Toni Preckwinkle City Club address
Here’s what Hon. Toni Preckwinkle says about Center for Companies That Care
Hon. Toni Preckwinkle Address to City Club 10/20/2016
One of the programs we’ve partnered on is offered by Center for Companies that Care, a local not for profit, which has done a wonderful job of getting corporate partners to extend new opportunities to young people. They mentor and support hundreds of students in public schools from middle school through college graduation. In addition to academic and social support, they offer financial mentoring that guides students and their families through the financial aid and scholarship maze.
They also offer a Career Awareness Internship for high school students. Students earn a stipend while exploring career opportunities that do not exist in the neighborhoods where they live and study. As a teacher, I have to admit that I was pleased to learned, that they are also teaching responsibility by holding students accountable their actions.
We asked them to include some students who have already had contact with the legal system. Students earned a stipend while exploring career opportunities they previously did not know existed.
This is not an expensive program – but it is an impactful one. Corporate involvement not only reduces the cost to provide the program, but gives it additional depth and diversity. This past summer our group of young men and women got to visit Baxter Health Care, Magid Glove, Power Construction, TTX, Fairmont Chicago, the Art Institute and the Nadler Financial Group, just to name a few.
We want to expand this type of programming. This is only the beginning. Cook County is home to thousands of excellent, growing businesses that could be engaged as well as thousands of young people, who could benefit from the exposure.
What we saw firsthand this summer is that justice involved students preformed just as well the other students. They engage in discussions, asked great questions and were just as stunned as the other young people when using their cell phone during work cost them a chunk of their stipend.
One of my staffers sat in on a session for the students at a downtown hotel, which provided a tour, engaging speakers who described their careers, and a video of hotels around the world. The discussion went well until one young girl stopped the speaker in her tracks with a question.
“I see that you have beautiful hotels in beautiful places all over the world. Why did you build a hotel in Chicago?’
The presenter, a lively young woman from Great Britain recovered from her surprise and answered, “because this is a great city, a beautiful city.”
“No, “replied the young girl, “no, not really. It does not look like the places in your video.”
Chicago has been my home for over 50 years. I’m a proud Chicagoan and Cook County resident. However, there is a reason why I started my discussion about public safety with one on neighborhoods. We have communities in the City and County where, due to crime, violence and isolation, an alternate reality is being shaped for our young people.
Video Link: https://www.cityclub-chicago.org/video/1131/hon-toni-preckwinkle (at 15:20)