CPY is committed to ensuring that young professionals (like you!) have direct opportunities to mentor youth in underserved areas of Chicago. CPY offers volunteers the opportunity to support and assist underprivileged youth in the following categories: literacy, mentoring, college preparation, job training, and career skills assistance. By offering a small amount of your time, you can help these young people to overcome the challenges they face and succeed in life.
CPY's programs include the following:
- Literacy Tutoring: help a student (K-2) learn to read via the Internet from the comfort of your home or office.
- Job Preparation: help a young person (17 – 24 years old) gain meaningful employment by working with them to improve their interview and career advancement skills.
- College Preparation: help high school seniors with college applications, aptitude exams, and collegiate readiness. Most students are first generation college students.
Through any of these opportunities, you can make a huge impact by volunteering 30 minutes a week to just a couple hours a month. Additional details on each volunteer opportunity are below. Please email volunteer@cp4youth.org for more information or to get involved.
| Literacy Tutoring | |
| Need: | Currently, 60% of third graders in public schools fail to read at their grade level. |
| How CPY is helping: | CPY has partnered with Innovations for Learning (www.innovationsforlearning.org) to help at risk students (K-2) overcome reading deficiencies at this critical, early developmental reading stage. |
| Volunteer Impact: | Help a child learn to read through a proven curriculum which also happens to be fun, easy to use, and online! |
| Time Commitment: | 30 minutes a week from the comfort of your home/office (sessions done via phone and internet) |
| Interested in getting involved/next steps: | Send an email to: literacy@cp4youth.org w/subject line "Literacy Tutoring." |
| Job Prep and Career Skills Assistance | |
| Need: | Nearly 100,000 young Chicagoans (17-24) are either unemployed or have dropped out of school. |
| How CPY is helping: | CPY has partnered with Jobs for Youth (www.jfychicago.org) to help conduct classes geared toward helping youth gain the tools to find, land, and keep a job. A key focus is helping the student to perform better in interviews. |
| Volunteer Impact: | Help a disadvantaged youth gain a meaningful job and stay off the street. |
| Time Commitment: | 1 hour a month downtown during your lunch hour (11:15-12:15 or 12:30-1:30). The day of the week is flexible based on your schedule. |
| Interested in getting involved/next steps: | Send an email to: jobprep@cp4youth.org w/subject line “Job Prep.” |
| College Preparation and Assistance | |
| Need: | Numerous students from the inner-city want to attend college but lack relatives and/or mentors to help guide them through the process. College attendance has been proven to be the number one driver of urban economic growth. |
| How CPY is helping: | CPY works directly with high school seniors through the college application process and then prepares them for college once accepted. Job-shadowing and informational career sessions are also provided for the students to offer them insights on post-graduation opportunities and the steps required to attain those positions. |
| Volunteer Impact: | Young professionals can help high school seniors get into college and prepare them to be ready for university life. |
| Time Commitment: | Sessions held on a monthly/bi-monthly basis (2-3 hrs per session). Volunteers can attend individual sessions or participate on a continual basis. |
| Interested in getting involved/next steps: | Send an email to: collegeprep@cp4youth.org w/subject line "College Prep." |