CYC believes all children deserve a safe and level playing field, so we work hard to deliver the best resources to our children, teens, and their families. Our Education Support Initiative serves K-12 students who are youth in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services living in Chicago. This program combines intensive outreach to youth in care and their caregivers with programming at CYC-Rebecca K. Crown Youth Center and CYC-Epstein Youth Center.

The outreach component is designed to stabilize placements by providing support to foster parents, mentoring to youth, and referrals to needed resources and services. A family-centered approach ensures that youth and foster parents receive the support necessary for a stable home life. This programming framework builds fundamental development assets including holistic life skills, parent involvement, service learning, etc., while focusing on education and improving academic performance.

In the 2022-2023 program year, CYC’s Education Support Initiative achieved the following outcomes:

• Youth served: 96

• 98.8% of youth served did not have a disruptive placement change

• 4,875 hours spent doing one one-on-one or small group mentoring

• Total GPA change from baseline: 0.5

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