About YJC

Since 1983, the Youth Job Center has assisted more than 20,000 young job seekers with job placement, employment counseling and ongoing support. We provide:

• job training and placement services to approximately 1,400 youth annually.
• job placement of 45% of the youth served — well above the national average for youth employment
• employee placement and follow-up services to our employer partners
  

We believe that when you invest in young lives, everyone in the community benefits. The future workforce largely depends on our own ability to prepare, motivate and educate our young people. Education and employment have been identified as integral steps to break the cycle of poverty. The YJC is making an impact in multiple ways.

Consider these facts:

Problem: 17% of children in Illinois live in poverty.¹
Solution: Connecting disadvantaged youth with school and work is one of 12 key initiatives to cut the number of people living in poverty by 50% in 10 years. ²

Problem: There are approximately 27,000 youth in juvenile detention centers on any given day.
Solution: Employment is clearly a deterrent to at-risk behavior as proven by the fact that formerly incarcerated individuals with jobs are three times less likely to return to prison than those without jobs.⁴

Problem: 63% of teens ages 16-19 are unemployed.¹
Solution: Soft skills training is the main predictor of short-term worker retention. Technical skills training is the main predictor of longer-term worker retention. Workplace intermediaries reduce the perceived risks of hiring employees viewed as “business risks.”⁵

The YJC is the conduit that links young people to employment and educational opportunities. If you are a youth seeking employment, please visit our Job Seekers pages to learn about our programs then call us to discover how we can help. If you are an Employer, find out how you can benefit from our services, and use our online application to request fulfillment of a position at your company. Volunteers can contact us to find out where they can help the most. Please find a full list of contact information here. Also, donations are always welcome.

¹ KIDS COUNT: State-level data online. KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
² Center for American Progress. From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half, April 25, 2007.
³ Source: National Juvenile Justice Network, 2005
⁴ The Bureau of Justice, 2006
⁵ Combes Taylor, Judith and Rubin, Jerry. “Engaging Employers to Benefit Low-Income Job Seekers: Lessons from the Jobs Initiative.”