Probation Challenge Celebrates 35 Years of Helping Thousands of Men and Women Filtering Through the Criminal Justice System; Education and Training is the Key

Please Lend Your Support to this Much-Needed Organization with a Passion for Helping Troubled Youth

(A Message from Juanita Bratcher & Chinta Strausberg)

In 1979, Rev. Harold E. Bailey developed an ambitious plan to save young people from the criminal justice system. He founded Probation Challenge. His plan was quickly picked-up, backed and supported by Prominent Justice R. Eugene Pincham.

The Probation Challenge program was now on its way – implemented from the courtroom of Justice R. Eugene Pincham, and sanctioned by the late Mayor Harold Washington. The program was housed for 27 years on the campus of Olive-Harvey College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago.

The program brought about many successes – through education and training, the Probation Challenge organization sent youth on to various colleges and universities. Many of the program’s clients received grants and scholarships, and are now productive citizens and taxpayers. And a large majority has never returned back to the criminal justice system.

Bailey, founder and president of Probation Challenge, has advised and counseled thousands of young men and women filtering through the criminal justice system. For 14 years, he served as a Cook County Adult Probation Officer, and served 14 years as Chairman of the Cook County Board of Corrections. He is also the founder of the PCC Network.

A devoted minister of the gospel, Bailey has become more than acquainted with youth and their troubled spirits. He says a large majority of youth filtering through the criminal justice system are:

1. From one-parent homes;

2.  High school dropouts;

3. Involved with drugs; and,

4. No firm spiritual foundation. And, all with a common denominator, the large majority are African Americans, followed by Hispanics.

Bailey, with a passion for youth insist that “Education brings about awareness, and awareness brings on the ability to think. And when a student can think… they then can prayerfully make rational decisions.”

Today, financial problems are hovering over the organization, yet Bailey and Board Members’ serious aim is to re-establish the sought after program back into the community. You can support Probation Challenge by buying tickets to its August 2014 annual ‘Portrait of Achievers’ Awards Dinner or by donation. Probation Challenge is a 501-C3 organization.

Probation Challenge’s annual ‘Portrait of Achievers’ Awards Dinner will be held Friday, August 15, 2014, 7:00 P.M., at the  Condesa del Mar, 12220 South Cicero Avenue, Alsip, Illinois. The complete evening is only $50 per person.

Marshall Thompson, now the only original member of the Chi-lites, is one of this year’s ‘Portrait of Achievers’ Award Recipient. Thompson will also perform during the ‘Show of Shows’ segment of the event.

For more information and ticket reservations, please call Rev. Harold E. Bailey, 773.978.3706.

Probation Challenge will celebrate its 35-year anniversary with a different flare! Award Recipients are: Marshall Thompson, Mother Christine Moore and Clarence McMillan. The organization will offer a Prayer Vigil, Dinner, Entertainment and The Show of Shows.

Please support Rev. Harold Bailey and the Probation Challenge program, a program that is designed to help keep troubled young people away from the criminal justice system, make them productive citizens through education and training, and to decrease crime activities in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.

Respectfully,

Juanita Bratcher, Author, Editor & Publisher, CopyLine Magazine

Chinta Strausberg, Editor-in-Chief, 316 Magazine, Host of the Strausberg Report, and a Contributor to several publications