the Mentoring Young Sisters Program, which offers one-on-one and group mentoring, teaches life skills, and offers cultural and recreational activities to middle school girls. MYS has served over 200 girls in Champaign County and the program is now serving girls in Hawaii. Other programs she helped develop are the CUperStar Performing Arts Program and the Peer Jury program at Central High School. In 1986, she began her work in the Office of the County Auditor and County Recorder. In 1996, she was the first African-American woman ever appointed or elected to a Champaign County office. In 1998, she ran again for the Champaign County Board and won, being the first African American to win in a district outside of District #5 in Champaign County. On December 4, 2000, she became the first woman, the first African American, and the first Democrat to chair the Champaign County Board.
D’Anne Winston
Champaign County TimeBank Coordinator
champaignTB@gmail.com
It will be my pleasure to help build communities and foster a caring community through the TimeBanking Program. I offer a wide range of skills and services, from accounting to event planning. I am pleased to be in a multicultural community, each culture offering different attributes, but many with similar needs. I want TimeBanking to be able to take down walls and open new doors between neighbors and what each of us has to offer.
I have twenty years of experience in Social and Civil Services; I will now concentrate on community-weaving and relationship-building. I have been involved with nonprofits over the years through volunteering in the areas of domestic abuse, public health, public safety,
food security, and homelessness. My varied background in logistics, media production and networking will provide the perfect foundation for TimeBanking. I am passionate about TimeBanking and its possibilities. I am fully committed to the community through my work coordinating good matches for exchanges. I believe we (as a community) will be creating a new economy, and I am excited to be a part of it.
For question or comments about Champaign County TimeBank, please contact your TimeBank Coordinator, D’Anne Winston, at 373-2827 or email her at ChampaignTB@gmail.com.
Sara J. Balgoyen
I am so excited for the opportunity to join CUAP in their efforts to promote awareness surrounding youth issues, especially related to restorative justice for our juvenile justice system, our schools, and within our community based efforts. I am also the Operations Manager for the Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice Project (IBARJP) and have been for the past 2 years. My passion and commitment for restorative justice comes from the belief that the best way to raise our children to be productive members of society is to focus on our engagement and interactions with each other and how we are ALL a vital part of our community. Engaging our community, especially the youth, in the understanding of restorative philosophies can affect how we treat each other, how we resolve conflict, and how we show empathy, which in turn affects the societal concerns that we all have for our youth and our future.
Leigh Courtney
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America)
vista@cuapweb.org
Joining the Champaign-Urbana Area Project is Leigh Courtney, an AmeriCorps VISTA who will serve the organization full-time in 2011-2012. As an AmeriCorps VISTA, Leigh aims to help expand the capacity of CUAP to develop solutions to community concerns. Through CUAP, she will work to raise local awareness of balanced and restorative practices that divert youth from the criminal justice system and promote community cohesion. She will work with CUAP to pioneer the Mental Health Juvenile Justice Action Network, an effort overseen by the ACCESS Initiative, a trauma- and justice-informed system of care for local youth and their families.
Leigh is thrilled to be gaining hands-on experience in restorative justice and the opportunity to serve Illinois youth. She graduated summa cum laude in 2010 with a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and Spanish from Denison University, where she developed a passion for community service and activism. She is especially interested in justice system reform and finding positive alternatives to incarceration. Leigh joined the AmeriCorps VISTA program through Cra-Wa-La Volunteers In Probation with the desire to learn more about nonprofit organizations and careers in social justice, and she could not be more excited to be working at such an accomplished organization in her home state of Illinois. She looks forward to serving the youth of Champaign-Urbana and gaining valuable knowledge along the way!
For more information about the AmeriCorps VISTA program, please visit www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista.asp.
For more information about Cra-Wa-La Volunteers In Probation, please visit www.crawalavip.org.
