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Youth Guidance: Putting Chicago’s Youth on the Right Path

This article was published on:
November 28, 2017
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Youth Guidance is based in Chicago and has deep roots in the community. Started in 1924 as a more traditional social service agency, it has been expanding for almost a century to serve youth from primary school to young adulthood and to meet students’ needs at home, in the community and in one of the most important environments in their lives — at school. Youth Guidance networks with a wide variety of school-based, community-based and national organizations and programs to reach out to students and families, teachers and social service agencies. It’s a critical hub in a large network of care that produces positive, measurable improvements in the lives of students in Chicago, our nation’s third most populous city.

At Youth Guidance, at school, in the community and in the working world, access to technology is as necessary as access to pencils and paper. Students need the internet to search for jobs, network, communicate, track current events and read news, and to do research. GED programs, tutoring and other online educational opportunities require robust internet access. Students who don’t have internet access at home often depend on schools for access. This is where Youth Guidance’s partnership with Mobile Citizen comes in. Supported by a national collaboration of EBS (Educational Broadband Services) licensees, Mobile Citizen provides affordable wireless internet and hotspots with no data caps for the Youth Guidance staff, allowing them to use technology and internet access to better help those they serve.

For more information on Youth Guidance and its work in Chicago, check out the full case study.