Youth mentoring on the South Side
Show up.
That’s the whole job.
We match Chicago students with adults who keep coming back — every Tuesday and Thursday, in the same room on Ashland Avenue, for as long as it takes. The kids are already talented. What they need is somebody constant.
Program nights are Tuesday and Thursday, 5–8pm. Come watch one before you decide anything.
Ashland Ave · Back of the Yards The problem, plainly
A kid’s block should not decide who picks up the phone.
We are not going to hand you a pie chart. Here is what we actually see in these six neighborhoods, said plainly.
Talent is everywhere
Every classroom on this side of the city is full of kids who can do the work. Nobody around here needs convincing of that.
Networks are not
What is missing is the adult who knows somebody, reads the essay twice, and answers a text on a Sunday night.
Constancy beats intensity
One great semester helps. Somebody still in the room four years later changes the shape of a life.
How it works
Becoming a mentor takes about two weeks
No teaching degree, no perfect childhood, no speech prepared. If you can hold a Tuesday, you can do this.
You apply and we meet
Fill out the form, sit down with our program director for half an hour, and clear a background check. That is the gate, and it is the whole gate.
We match on purpose
Interests, schedule, neighborhood, temperament. A rushed match helps nobody, so we take the time to get it right and we tell you why.
You show up
One program night a week, plus a text or two in between. Staff are in the room the entire time, and you are never handed a problem alone.
In their words
One mentor. One student. Same room.
“I thought I would be teaching algebra. Mostly I drive him to practice and ask about his week. Turns out that was the assignment.”
Marcus DelgadoMentor since 2019 · Bridgeport
“My mentor read my personal statement four times. Her red pen, my draft, four rounds. Nobody had ever asked me to do it again.”
Aaliyah T.College Application Sprint · Englewood
The rhythm
The week, every week
The doors on Ashland open on the same schedule whether it is October or April. Consistency is not a slogan here, it is the calendar.
Two hours a week
This year, be somebody’s constant.
There is a student on the waiting list right now whose whole ask is an adult who does not disappear. Start the mentor form — it takes about six minutes.