Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up healthy, active and confident. But for many families, barriers such as food insecurity, the cost of youth sports, lack of transportation, and limited access to safe recreation make that far more difficult. Across the country, nonprofits are stepping in to provide nutritious meals, fitness opportunities, adaptive sports, […]
Local nonprofit iMentor Chicago is on a mission to help students in under-resourced communities navigate the path to post-secondary success and economic mobility. We do this by matching an adult volunteer mentor with every student in our Chicago Public Schools partner schools, no matter the student’s GPA or test scores. Mentors work with students for two to four years to help them […]
Maddie Pardue knew that rich kids weren’t supposed to have problems. And yet, in her early 20s, she was feeling stuck. She’d grown up in the shadow of parents who cared for needy patients through international medical aid work, and a grandfather who built the family business into a huge success. After college, however, she […]
BUILD has been lifting up youth in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods since 1969. It started with street violence intervention and gang detachments, but has now expanded to after-school programs; academic and college counseling; art, music, and sports leagues; community outreach; and mental health care. BUILD youth were teens and tweens growing up in the constant trauma […]
Life can be tough, and for teenagers, it can be even tougher. Teens already deal with a lot of challenges: peer pressure, hormonal changes and even cyber bullying, so if something more serious creeps in, such as depression or substance abuse, things can quickly become overwhelming. Because teenagers are still developing, it can be easy […]
North Shore’s Jackie Moss grew up playing squash, an activity that opened opportunities for her to travel and see the country, meet a wide diversity of people, attend an Ivy League school, and eventually become captain of her squash team at Princeton. It was those experiences as a youth that she wanted to share with […]
Covenant House has been coming to the aid of homeless and at-risk teens for 45 years, but if this is the first time you’re hearing about them, get ready to see the impact of their work take hold in our city. The organization only opened up an Illinois chapter a little over a year ago, […]
