If we don’t foster and encourage the energy, creativity, and intelligence of our youth, we will lose out on the vast and still-untapped potential of this great city. Mayor Lightfoot wants to ensure there are ample training and educational options for our young people, so they can build their lives and families here in Chicago.

That’s why Mayor Lightfoot is providing Chicago’s youth and young adults with greater enrichment opportunities, including:

• Launching My Chi My Future. Founded by Mayor Lightfoot and First Lady Amy Eshleman, My Chi My Future connects Chicago’s young people to thousands of opportunities to set them up for future success.
• Providing no-cost high-speed internet access through the Chicago Connected program, benefiting more than 63,000 students to date.
• Launching Service Coordination and Navigation (SCaN) in 2021, which connects youth to mental health services, housing, education/training, and legal services. This program has already served more than 638 youth aged 14-24 in neighborhoods that see some of the highest levels of gun violence.
• Reducing financial barriers to continuing higher education at City Colleges of Chicago through the Fresh Start debt forgiveness program. Fresh Start has helped waive college debt for more than 900 Chicagoans, giving them the chance to return to school and putting them back on track to earning a degree.
• Creating the Food Equity Council to spearhead a multi-year plan that addresses food and nutrition insecurity faced by Chicago families.