Gary Comer Youth Center
Preparing Young People for College, Careers and Futures
Fast Facts
Chicago, IL
Carla Williams and Jim Haddon
2021, 2022-23, 2024, 2025
Education
How Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC) Is Making a Difference
Located in Greater Grand Crossing on Chicago’s Southside in proximity to the Comer Education Campus (CEC), Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC) prepares young people for college, careers, and successful futures as well-rounded global citizens. Over half of GCYC’s youth come from families with incomes under the federal poverty level, putting the range and depth of resources GCYC provides out of reach without outside support.
GCYC fosters advancement of its young people through personalized support. Every student is greeted by name, known personally by staff, and supported academically, socially, and emotionally. By providing tutorial and application-submission support, GCYC helps middle school students gain access to Chicago’s selective high schools, if their families choose to follow that path. More broadly, by partnering with many of Chicago’s high schools, GCYC integrates dynamic enrichment, extended learning opportunities and wraparound academic support for thousands of students each year.
GCYC is changing lives for the youth, their families and the surrounding communities for generations to come.
What GCYC Does
- Via its unique approach, guides its participants to consider a wide range of life paths and helps them redefine what is possible in their future.
- Provides foundational instruction for all students and offers workshops, field trips, project work, and hands-on experience.
- Prepares middle school students for competitive entrance exams to high performing schools if they choose to do so, as an often successful pathway out of poverty via education.
Initiatives Supported by Project Redwood
2021: $30,000 to fund a hydroponics track to teach urban agriculture, horticulture, sciences, culinary arts, and nutrition in a hands-on way; to reinforce a healthy lifestyle among the students; and to furnish a much-needed source of fresh produce for the local community.
2022-23: $30,000 to fund a program to introduce students to career opportunities in healthcare, and to develop the curricula and hands-on methods needed to establish the Health Career Pathways as an ongoing offering.
2024: $50,000 to support a pilot project to determine whether one-on-one tutoring in math and reading in middle school can make a difference in academic success, while benefitting the program’s paid tutors — young adults and high school students interested in education — with teaching experience.
2025: $40,000 to support the Academic Success Program (ASP) that aims to increase enrollment of low-income Southside youth in Chicago’s high schools, including schools focused on particular subjects or vocations. The ASP program combines tutoring, academic coaching, life skills education, mentoring, family consultations, and STEAM enrichment to prepare students for competitive entrance exams to high-performing schools.