Christopher Helt is Awarded the Chicago FBI Director's Community Service Leadership Award (DCLA)

    CHICAGO, IL, January 07, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Christopher Helt has been awarded the 2013 Chicago FBI Director's Community Service Leadership Award (DCLA). The DCLA, started in 1990, is the FBI's principal community service award given to individuals or organizations as a way to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in combating crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence in America.

Each FBI field office selects one individual or organization for the award, and each award recipient is publicly recognized at the local level. At a later date in April, the honorees are brought to FBI Headquarters to be presented with their award by the FBI Director.

Helt, a Chicago attorney and native Chicagoan, was instrumental in assisting the start of a unique charitable foundation, the Edwin C. Shanahan Memorial Post 1920, which partners volunteers from the FBI. Many of the volunteers are FBI special agents who assist the organization in community outreach for youths in some of Chicago's most challenged communities.

Helt said: "The award is given by the FBI, but really, the organization we helped start would not exist without the unbelievably tireless work by those same FBI agents. It's these same FBI special agents, working in the trenches, who volunteer their time with kids from Chicago's West Side -- building bridges that will last a lifetime in those communities. The FBI special agents have become their role models. It's amazing stuff."

Helt, further commenting on the new organization's vision, also said: "The FBI has opened its doors to these kids, providing an 'academic forum' for them, building trust, teaching leadership skills, and core values in the process. I'm just happy to be here to witness all of this first-hand. Something truly special has begun here on the West Side of Chicago, and I wouldn't be surprised to see what has been done here in Chicago emulated by other FBI offices throughout the nation."

The Chicago award presentation and luncheon will be held at Loyola University of Chicago's Corboy Law Center on January 14, 2014. Helt also travels to Washington, D.C. to receive the award and meet FBI Director James Comey, Jr. in April, 2014.

More information on the FBI DCLA: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/partnerships_and_outreach/community_outreach/dcla

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