Options Is Celebrating 25 Years

Join Options for Youth (OFY) in celebrating 25 years of providing services to some of Chicago’s most vulnerable young people through programs that help first-time adolescent mothers and adolescent male students graduate from high school and improve options for their futures.

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OFY has helped 5,000 first-time teen mothers delay a second pregnancy and graduate from high school and has also trained and employed 300 teenage boys to be Peer Advocates for male health in their own south side communities. Our goal is to raise $50,000 to expand our programs and reach more young people.

We’ll be honoring two extraordinary Chicagoans who have donated their time, resources, and celebrity to our common mission:

NBA basketball star Dwyane Wade and his sister Tragil Wade, President of Wade’s World Foundation

Like so many of the young people in our programs, Dwyane and Tragil faced enormous challenges growing up on the south side of Chicago. Both are now giving back and inspiring young people to do the same for their own communities.

We look forward to seeing you in October!

Thank you to our media sponsor, Make It Better, for supporting our celebration this year! 

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Rahm’s Readers

Options Partners with Rahm’s Readers
at Museum of Science and Industry

Options for Youth celebrated the successful conclusion of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Summer Reading Program with a Smart Baby Fair  for the young mothers and their babies who are participants in the Options Program in four CPS high schools.

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Options participants and their children participated in Rahm’s Readers at their local libraries during the summer and forty young mothers and their children ended the program with a Smart Baby Fair which was held at the Museum of Science and Industry  where they explored the Idea Factory and other MSI exhibits designed for very young viewers. The Options Program is a   collaborative Options for Youth/ CPS Community Partnership School-Based Prevention Initiative, a program of CPS Office of Early Childhood Education.