This program really just opens the door for you.
They taught me a lot of interview skills, they taught me a lot of job application skills,
some of which I had I didn't even know I had.
I've learned just so many ways to accent everything I have and talk about my personality
and what I can offer.
Our tagline is a life, a job, a future and really that's what Jobs for Youth is all about.
We have this one life we're given and the young people we help, 17 to 24, have a very
challenged life, getting through school, getting job readiness skills, career skills.
We try to provide those skills and then we try to provide the job as well with the Chicago
business community helping us.
Jobs for Youth was founded by Jack Connolly in 1980.
Jack specialized in, had many degrees actually in social work, social problems and decided
that he wanted to help the youth of Chicago get a start, the at-risk kids, the neighborhoods
where the kids had the most challenges and so in 1980 Jack and very few other friends
who became board members started Jobs for Youth, it was a very small organization back
then.
When I came to Jobs for Youth I was introduced to the company by a friend of mine who volunteered
here and she insisted that I become a part of Jobs for Youth as a volunteer.
Everything that you've learned over the last 15 days, it is now up to you to apply it to
your lives, okay?
So here was just an exercise.
Now you have real choices and real consequences.
I always said that I wanted to be more involved.
I wanted to help you set goals and then see you accomplish those goals.
Every new young man or woman who comes through the program, everybody who has a story to
tell is the next person we want to help.
I stay involved because it's been a great love of my life and a great passion.
It was especially important to me because I remember when I was at age and I used to
make a lot of the same mistakes that I see young people make and I just wanted to pay
it forward.
I wanted to make sure that I could reach out to young people who looked, behaved just like
me and tell them, I know where you've been, I know what you're going through and I can
help you through this.
The clothing closet is a contribution that was incorporated into JFY to help our clients
with the more professional side that they can afford themselves.
In Dress for Success, we discuss the do's and don'ts of professional attire.
One of the biggest things that we try to touch on and get across to our clients is that with
their age, demographics, 17 to 24, they have their own style, they have their own fashion,
they don't want to assimilate to the professional world.
We try to get them to come out of their shell with their used to wearing to fit into a more
corporate setting.
My name is Sierra Simmons and I'm 19 years old.
What made me want to go to JFY, I wanted to get help and better myself so that I can learn
more about myself and about others when I do go out into the work world.
So what motivated me to be dedicated to it for two weeks was just my current living situation.
It's like seven of us living off one income because my mom does not work.
So we all have to depend on my stepdad's income which is, you know, after he pays bills and
everything, it's really nothing, no money left for us to, you know, enjoy for ourselves.
The biggest challenges I think are financial challenges.
A lot of our clients do not have money to come in.
Our population is more women than men.
Many of them single mothers.
They have issues with their children.
They don't know how to go about finding a job or even coming here for a workshop without
having someone take care of their kids.
A lot of our clients will complete the program and they'll continue to do better as far as
their job serves and they might find employment, but they're still surrounded in the same community
around the same people who once were getting them into trouble, who once were hindering
them from getting a job or going back to school or, you know, furthering their education.
So it's those barriers that surround them, you know, in their daily environment such as
the community members and whatnot that hold them back, which are probably the biggest
challenges that they face post-workshop.
We don't push a client to something they don't want to do just to satisfy our contractual
needs.
We still make sure that our focus is specifically on the client and what his or her career goals
are.
Because of how the employment is nowadays, it's a bit more difficult for our case managers
and our job developers to create these connections and to build rapport with potential employers.
If we're not having a certain number of clients actually go through our workshop, I think it
does affect the way that we are sponsored and how individuals would like to donate.
We're cutting government dollars towards programs like ours.
We're just not able to address all the challenges and all the needs of our young people and
that's unfortunate.
So as an organization, our biggest need, our biggest challenge is making sure that we
can continue assisting young people in these communities.
