YCCSCares Relief Drive

     Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS) will sponsor a regional COVID-19 Relief Drive at locations on the South and West sides of Chicago on Fridays from July 31 – August 21. Founded in 1997, YCCS annually serves over 3,500 disadvantaged youth in communities across the city, providing a unique competency-based educational model through digital and hands-on learning environments.

     Thanks to the generosity of individual donors, sponsor organizations and charitable foundations, in-kind and monetary donations have been contributed to provide food baskets, PPE and school supplies for YCCS students and their families. Reflecting on the community generosity, YCCS Executive Director Sheila Venson notes, “it has been extremely gratifying to see our neighborhoods and the broader Chicago community step-up to meet the critical needs of our students and their families during these especially difficult times.”

     Partnering since 1997 with 17 neighborhood community-based organizations and 2 Chicago City Colleges (Truman Middle College and Olive Harvey Middle College), each YCCS alternative high school campus provides educational services to students seeking non-traditional learning, dual credit and career exploration opportunities. Campuses provide safe, small-school digital environments where students flourish, receiving the attention and support needed to complete their high school diplomas and prepare for post-secondary pathways.

     Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, over one-third of YCCS students have directly suffered the impact of the disease in their neighborhoods, which represent the top 5 infected zip codes in Chicago. Civil uprising took an even greater toll in their communities, devastating food stores and local businesses, leaving residents without access to healthcare, food and nutritional options, PPE and necessary supportive services to help them maintain stability in their learning and lives.

     The first YCCSCares Regional Relief event will be on Friday, July 31, 2020, at the McKinley Lakeside Leadership Academy campus at 2920 South Wabash, Chicago, from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM.