Lawndale Christian Legal Center (LCLC), a community-based legal nonprofit, is celebrating the grand opening of its new community justice center in North Lawndale. The new $22.5 million Dr. Dennis Deer Community Justice Center will serve as the nonprofit’s headquarters and provide studio apartment housing, along with wraparound support, to its clients who are impacted by the criminal justice system.
“For some of the young men that will live here, this will be the first time they have a bedroom to call their own. This will be the home where they can receive counseling, job training and connections to the things they need to succeed,” said LCLC president and CEO Cliff Nellis during Tuesday’s press conference.
LCLC will host a street festival on Sunday, April 27, to celebrate its 15th anniversary and the recent grand opening of the new justice center. The street festival takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at its new location, 1441 S. Keeler Ave. Details for the grand opening event can be found here
On April 22, ahead of its grand opening, Nellis and other LCLC staff members hosted a press conference and media walkthrough. The tour took place in the new space, which was named after former Cook County Commissioner and LCLC Vice President Dennis Deer, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 51.
“The Dr. Dennis Deer Community Justice Center is giving youth a second chance at life, giving them additional options and help with their legal concerns, as well as by providing assistance and additional resources,” said Barbara Deer, a North Lawndale resident and Dr. Deer’s widow. The Deers were married for 27 years and met as students at Collins Academy High School in 1990.
The Deer Center previously housed Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School. The former school building had been sitting vacant for 20 years before LCLC purchased it for $30,000 in 2018, according to Nellis. The nonprofit purchased the building using a mix of public and private funds, including $7.5 million from the state, a $13 million new tax credit allocation from the Corporation for Supportive Housing, and $4.3 million from the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund.
Illinois State Senator Lakesia Collins (D-5th) led the efforts to get the project funded at the state level. During her remarks Tuesday, she highlighted the work of LCLC, whose mission is to provide legal services and wraparound support grounded in restorative justice for young people in Lawndale. She emphasized that restorative justice is not only necessary but also effective.
“We have people who don’t have housing, people who are dealing with multiple issues at home and people who are in survival mode,” Collins said. “So giving these people an opportunity to have another chance at life, but [also] to actually have the tools that they need to thrive and to be a blessing to someone else and to help someone else that’s going down the struggling road, to me, that’s a win.”
LCLC clients will be able to meet with their attorneys and be connected to wraparound support at the Deer Center, such as employment, housing, education, mental health, substance use, anger management, medical care and more. On average, LCLC works with around 300 clients each year.
The North Lawndale Employment Network, I. A.M. A.B.L.E. Center for Family, and the Association House of Chicago will be part of the Deer Center, providing workforce development classes, mental health services and culinary classes.
The Dennis Deer Center is more than 32,000 square feet and includes:
- 20 studio apartments
- a workforce-development skills lab
- fitness center and outdoor basketball court
- commercial kitchen and dining hall
- laundry rooms
- therapy rooms
- peace room for restorative justice healing circles
- community rooms for other nonprofits and program partners
- a patio for barbecues and social events
- office space for attorneys, administrators, street-outreach workers, case managers and circle keepers.
The 20 studio apartments will be utilized as transitional housing for young men — between the ages of 18 to 25 — who are sentenced to probation in the Cook County Circuit Court. One resident has already moved in, and two more are expected by the end of the week, Nellis said. Each resident will stay at the center for approximately two years. Each resident will live at the center for about two years.
The apartments are fully furnished and include a bed, dining table and chairs, bathroom, electric stove and microwave.
Photo by Ash Lane for The TRiiBE®
A team made up of an LCLC lawyer, case manager, and street outreach worker will work together to identify young men at risk of being incarcerated in Illinois to become future Deer Center residents. The team will create a mitigation package for the Cook County judge and the assistant state’s attorney assigned to the individual’s case.
“We’re basically asking the judge and the state’s attorney to, instead of sending this person to prison, allow them to serve a period of probation here at the Deer Center,” Nellis explained.
The transitional housing program at the Deer Center builds on a 2015 pilot program, which provided five LCPC clients with free housing, job training, restorative justice and healing circles. The LCLC clients were placed in apartments on the West Side while they were navigating their criminal cases.
Photo by Ash Lane for The TRiiBE®
“I got the mental and emotional help that I needed, the support that I needed. I learned different life skills like financial literacy and resume building, and on top of all that, I had stable housing and reliable transportation for the first time in my life,” said West Side native Fredrick Dennis, one of the pilot program participants.
Dennis, who could have faced an eight-year prison sentence, has since gotten married, become a father of three, earned a degree in business administration, and now teaches boxing and mentors youth at the Cook County Juvenile Justice Center.
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