In 2020, Youth Job Center became one of 11 Financial Opportunity Center® sites in the Chicagoland region, in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. As a registered Financial Opportunity Center® site, YJC provides our clients with a wide range of financial services to help them develop basic financial literacy and health, learn how to budget, access income supports, and more.
Youth Job Center understands that to truly help young people create a better future for themselves we must provide them with the tools, knowledge, and resources needed to be completely self-sufficient, including how to budget and manage their own finances. YJC partners these services with access to a wide range of supportive services, including services to help young people address significant barriers such as unstable housing, involvement with the criminal justice system, lack of childcare resources, and more. Through these services we not only help young people find and secure work, but help prepare them for success, both in the workplace and in life.
Through our Financial Services young people can get assistance with:
Opening a checking and / or savings accounts
Best practices for renting a first apartment or buying a first car
Developing monthly budgets
Reducing expenses and increasing net monthly income
Understanding the basics of building wealth
Accessing and applying for income supports such as SNAP, TANF, utility assistance, children’s health insurance, and more.
Understanding and building credit
Making better financial decisions
Financial goal planning
These services are integrated into our Workforce Readiness Training program, providing basic training on each of the topics listed above. Clients in need of additional support are able to work one-on-one with our financial coach to receive more in-depth training on any of those topics and more.
Youth Job Center’s Financial Opportunity Center® programming is provided in partnership with:
Financial Opportunity Center® (FOC) sites are career and personal finance service centers that help low- to moderate-income people focus on the financial bottom line with integrated delivery of employment services, financial coaching and accessing income supports.
LISC supports a national network of 100 Financial Opportunity Center® sites in more than 30 cities across the country. Financial Opportunity Center® sites focus on the financial bottom line for low-to- moderate income individuals. This means changing people's financial behavior in a way that encourages them to make a long-term commitment to increasing income, decreasing expenses and acquiring assets.
The FOC model involves integrated services delivery of three "core" services: Employment Services, Financial Education and Coaching, Income Supports Access.
The Financial Opportunity Center® model is not a distinct program or organizational entity, but rather, a new way for agencies to conceptualize and approach their work. As such, the model is deployed within the existing infrastructure of established, community-based institutions that have a track record of providing at least one of the three core services (and, in the case of most FOC sites, a multitude of other social, financial or educational services).
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