Guest blog by Becky Raymond, Career Pathways’ Executive Director
The Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition (CCLC) has had strong roots on the South Side of Chicago. Many founding coalition members were South Side providers. In 2010, when CCLC did a landscape scan of literacy providers in Chicago, there were 12 providers on the South Side.
Since the 2010 scan, there has been a steady decline of adult education programming available on Chicago’s South Side. Particularly during the State Budget Impasse of 2016 and 2017, there was a steep decrease in programming and services among our base members south and west of the city. Although the need is still high — roughly 250,000 individuals that would benefit from adult education — the lack of services continues to decrease.
To address this decline in services and serve the persistent need, CCLC has launched the South Side Career Pathways Collaborative. They have identified assets, engaged community voices (both program participants and providers), built a common agenda and connected programs to each other to create a coordinated career pathway system for South Side residents. Based on this extensive community input, in the fall of 2019, CCLC will staff a Career Pathways Navigator on the South Side to help residents connect to social services and find programs. This Navigator will also connect programs to each other, with a goal of helping providers build their capacity. The overarching goal of the South Side Career Pathways Collaborative is to expand the work of the providers and increase the number of individuals receiving services on the South Side.
