Mayor Emanuel's Mentoring Initiative

September 22, 2016

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a bold and aggressive effort to invest $36 million in public and private funds over three years to expand mentoring programs to serve at risk youth across the city.  As a city we can come together to support our youth.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor or in supporting and/or participating in mentorship program, the City partners with several organizations that do this throughout the City.   For those looking to volunteer or help support programs involved in working with Chicago’s youth, please contact the Illinois Mentoring Partnership at 312.516.5559 or www.ilmentoring.org, One Good Deed Chicago at www.onegooddeedchicago.org, or any of the following City partners.

Mentoring Partners

  • A Safe Haven

A Safe Haven provides one on one mentoring and group mentoring to 40 youth ages 13-18 that are under-served opportunity youth with resources as well as after school activities. Program services are at A Safe Haven.

Address: 2750 West Roosevelt Road
Phone Number: 773.435.8337
Website: http://www.asafehaven.org/

  • Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago

Access Living Is a mentoring program for young people age 13 – 18 with disabilities. The program supports youth with the transition of independent living, how to navigate the high school experience and relationships as a person with a disability. The focus is to also understand disability justice and how to access needed resources while working towards a model of interdependence as independence.  Services occur at Access Living

Address: 115 W Chicago Ave
Phone Number: 312.640.2103
Website: https://www.accessliving.org/

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a community based program that offers high impact one-to-one mentoring to at-risk youth by matching them with a trusted adult who offers emotional and social guidance and support, exposure to healthy lifestyles and relationships, and encouragement to have higher aspirations and educational achievement.  Services are provided to youth ages 6-12.

Address: 560 W Lake St. 5th FL.
Phone Number: 312.207.5601
Website: http://www.bbbschgo.org/

  • Cabrini Connections

Cabrini Connections provides one-on-one tutoring and mentoring for 7th through 12th graders after school at our on-site location. We are open to students 5 days a week and provide one-on-one tutoring Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 pm but students are welcome at our site anytime.

Address: 641 W. Lake St, 2nd Floor
Phone Number: 312.690.4235
Website: http://www.cabriniconnections.org/

  • Chicago Child Care Society

Chicago Child Care Society provides services through an Extended Family Support Program offering assistance and support to caregivers who have assumed primary care for a related child. Two teen parenting initiatives, The Teen Parent Initiative (TPI) and the Next Step Program, meet the needs of pregnant / parenting high school students at Robeson and Simpson high schools.

Address: 5467 S University Ave.
Phone Number: 773.643.0452 x 2418
Website: http://www.cccsociety.org/

  • Chicago Youth Programs, Inc. (Cabrini Green, Uptown and Washington Parke locations)

Chicago Youth Programs serves inner-city youth that do not have access to social services due to location, poverty, or availability. CYP strives to improve the life opportunities of at-risk youth through a comprehensive approach aimed at developing their overall capabilities. CYP serves children long-term to ensure consistent and positive role modeling and includes education, mentoring, recreation, preventative health care, scholarship and career assistance.  CYP has three mentoring program locations; Northwestern University Law School, Loyola University and the University Of Chicago.

Address: 5350 S. Prairie Ave.
Phone Number: 773.924.0220 x123
Website: http://chicagoyouthprograms.org/

  • Family Matters

 Family Matters offers children, youth ages 6-18, and their families unique personal development experiences that inspire them to find their place in the world and be a positive force for change. Utilizing our Principles of Leadership model, we partner with families to design experiential learning programs tailored to their specific needs and interests. The mentoring program matches children and youth with a trained, one-on-one tutor-mentor. Pairs meet weekly at the Family Matters site.

Address: 7731 N Marshfield Ave
Phone Number: 773.465.6011 x116
Website: https://www.familymatterschicago.org/

  • Heartland Human Care Services

The Youth Mentoring Program of Heartland Human Care Service's Refugee & Immigrant Community Services works to help newly arrived refugee families adjust to their new lives by pairing 6-18 year-old children with adult volunteer mentors. Services are provided on-site.

Address: 4419 N. Ravenswood Avenue
Phone Number: 773.830.5968
Website: https://www.heartlandalliance.org/

  • Hyde Park Neighborhood Club

Hyde Park Neighborhood Club partners with the University Of Chicago Law School to serve Chicago youth ages 13-18 in a safe setting. Youth and Mentors use HPNC to meet and participate in activities while also enjoying what Hyde Park and the City of Chicago has to offer for outside field trips.

Address: 5480 S Kenwood Avenue
Phone Number: 773.643.4062
Website: http://hpnclub.org/

  • Life Directions

The Peer Mentor Program establishes positive peer-to-peer and intergenerational mentoring relationships by engaging youth ages 13-18 with school administrators, teachers, student families, adult mentors, certified peer achievers in a community-wide response to prevent high school dropout and to live a violence-free life. Life Directions provides services at Community Links High School.

Address: 2315 W. 24th Place
Phone Number: 773.265.5806
Website: http://lifedirections.org/

  • METROSquash NFP

MetroSquash pairs students ages 13-18 with a trusted adult role model and students stay paired with their mentor up until college graduation. This adult becomes an extension of their support system and gives them someone to trust, work on school work together, and discover new activities, cultures, and institutions together. The mentor meets with the student on-site twice per month at a minimum to ensure that the relationship remains strong and that students receive support on a consistent basis.

Address: 6100 S. Cottage Grove Avenue
Phone Number: 773-251-1711
Website: http://www.metrosquash.org/

  • New Life Centers of Chicagoland NFP

New Life Centers of Chicagoland‘s Urban Life Skills Program (ULS) is an intensive, community-based mentoring program for youth ages 12 to 19 in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. There are two target demographics of the ULS program: gang-involved youth on probation, and at-risk youth referred through local schools and community agencies. In addition to mentoring, we host 10 distinct program sessions each week, with 4 sessions of prevention programming—including group mentoring and sports programs—and 6 sessions of juvenile justice programming—with substance abuse counseling, “life skills,” and gang intervention sessions occurring weekly on the east and west sides of the neighborhood.

Address: 4101 W 51st Street
Phone Number: 269.873.6303
Website: https://newlifecenters.org/

  • Passages Alternative Living Programs, Inc.

Passages' Girl’s Mentoring Program provides mentoring, guidance and peer support for young ladies ages 11-17 residing in the South side communities of Douglas, Armour Square, Bronzeville, Englewood, Grand Boulevard, Near South Side and Oakland and is open to any student residing in Chicago. The goal of the Girls Mentoring Program is to help the girls identify their talents and abilities; acquire constructive discipline, develop leadership skills and progress toward realizing their highest potential. Our program focuses on abstinence education, job readiness, academic enhancement and community service.  One on one mentoring is offered to aid in their progress towards adulthood. The Girls Mentoring Program is offered year-round, January through December and Saturdays with cultural, educational and social field trips scheduled. Services are provided at the Passages facility.

Address: 2929 S. Wabash Ave Suite 200
Phone Number: 312.225.3800
Website: http://www.passagesalt.org/

  • Penedo Charitable Organization

Penedo Charitable Organization offers academic and social emotional support to youth ages 10-18. All staff and volunteers are trained to be mentors. Services provided at the Penedo.

Address: 20 North Michigan Avenue/Ste. 210
Phone Number: 312-306-9996
Website: http://penedocharitable.com/

  • Phalanx Family Services

Phalanx Family Services provides Mentoring Services for youth ages 14-18. These services assist in guiding youth towards progressive post-secondary educational attainment and developing healthy social and emotional balanced lives. Phalanx also creates projects to help youth understand how they are connected to their immediate and surrounding communities. Services are located in Fenger and Julian high school.

Address: 837 W. 119th ST
Phone Number: 773.291.1086
Website: http://www.phalanxgrpservices.org/

  • The Black Star Project

Black Star's Young Black Men of Honor Mentoring Program exposures youth to mentoring by “real men” whose strong, supportive guidance and positive re-enforcement lead and encourage youth to develop their gifts and gain a sense of who they are and can become. The program design equips youth participants to eclipse the impact of the otherwise overwhelmingly negative forces all around them. Youth receive services at Black Star Project.

Address: 3509 S King Dr. Ste. 2B
Phone Number: 773.285.9600
Website: http://www.blackstarproject.org/

  • True to Life Foundation

The True To Life after school program provides opportunities for youth ages 10-18 to participate in academic engagement and artistic enrichment in a supervised setting. The program incorporates enrichment through the use of arts and culture, enabling youth exposed to violence to redirect their focus by creating and developing tangible artistic expression skills. Services are provided at the True to Life Foundation facility.

Address: 1712 E 87th Sr.
Phone Number: 773.374.7046
Website: http://www.truetolifefoundation.org/

  • Youth Guidance

The Becoming a Man (BAM) mentoring program helps young men of color navigate difficult circumstances that threaten their future. Youth receive the social and emotional skills needed to succeed. BAM is located in 48 schools and works with 7th-12th grade youth in the communities of Englewood, East Garfield Park, Austin, Roseland and Pilsen/Little Village.

Working on Womanhood (WOW) is a school-based, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) counseling program that works to improve the social-emotional competencies of young woman in 7th-12th grade in 32 Chicago area schools. WOW targets young women who have high risk factors of trauma, drug or alcohol abuse, gang involvement, academic failure and teen pregnancy.

Address: 1 N LaSalle St #900
Phone Number: 312.253.4900
Website: https://www.youth-guidance.org/