CCH is proud to report that Laurene Heybach, founding director of the CCH Law Project, is being honored this month by IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org 

Rene was named Illinois Legal Advocate of the Month. A video interview featuring Rene and Associate Law Director Patricia Nix-Hodes has been posted by IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org on its website and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQW1ydCpkqA

Rene has worked 30 years in civil rights and poverty law. She holds the Chicago Bar Foundation's first Thomas Morsch Public Service Award, and the first Sandra Neese Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. Before launching the Law Project in 1997, Rene was supervisory attorney for the Homeless Advocacy Project at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, and a co-winner of LAF's Equal Justice Award in 1994 and 1996.

Rene has written extensively about the needs and rights of children, including articles in Illinois Pediatrician and the Children's Legal Rights Journal of Loyola University Chicago. She co-authored several editions of the American Bar Association book, Educating Children Without Housing: A Primer on Legal Requirements and Implementation Strategies for Educators, Advocates and Policymakers (2002, 2007, 2009). She also received the 2006 All-University Award for Community Service from her alma mater, Marquette University of Milwaukee. 

- Anne Bowhay, Media