For more than a decade, CCH has pursued job-focused initiatives that impact access to job training and living wage jobs for low-wage workers who are homeless or at-risk.
 
In 2010, the CCH Jobs Project proposed and helped design Put Illinois to Work – a subsidized work program that employed more than 22,000 people in four months! Funded with federal stimulus grants, Put Illinois to Work was developed by CCH in partnership with several state and non-profit agencies, including the Illinois Department of Human Services.
 
CCH proposed Put Illinois to Work based on a national model it had advocated in partnership with the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C. The Illinois program is funded for six months, through September 2010. CCH is advocating for a federal funding extension so that the jobs program can continue an additional year, through September 2011.
 
Put Illinois to Work employs low-income parents as well as low-income youth (ages 18 – 21) living with their families in $10-an-hour jobs for 30 to 40 hours a week. Wages are fully paid by the program, with employers investing in the training and supervision of their Put Illinois to Work staff members.
 
The initiative evolved from the Jobs Project’s 2009 efforts. Last year, CCH sought to have the governor’s office dedicate federal stimulus jobs funding to programs that place disadvantaged workers into jobs, including green jobs, after they complete training. CCH worked on the initiative with several allies, including the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and the Chicago Jobs Council.