Nonprofit Company Overview

Who is Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit?

Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit is a startup nonprofit organization located in Chicago, Illinois. The mission of Helping Youths Thrive is to provide a safe, comfortable, welcoming place for children and teens to go after school, on weekends, or whenever they need a place to socialize or seek counseling. Helping Youths Thrive will provide all of their services for free and at no cost or obligation to the families. The purpose of the non-profit is to provide services such as childcare, counseling, and tutoring to the children whose families are unable to afford these services. It will provide areas for them to play board games, grab snacks and light meals, a quiet place for them to do their homework, outdoor space for the youth to play basketball and other recreational activities, and areas to just hang out with friends. Helping Youths Thrive will also provide certified and trained counselors onsite who are there to counsel or mentor children and teens who may need a safe person to talk with for whatever problems they may be experiencing. The counselors will be able to speak with whichever youth comes to them in private and they will be trained to make informative decisions regarding the path to lead the youth towards. Medical, law enforcement, or social workers will be called upon if the counseling team deems it is necessary. Ultimately, Helping Youths Thrive Nonprofit’s mission is to help the underserved community of Chicago get the youth off of the street and provide a safe and welcoming place to go instead of having to go home by themselves or be forced to assimilate with local gang members or drug users.

Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit will be located in a low-income neighborhood of South Chicago where there is an abundance of youth attending the nearby seven public schools. The facility is a former warehouse that will be renovated and converted to a 10,000 square foot indoor facility with an adjacent basketball court and playground. All indoor and outdoor facilities will be closely monitored by security guards, counselors, and mentors.

Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit History

Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit is the creation of Tonya Jordan. Tonya has devoted her entire life to public service and working to try and make a difference with families who are struggling to get by. A Chicago native herself, Tonya grew up in a neighborhood where the opportunities were scarce and there were more people keeping the youth from not succeeding than those who were trying to make a better life for themselves. Tonya herself had to scrape by to graduate from high school and eventually earned her Masters of Public Administration from Loyola University Chicago.

Since graduating with her MPA, Tonya has worked at various non profit agencies around Chicago. Most recently, Tonya led the Transitional Assistance program at one of the local YWCA’s. During her tenure there, Tonya helped hundreds of families get back on their feet. Most of them are single mothers who are needing to start over or had trouble finding a job that was sufficient enough for them to pay for rent and everyday childcare expenses. While she truly enjoyed running the Transitional Assistance program at the YWCA, she quickly found that there are just not enough resources to assist everyday working class families. Many students don’t have a reliable internet connection to do their homework and many just need someone to talk with that won’t judge them on whatever problem they may be experiencing. And many of them need a place where they won’t be influenced to be a part of a gang.

Tonya grew up in this environment of Chicago, has worked for many years with struggling families and children, and truly understands what the youth require in order to see a higher success rate. Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit will ultimately make a difference in many children’s lives.

Since incorporation, Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit has achieved the following milestones:

• Found a 10,000 square foot warehouse space for lease in Chicago that will be converted to a comfortable facility.
• Registered Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit as a 501c(3) in the State of Illinois.
• Worked with an architect, engineer, and construction company to begin the design phase of the Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit facility.
• Began developing the services of what the non profit will provide.
• Began the branding image, logo, website, and social media accounts.
• Began recruiting a team of counselors, tutors, security and administration personnel.

Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit Services

The following will be the services Helping Youths Thrive Non Profit will provide:

• Tutoring; help with homework or school projects
• Area for homework and/or studying
• Board game and movie watching area
• Monitored playground and basketball court
• Counselors who are on hand ready to speak with kids who request counseling
• On-site nurse