For 30 years, we have trained over 28,000 young adults, and made over 27,475 job placements with a current average starting wage of more than $9.40 per hour, and in fiscal year 2010, we graduated over 600 youths and successfully placed more than 700 in various industries. And, in the past 19 years since the GED program was implemented, nearly 900 school dropouts have earned their GED Certificates. JFY graduates approximately 1,200 youth annually from our Work Readiness/Life Skills training, all of whom are out of school, between the ages of 17 and 24, and reside in underserved neighborhoods throughout Chicago and adjacent lower-income suburbs. We understand and advocate that the impact of bringing employment and self-sufficiency to this demographic goes far beyond simply getting a job. Our work and that of our volunteers has been recognized locally and nationally, including: the most recent Microsoft Corporation Unlimited Potential AwardJFY was named one of five organizations in the Midwest region; National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC)were one of only four organizations nationally to receive Full Accreditation due to our ability to demonstrate a commitment to leadership through best practices for youth employment and youth development programming; The Chicago Community Trust's James Brown IV Award of Excellence for Outstanding Community Service; and the President's Volunteer Action Award, presented by President George H. W. Bush. Moreover, we are one of only five Illinois organizations identified as a National Work Readiness Assessment Site and hold the National Work Readiness Credentialit is the first national standards-based assessment for entry-level workers to provide a transferable national standard for work readiness.

Jobs For Youth/Chicagos mission is to empower young men and women from low- income families become part of the economic mainstream; and, in the process, provide the business community with motivated, socially conscious and job-ready workers.

Core programming consists of seven basic components: 1) Pre-enrollment Assessment and Needs - Identification to evaluate work-readiness and identify issues or problems that may interfere with success in the JFY program or on the job. 2) Work-Readiness/Life Skills - Training workshops, which include both basic computer literacy and basic financial literacy training along with career development coaching and employment-readiness training. 3) Job Placement - with one of nearly 300 Chicago-area employers that rely on JFY to help meet their needs for qualified entry-level employees. 4) GED Program for youth seeking to complete their high school education. 5) Supportive Services Provides individual counseling on career and life issues, referral to sources of specialized assistance if needed, and intervention to help resolve problems that occur in the home or on the job. 6) Post-placement and Follow-up JFY clients are engaged for at least two years to promote employment retention and facilitate longer-term job growth. 7) Academic / Career Pathways Provides JFY clients with post-secondary and technical school education attainment. The curriculum for JFYs Work-Readiness/Life Skills Training Workshops is built on a career development model and structured to allow students the opportunity to develop work maturity skills and basic computer literacy skills. The workshop curriculum addresses five skill categories: Self-assessment Understanding occupational interests, work values, abilities, and aptitudes Academic skills Understanding, speaking, reading and writing business English with a focus on word recognition and comprehension strategies; critical thinking and development of problem-solving strategies Personal Management skills Strategies for setting and achieving goals; defining workplace ethics and responsible behavior; demonstrating initiative; establishing and maintaining good working relationships; identifying with the goals, norms, values, customs and cultures of the work group; using a team approach to identify problems and devise solutions Computer skills Basics of hardware and software, files and folders, Microsoft Word, the Internet Financial literacy Basics of budgeting, banking and bank services, credit and borrowing, credit records and credit reports, saving and investing. In addition, as most youths come to JFY with little or no previous work experience, students are counseled on the value of jobs on different steps of the career development ladder: survival jobs; transitional jobs; and career jobs. The JFY Career Development Model for ongoing career and life planning has been at the core of how we inform and teach youth over the last 20 years, and the principle behind this model is that it teaches young adults how to make Informed and Considered Career Decisions (ICCDs) which will lead to positive outcomes educationally, socially, and economically.